Something good that came from Cry for Justice.
So Justice League: Cry for Justice #7 came out, and it was your typical over-the-top melodramatic dopey superhero comic, with the usual “this changes everything FOREVER” developments that will be undone sooner or later. Online reaction has been pretty heated, with even some folks suggesting writer James Robinson was going to lose his job because of online response. I mean, c’mon, really? Surely worse comics than this fluttered by this week. Anyway, the other day I was on the Twitter being a jerk about how people were reacting to this comic, because, while I am sympathetic to the objections, part of me still thinks fanguish can be really funny. During my little bout of dickishness, my pal Kevin and I and a special third party to be named later had the following exchange:
beaucoupkevin: “@mikesterling Man if that were Swamp Thing shooting people in the head you’d have a post called MIKE STERLING GOES BROKEN ARROW ON DC”
mikesterling: “@BeaucoupKevin: If Swamp Thing shot someone in the head, it’s because that person needed killin’.”
Dee2theBee: “@BeaucoupKevin @mikesterling @theisb ‘FOR JUSTICE!’ http://twitpic.com/16eunj”
For those of you frightened, confused, or just plain annoyed by Twitter syntax, ProgRuin reader “Dee2theBee” gifted me with this fine illustration:
That’s quite possibly the last to-the-death battle I ever expected to see. Yet another reason why the regular DC Universe publishing line must reclaim Swamp Thing from the Vertigo division. If Dan DiDio is claiming that Solomon Grundy is filling the “Swamp Thing” role in the DCU, then Swamp Thing can fill the Punisher role there. Maybe James Robinson can write it.
>Justice Leauge
Typo, or scathing critical jab? Or perhaps the comic and attendant fan reaction just make you want to scream “Auge!”
Andrew – Posting during my lunch break doesn’t make for ease of proofreading!
I strongly disagree with that image!
Swamp Thing is more of a revolver type person, and for those who he especially wanted to damn he’d use a Winchester.
Brainiac has seriously bad teeth.
Damn. Swampy went Jonah Hex on Brainiac! What could possibly top this?
Urban Dictionary: Ivy Leauge definition – A school you definitely couldn’t get into as you can’t even spell “League” correctly.
Well, I’m not with the people crying RUINED FOREVER or demanding Robinson’s head on a platter. I do think what he did to a certain hero family in CRY FOR JUSTICE is unworthy of him. This is bathos, not tragedy. He can do better than this.
Alan Moore wrote even more horrid happenings for Alec Holland and his loved ones, but he didn’t make them feel throwaway.
Perhaps it was in part because I just finished reading book 6 of Moore’s Swamp Thing (for the first time), but I still have tears in my eyes from laughing so hard, and my girlfriend probably thinks I’ve finally lost it, so you know, good job Dee2theBee.
As for the ending, which I’ve read about, it does sound distasteful and below Robinson (at least he’s doing better stuff with Superman/Mon-El, in my opinion if not many others’) but I also agree that it will be reversed; judging by recent history, it will be done either by the head of the “setting things right” division, Geoff Johns, or the writer who is the most possessive of the character and still works for DC, which would be Judd Winick I suppose. Give it 2 years max.
How responsible are the writers for what happens in book like this anyway? Aren’t those kinds of things basically editor-driven?
Sign me up for Swamp Thing War Journal.
Sorry, you are mistaken – this is the worse comic to come out this week. And if you apply a “high profile” filter on the selection, probably the worse of this decade.
Hey Arynne, you know that’s not true.
Moore was quite nice to Hammond. A nice place in Heaven, his wife with him, not being a muck encrusted mockery of a man…
Now, the plants they thought they were Hammond? They got a bum deal.
Bret –
When was Hector Hammond the Swamp Thing? Is this some Grant Morrison comic I missed? ;-)