Justice League International #3 Preview & Disucssion

Morgenstern · **Joined:** January 10th, 2011, 12:45 am **Posts:** 564

JLI #3 comes out today, and the preview can be seen here:

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/sh ... p?t=390422

(beware of spoilers, of course)

Morgenstern · **Joined:** January 10th, 2011, 12:45 am **Posts:** 564

Uh? Where is everbody? Come on guys, this is the ONE day in the month with a new Booster Gold title! I am never the first to comment on the latest title (ok, in the past I often had to wait several days until the title was available here, with their changed digital policy that is over now).

But back to the comic itself:

The good:
Several parts of Booster's history have once more been shown to be still part of the DcnU. He is still from the 25th century and he his most of his trips to the Batcave still did happen. While the discussion between Ice & Red show that GL has been wiped from history, that is not really anything new.

The bad:
Uh...almost everything else. The comic tells the same story 4.5 times. While this gives time to put the spotlight on several characters for a few panels the comic still moves hardly forward. It is not like Dan tells bad stories..he just does it way too slow nowadays. I wish someone would force him to cut the length his story arcs in half.

Also there were several points that just did not make sense. The water should pour quickly into the hole made by Rocket and Ice and not come in with the speed of a blocked shower. Where did Boosters force field go when he was overpowered? And..there was something else I just can't remember right now.

Last..am I the only one who is starting to find it a bit odd how much Batman praises Booster? In this three issues he gave him more praise than all 5 Robins combined during their whole career.

I am starting to get skeptical of even my last remaining DC title.

Boosterrific · **Posted:** November 2nd, 2011, 5:35 pm

Well, heck, Morgenstern. If you give up on Booster, I think I'll be the only one here.

But I agree with all of your points, and had actually just come over to the forum to make the same complaints. I'm the guy who hates everything, so maybe it's better that the complaints came from you.

1. The story is too slow. Nothing happens in the issue at all.
2. At several points, the physics/powers make no sense. This is probably the artist's fault and should be a minor quibble, but it's irritating.
3. I'm now convinced that this is NOT Batman. He actually asks Booster why his plan might not work. Really?

The last panel in the last two issues is almost identical. It made me wonder if I was reading the same issue twice.

Morgenstern · **Joined:** January 10th, 2011, 12:45 am **Posts:** 564

ah minor good point I noticed:

it is shown & addressed that Godivia is actually illsuited for the team and missions on that scale, and that her joining the team was mostly for political reasons. Though I find it a bit strange that any UN-based JL lacks a French hero as one would assume that every pernament member of th security council would want to have one of their own on it

Boosterrific · **Posted:** November 3rd, 2011, 1:43 am

Good point. Crimson Fox is dead. What other French heroes does DC have? Perhaps it's time for a new character!

Morgenstern · **Joined:** January 10th, 2011, 12:45 am **Posts:** 564

the only one I can think off-hand: nightrunner but this is suppossed to be the JLI, and not the batmen of all nations. And eventually a Japanese and German would be logical as well since these two nations are the biggest financial contributers to the UN after the US...though just because something seems to be logical it does not have to happen in the DCnU

Boosterrific · **Posted:** November 3rd, 2011, 2:54 am

Dan has hinted that the JLI will have something of a rotating cast.

There's still plenty of time for, say, Doctor Light or Rising Sun or even Samurai from Japan. Wild Huntsman is the only German hero I can think of. I don't think anyone will be surprised to hear that I would love to see Red Star on the team as a Russian delegate, especially since so much of the pre-FLASHPOINT characterization of Gavril appears to have been lost in the hand-off between Winick and Jurgens.

(I have to admit that I looked up NightRunner on Wikipedia. I thought the French member of the Batmen of Many Nations was Musketeer. I guess Musketeer's resume wasn't good enough to get an invite to Batman Inc.)

Note that the issue has barely been out for 24 hours, and we've already devolved into talking about what we would like to see. It's kind of damning if there's nothing in issue #3 to keep our attention.

Erin · **Joined:** January 10th, 2011, 6:58 pm **Posts:** 307

Huh. Well I liked it. I wasn't bothered that it showed all of them doing the same plan (well except for Guy) as it was just about them interacting. Godiva wasn't flirting nor was she prodding anyone. She seemed out of her element, something that was briefly hinted at in the other two issues. She could get better but I'm glad this came up. I kind of thought hair based powers wouldn't work too well in some of these settings. General August in Iron continues to surprise me. He doesn't put blame on her as he sees the same problems with the forming of the team as Batman did. No one was prepared.

I'm always up to seeing the start of friendships and the exchange between Mari and Bea was welcomed. While I mourn the loss of JLGL (seriously what's Maxs' relationship to them now? Do they know each other?) I like that Jurgens is hinting at Gavril/Bea.

The interaction between Booster and Batman was my favorite part. I don't think it's odd for Batman to act like this. He praised Booster more than any other JLI member back when he first joined during the Giffin/DeMatteis days. Sure he got annoyed at times but it was still there. Batman is letting Booster lead but adding his own two cents. If Batman thinks the plan is solid I don't think it's too out of character to ask why Booster thinks it'll fall apart. Everyone else seemed to be aboard for it but if the guy in charge of the team sees something wrong with it then it makes sense to get input.

Morgenstern · **Joined:** January 10th, 2011, 12:45 am **Posts:** 564

Regarding the issue:

Giving the characters time to talk is a good thing, when they actually say something interesting or funny (which after all is what the JLI is all about), but this issues missse pretty much every chance it gets for banter. Its not like I want them to stand around, just sniggering, until someone nearly dies and loses a limb, but there ample of chances to insert jokes. What would have the Blue & Gold of old said about Vixen powers, or once they realized that General August is naked? I was almost sure that Red would misunderstand Ice comments in regard to Fire and assume that Tora & Bea were a couple. We don't have to completely revert to the BWA-HA-HA of times past, Generation Lost usually managed to keep the old-jli feeling alive, while telling a serious story.

Regarding other hereos:

We have to keep in mind that the JLI demands no secret identities, so any new addition would have to a “public” hero (as well as from earth). I don't know where that leaves Dr. Light & co, but they simply could turn former “secret” heroes into publics ones with the relaunch or create complete new ones.

I am a bit surprised (not in a bad way) that there is a version of the Wild Huntsman in the DC. That part of German folklore is mostly forgotten even over here, except maybe in the most rural areas with a lot of forests and hunters. Marvel once had a minor German-hero-team with rather unlucky selection of names. They tried to introduce a German version of Captain America with a name that should have been something close to “Major Guardian”, but due faulty translation the result meant rather something close to “Legal custodian”. The name of team was rather unlucky itself and meant (translated back into English) as much as Safety Saints Team. I am not even sure what they tried to do there.

But back to DC...Jakita Wagner would be German and now part of the main DCU, right?

Boosterrific · **Posted:** November 3rd, 2011, 3:49 am

Fair points all, Erin. I suspect that my dour approach to the issue stems in no small part from the facts that both of the prior issues were better and the dialogue that passes as character development in here feels entirely unnecessary to me after decades of familiarity with these characters and situations.

In the best of those old Gardner Fox Gold/Silver Age stories, something significant happened before the team inevitability reassembled at the end of the book to beat the baddie. This story feels all-too-familiar to me, a problem exacerbated when it becomes a six-month-long ordeal to get to the next story. Only the Godiva/August General three-pager felt fresh, and I suspect that's because I've read almost nothing about the August General before now. (I like him. A lot.)

Also, it's not that I minded the praise from Batman. It just didn't stop. Batman says out-and-out encouraging things to Booster on three separate panels. I'm pretty sure that's 2 more panels than at any point in the pair's published prior history. It sure felt like a lot of wasted dialogue in an issue that's otherwise got nothing going on and could have benefited from a little more plot advancement instead of banal platitudes.

Maybe I'm growing less patient in this digital age of immediate gratification.

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