Off the Rack: Justice League of America #42

Sometimes when you get what you thought you wanted, you realize you might not have wanted it in the first place.

Now that we’ve jumped ahead a bit and are past both Cry for Justice and Blackest Night, we’ve gotten a new team. Most of the Titans have moved up and are in the JLA: Dick Grayson is Batman; Mon-El is replacing Superman; Donna Troy is replacing Wonder Woman; and Starfire and Cyborg have been brought up to the big leagues as well. Atom, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Dr. Light are hold overs from the previous incarnation of the team and Starman (Mikaal Tomas) with Congorilla round out the team.

I’ve been excited about DC’s big three being out of the picture and letting their former sidekicks take the reins. I am really enjoying Dick Grayson replacing Bruce Wayne in the Batman and Batman and Robin books. I was hoping that energy would transfer to the JLA when the Titans were called up to the JLA.

But this issue is not indicative of the JLA/Titans melding that I was looking for. I still think the idea is sound but the execution is flawed. And it saddens me to say the the crux of the problem is James Robinson’s current writing style. Take this issue for example. When reading this issue, I  kept feeling like I missed an issue in between numbers 41 and 42.

There is a lot going on in this installment. Green Arrow is meeting with the Shade regarding some ominous undisclosed request. Cyborg starts repairing Red Tornado and building a friendship with the android. The majority of the rest of the team is tackling a meta-human gone rouge while discovering a device with connections to other devices that had been found by other heroes at different times throughout recent history. All of these points are interesting but are so rushed that is seems like parts are missing.

Maybe this will all play out once the story gets going. I really hope Robinson gets comfortable with the JLA and the writing evens out. I really want this team to succeed, but if the writing doesn’t improve, then it won’t matter who is on the team.