© DC Comics, Inc.
I haven’t read a Justice Society of America comic in a very long time, but decided to try this collection because of the Alex Ross/”Kingdom Come” involvement. KINGDOM COME was a miniseries with painted art by Ross (and some story involvement from him) that I lettered and enjoyed, and I wanted to see what this was all about.
The story idea came from Ross and Geoff Johns, with Johns doing the actual scripting. Geoff does his usual fine job juggling a large cast of superheroes, giving a good mix of plot and character development, and some intriguing mysteries and exciting action. Alex contributes a few pages of painted interior art, flashbacks to the earlier series, but most of the art is pencilled by Dale Eaglesham, with some also by Fernando Pasarin. I liked the art, I would call it typical superhero art of the more realistic sort, and well done.
One thing I found a bit odd was this page where the characters have their logos floating in the air above them. I’ve seen similar things in video games, but here it just seems out of place to me. I prefer the older technique of having a strip of headshots with the characters names under them, if you need it, and it was done that way on some of the other chapters.
This is only part one of I don’t know how many, and the involvement of the Mark Waid/Alex Ross characters is limited to the version of Superman shown on the front cover…for the most part. No doubt there will be more as the story progresses. I kind of wish they’d waited to collect the whole thing together, but I understand the need to market it this way. It’s a good read, though not on the level of the original mini-series. Still, I can certainly recommend it.
I’d have to say I agree with you about the logos vs. old-school headshots. It would’ve have been far more aesthetically pleasing, less distracting from the story/art, and likely easier to decipher.
I’ll also add, that unless there are two Wildcats on this team (and maybe there is, I’ve never read it), there’s a pretty glaring snafu in that panel as well.
Yes, there are two Wildcats, the golden-age Wildcat and his son, also called Wildcat, who actually has a panther head, so it’s not too hard to keep them straight. Probably should have a different logo, though.
I stand corrected. You’re right, they should have different logos.
Of course, it would be a moot point if they’d done the headshots you suggested….
Thanks for the clarification, Todd.
Fine… but who’s the RAAWK RAAWK character in the second panel? 🙂