Dan Is A Pain In The Arse(nal), Or My Two Cents On Sensibility

This week I read one of saddest comics ever. No tears fell from my eyes, it wasn’t even remotely touching. It was just a pathetic effort, that paved no new ground, or inspire any reaction other than Blechhh! The comic was Justice League: Cry For Justice #7. This series was a farce from the get go. The initial concept was that a faction of the Justice League would split off into their own ongoing title. The group would be proactive, stopping crimes before they could occur. This is a premise that has been tried several times, and NEVER WORKS…BECAUSE IT IS STUPID! I have a place in my heart for Krypto, Bat-Mite, and the Legion of Substitute-Heroes, but the whole proactive thang is too dumb to ever work.

A short time after James Robinson started writing the new series, the book was demoted to a seven issue mini-series. Characters that dominated the early issues, such as Congorilla and the blue Starman, were shuffled off panel (and promised member Batwoman couldn’t be bothered to make but a brief cameo), as the book took off on a new course in issue five. Now, characters such as Red Arrow (who hadn’t even been hinted at up till then) were suddenly involved. And, what was Roy’s role? Well, he gets his arm ripped off. What? Oh, Prometheus is pretending to be Shazam, and has a plan to teleport Star City. And the heroes, who had been so fired up about stopping crimes before they occur, look like total dumb asses, when they capture Prometheus AFTER he’s already blown Star City sky high.

This brings us to issue seven. Is this a lowlight because of the destruction of a DC city, or the death of a Titan’s child, or the murder of a badguy, or the fall of the heroic ideal? No. It’s wretched because its yet another destruction of a DC city (Bludhaven, Coast City), it is yet another death of a Titan’s child (Donna’s son Robert, Garth’s son Cerdian), its yet another murder of a badguy (Max Lord, Blockbuster, Psycho Pirate), and its yet another fall of the heroic ideal (Hal Jordan, Hawk, Jericho). After you add in the horrible dialogue, and uneven art, you are left with a flat- unoriginal mess.

Two questions come to mind: Why was this done in this book? And, why was this done at all? The first has no answer. How a book devoted to a talking gorilla, a blue alien, Supergirl, a fake Shazam, and bizarre back-up essays morphed into torture porn for Red Arrow is beyond me. The answer to the second question is easier to grasp. They wanted to give Green Arrow and Arsenal new directions. Why this was not done in say, the Green Arrow book, I don’t know. And, this would be fine if they had not just gotten new directions. It wasn’t that long ago that Green Arrow married Black Canary, and his book was relaunched (heck, its been like a decade since they brought him back from the dead). And, it was just in the last few that Roy Harper took his place on the JLA as Red Arrow (after a couple years on the Outsiders as Arsenal). During this time we have witnessed the upheaval of the Outsiders six times, the Justice League three times, the Titans three times, and the Teen Titans…well, don’t make me laugh.

I have a daughter of my own, and she’s the light of my life. But, I must say I’m not upset that they killed Lian Harper off per se. It would be ok if Lian joined the angels, if Robert and Cerdian hadn’t been offed as well. This trick has become tired, tacky, and lost all value.

Now to set Roy on this new course was it necessary to rip his arm off as well? This is the mindset that has existed since Identity Crisis. It wasn’t enough that Sue Dibny died. She also had to be torched with a flamethrower, while pregnant (after being raped). This overkill, be it laying absolute waste to a hero’s life (through severe injury, grizzly death, loss of a child, moral compromise, or hometown blown off the map), or whiplash inducing status quo changes on titles (through roster shakeups, creative team swaps, or lead characters replaced with lame understudies) has been granted a name by DC publisher Dan Didio-“Sensibility”.

You see, Dan’s approach to super-hero comics is to keep posing the question, “can heroes still be heroes, even when it’s not attractive to do so”? He has tried to bring this “sensibility”, as he calls it to the entire DC line. The dilemma readers face is that after years of these overwrought scenarios, we are no closer to an answer (for example how many more times must we cope with the whole year of a “world without Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman”?). Every time a character does reach a catharsis, or prove their worth, it becomes an excuse to upend them yet again. Now, life is about change, and I have no desire for the DCU to become a placid fairytale. But, if you can’t slow down for even a second, how can you truly examine the results? The “never ending battle” has become a struggle to keep pace with all the willy-nilly changes. It’s no wonder that the writer Chuck Dixon described Didio as a, “glad hander with a Ouija board”. Thankfully, Geoff Johns has somehow thrived during his tenure, and produced tons of comics I do enjoy.

Now, back to Roy. Let’s see, his arm was ripped off, and his daughter was murdered. So, Green Arrow gets to kill Prometheus? BULL!

I hate this issue, but there is some heavy irony to be mined here by a good writer. Consider, there is no character in the DCU more defined by their choices (good and bad) than Roy Harper. He has hopped from costume to costume, identity to identity, team to team, and bed to bed. He has chosen to take drugs and cleanup his act. He has foolishly knocked-up a super-villain and proudly been a devoted father. He has chosen careers as varied as rock band drummer and secret agent. So, there is some pathos to be had from having these horrible events happen to him not by choice, but by just being in the wrong place- at the wrong time. This could give him a fatalistic edge. He could become more daring; ignoring consequences, believing that fate will do what it will. He would become Arsenal, and use other weapons, not because he can no longer use a bow, but to distance himself from Green Arrow (just as he became Red Arrow and joined the JLA to honor Ollie). He would not do this out of spite, but to spare Oliver. He has things to do that Green Arrow would no longer approve of. He would use his contacts as a government agent (I always thought they missed an opportunity to see how Ollie would react to Roy working for “the man” as a Fed), and his connections in the underworld (having been Cheshire’s lover) to take on assignments that heroes who care about the stakes, and their reputations won’t. Because, to put it simply-he’s way past caring.

Well, there is one positive. If I don’t like how Ollie and Roy are treated, the old Ouija board will tell Dan to change them again soon.