Broken Frontier

Various heroes in various places come across some very disturbing discoveries. All that and the Justice League of America still hasn’t formed yet.

I’m not complaining. I am, in fact, a big fan of the slow and deliberate pacing trend in comics these days. After all, I am a grown up, my attention span can take it. Furthermore, with Brad Meltzer writing, I could probably read it forever. In this issue we follow Green Lantern and his crew as they battle a multi-colored Tornado army; Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman as they struggle to decide the lineup of the newest JLA; Black Lightning as he encounters some minor villains with big plans; and Red Tornado as he deals with his new life as a human.

Brad Meltzer, as I hinted at above, is a great writer. Not only is he a great writer, but his love for the genre, for the characters, comes through in every issue he pens. However, those two attributes would not be enough to make a fantastic comic, which, by the way, Justice League of America is. Meltzer also manages to maneuver several different plot threads together to complete one grand story stuffed full with enough archetypal goodness to please even Joseph Campbell. Additionally, we know what is going on with Batman, though it is separate from what is going on with Red Tornado, will have an important baring on him and the same can be said for what is going on with Green Lantern and Black Lightning. This is building to something, and since the author is Meltzer, it will surely be something big.

Ed Benes is also something big, or rather, his characters are. Frankly, this is something I have trouble with. Though I can appreciate his art as good, detailed, well formed, clear, and distinct, I have one qualm. It’s political more than artistic. I am of the opinion that these huge men who appear as though they eat hyperbolic steroids for breakfast and these women who are equally chiseled but mysteriously possessed of the breasts and behinds of an air brushed Playboy model do little to help self-images of . . . oh . . . say . . . your average comic book fan. But I digress, this is, in the end, a comic book about archetypal characters of good and evil. Perhaps the fact that they all look like gods and goddesses come down from on high isn’t that bad. As a subculture we’re smart enough to understand the intricacies of mythological figures and why they look they way they do.

In the end this story is Meltzer at his best. It is an intricate, weaving work of many magnificent and mighty characters that look good (sometimes too good). Since this is only the third issue of a steadily-paced story, I have many questions I am sure I am supposed to have. But the most significant one is: when is Meltzer going to get to write the Elongated Man again?