Monday, July 12, 2010

Justice #1 (October, 2005)



Hawkman and Hawkgirl fell blazing from the sky, wings afire like Icarus...

Alex Ross may be able to paint some pretty pictures, but he's also a manchild stuck in the Bronze Age, constantly re-staging the same apocalyptic fantasy fictions. In the Justice maxi-series, where he dolled up Dougie Braithwaite's pencils and had his indentured scripter Jim Krueger on bass, the world once again went kablooey because of super-heroes with feet of clay. Of course, it's only a prophetic dream, just like in Kingdom Come, but at least the (unseen) Ray Palmer got a nice nod within...

"The Atom survives the day, I think. He becomes smaller than the flame, seeking an infinity of possibility between the molecules of the material world. Perhaps in him, perhaps in the Atom, humanity will live on. But that may give him too much credit. To survive, he must become next to nothing."

Yeah yeah, but don't forget the part where every other hero for sure bites it! Well, except Superman, but I guess that's a hell of a lot better than Ray's usual ranking in the super-hero hierarchy! Anywho, there's a surprisingly untiny Tiny Titan appearance in a double page spread group shot from the issue, courtesy of forced perspective. It looks like the Mighty Mite is evading Plastic Man's oncoming cranium...

"Chapter One" was plotted and painted by Alex Ross. The script was provided by Jim Krueger, and the penciled layouts by Doug Braithwaite.

Continue the story through these character-specific posts:

4 comments:

LissBirds said...

Does that seires have a cover where Ray is about to enter someone's eyeball? It's been a while since I read that series, but I distinctly remember that image. (Only because anything involving eyeballs getting poked makes my skin crawl.) I'll have to re-read those trades, because I don't remember Ray's part in all of it...

Diabolu Frank said...

There will be eye-poking here... and stay away from Fulci zombie movies, even if they try to lure you in with the shark wrestling.

LissBirds said...

But sharks are so cool!!!

I just read a comic about a guy's real-life experiences when he had surgery for a detached retina. I have no idea why I would read that. I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess.

Now I have to re-read Justice because I don't remember whose eye Ray got into, but I remember it bugged me becuase I don't see how you can get to someone's brain from their eye. But I guess if you're small enough you could walk through walls. Pretty much all I remember from Justice was, ironically, the whole Wonder Woman/Cheetah thing.

Diabolu Frank said...

Ephemeral is a word I'd use to describe the story. That book was all foreshadowing and no form.