One I wanted to look at closely was Justice League United. For those who haven't looked, here is a link to the preview: http://www.comicbookresources.com/comic-previews/dc-sneak-peek-justice-league-united-dc-comics-2015
Now I was interested because I liked Jeff Lemire's run on the book. And Jeff Parker, another writer whose work I love, was taking over so I wanted to see what Parker had in mind. But more importantly, or most importantly, I wanted to see if Supergirl was going to be part of the book. She was a big part of the initial stories. She seems to have been swept aside post-Convergence.
What was going to happen?
Well Parker does a great job showing what he has in mind for the book. The core team of Animal Man, Equinox, Adam and Alana, and Stargirl is intact. They are tasked with taking care of continuity anomalies which have sprung from Convergence. And, knowing the individual nature of each adventure, they'll put together a unique team suited for the threat. Everyone is a possible JL member if their powers match up. It is like the biggest team-up book ever.
And Parker does a great job of showing us how crazy this could be, giving us glimpses of unfortunately forgotten heroes like Firestorm and the Doom Patrol, as well as Swamp Thing, Deadman, and other interesting choices.
Perhaps the best scope shot is the ending splash. I mean, I want to read some Hawk and Dove. And the Marvel Family. And Blue Devil. Etc.
But still, look in that massive Who's Who sort of page. Who isn't there? Supergirl.
And that's a shame because Kara was a great part of JLU.
She was often a big part of the cover treatment, especially the variant covers!
And she grew over even the short time on the book.
She was far from the 'bull-headed, stubborn', dark hero Lemire initially described her as. She might be all business. But she knew enough to save Hawkman rather than chase Lobo. And she also became the muscle of the group, a powerful ally to the team, smiling as she jumped into action with her teammates.
And it isn't as if she didn't have her own little subplots going on.
Lemire set up a backstory with Brainiac 5 in the New 52 Universe. Will we ever see that play out?
And we see that she has become friends with Stargirl and Equinox.
But for some reason, DC has decided to pull the plug completely on this version of Supergirl, just as she was getting interesting and heroic. This seems to be a sort of recurring theme with DC, getting Supergirl to where she needs to be character-wise and then rebooting again.
Will Parker explain her absence? Have Equinox and Stargirl mention their missing friend? Or is Supergirl untouchable?
I will read the Parker book because it sounds like the sort of book I am looking for in the DCU.
But I'll miss Supergirl being there.
I hope it wont be the last of this supergirl. She is 16 or barely 17 years old, so she had a year worth of life on earth. She is still a baby and deserves to be able to see adulthood, to grow as a hero and as a person, to live her life and to see where it takes her.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the things that makes it challenging to enjoy comics right now is the lack of follow through with story beats and character arcs due to the quick changes of direction and creative teams. Supergirl had gotten to the place where there were lots of background, plot hints, and characters with unfinished storylines and I wanted to hear those stories.
ReplyDeleteJLU is the same. With the conclusion of the LSH story we had a lot of thing that could be followed up on, such as the Brainiac-5 comment, or the Courtney-Kara-Miiyahbin relationship - there was so much teased but which we probably won't see in favor of following up on Convergence.
I hope with the re-launch of JLU we'll get more follow up to go with all the epic stuff.
As someone else mentioned on another site, why not just call this title "United" as it is like the animated series. It's not really "united" if it's a rotating roster - of course, "everyone" is a member ... Well, perhaps not Supergirl.
ReplyDeleteOne could be positive and think that she has earned her place with the rest of the "big guns" and she's not with the rest of the crowd, who seem to be those who had books in the New 52 and were cancelled or never had them.
Sadly, it's not the "Marvel Family" but "Shazam! Family" in the New 52, I mean DCYOU. At least Mary is there, so one version of Supergirl will be there if not the "real" one.
Incidentally, both Mary Marvel and Supergirl were created by Otto Binder for similar purposes, to have a female version of the main male hero.
ReplyDeleteA shame that Supergirl's been left out of the new expanding JLU roster, what with how The Infinitus Saga left potential plot lines at its conclusion. I'm guessing that I also don't see Martian Manhunter in there and he's supposed to be the leader of the team. But considering he finally has his own series now, I suppose he might be busy in that series.
ReplyDeleteLouis
Thanks for all the comments.
ReplyDeleteSomeone on the net called the book 'All the Brave & All the Bold' which is pretty cool. I was ready to abandon the book but I'm interested now.
But I do hope we haven't lost this new 52 Supergirl just when I was really getting to like her.