InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "What the hell just happened?"

bluefall (bluefall) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-05-09 21:39:00

Entry tags:

char: black adam/teth-adam/theo adam, char: captain marvel/billy batson, char: flash/jay garrick, char: green lantern/alan scott, char: isis/adriana tomaz, char: mary marvel/mary batson, char: nuklon/atom smasher/al rothstein, char: power girl/kara zor-l/karen starr, char: shazam, char: stargirl/courtney whitmore, creator: geoff johns, creator: jerry ordway, group: justice society of america, publisher: dc comics, title: justice society of america

The Marvel Family Status Quo (... perhaps)
As requested, the end of the Black Marvel storyline from JSA.

First, the last pages of #24 - Stargirl, powerless Billy and Black Mary duke it out while Jay Garrick runs into another dimension.

The seven Vital Virtues (not Cardinal virtues, mind, because that would include Piety, and as we all know, if you're going to adapt Christian mythology, it's essential that you only adapt the parts about evil and Hell) are the opposite number of the Deadly Sins, and the Rock of Finality would seem to be the opposite of the Rock of Eternity (what with good being imprisoned there instead of evil). The popular theory seems to be that this means Billy's dad took Jay to the CSA's world.

Anyway, Mr Batson brought Jay to the Rock to rescue the Wizard Shazam, currently doing time as a statue.

Meanwhile in Khandaq, the JSA is fighting Adam and Isis.

She turns on Al and the Khandaqi dogpiling him next, but Adam interposes himself to protect his people and friend.

More fighting follows, Mary and Billy (now sharing Adam's power as well) show up, and Al tries to beat reality into Adam's head.

Black Adam surrenders his power to save his love and kingdom, and the Wizard strips the remnants from Billy, Isis and Mary.

Al does some more emotastic narration over some generalized denouement, and then on the last page, we get this:

Speculate amongst yourself what that was all about. Personally, at this point I'm rather apathetic. My main interest in JSA right now is what Willingham's run will look like (not what will happen in it, mind, but what it will look like - apparently my fandom is no longer the DCU, but rather the DC company itself. Oh Didio and friends, what kooky adventures will you get up to next?).

(Post a new comment)

	fungo_squiggly 2009-05-09 08:52 pm UTC (link)
	The evil Black Marvel kids might be a fun idea... as long as they AREN'T Mary and Billy next time. That's a deal-breaker. For now it seems that nasty case of asshatitis the Marvel family has been suffering from lately has passed on to Shazam himself. I really hope he gets over it soon. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	naebler 2009-05-09 09:01 pm UTC (link)
	The problem is Shazam has often been a prick. However I'm wondering if the new "Black Adam" is going to be a take on the old villain where you mention the demons. I cant believe I can't remember his name. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tavella 2009-05-09 09:49 pm UTC (link)
	I don't recall him being this much of a prick, though. Stern, not sadistic. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	filbypott 2009-05-09 11:20 pm UTC (link)
	That would be Sabbac. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-05-10 04:00 am UTC (link)
	Has IBAC been seen lately? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	filbypott 2009-05-10 04:56 pm UTC (link)
	Not since Villains United - he was a thug working for the Society. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	kingrockwell 2009-05-10 11:22 pm UTC (link)
	He was in the Secret Six mini-series, first two issues. He ambushed Ragdoll, Ragdoll dropped steak knives down his throat. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	foxhack 2009-05-09 09:10 pm UTC (link)
	What the fuck did they do to the Wizard o_O (Reply to this)

	maslego 2009-05-09 09:21 pm UTC (link)
	What the fornication? (Reply to this)

leikomgwtfbbq
2009-05-09 09:31 pm UTC (link)

See icon.

I hope this is the last damn time they try making Mary and Billy all emo-tastic and dark and EDGY and shit. Sure, develop them. Make them grow up a bit. But that doesn't absolutely mean you have to make them into Generic Dark and Angsty Characters #3249322 and #3249323.

Also, WTF@ the Wizard being all mean and angry. It's understandable, but I kind of remember him being a little nicer.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	filkertom 2009-05-10 07:30 am UTC (link)
	This. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

leikomgwtfbbq
2009-05-10 01:41 pm UTC (link)

I mean, really, though: It's fine--it's great--if they grow up a bit, if they develop more as characters. However, there's a better route to take--a better route than trying to overload on LOOK HOW DARK AND EDGY THEY ARE! THEY'RE SO DEVELOPED AS CHARACTERS! when, in that form, they somehow come off as more one-dimensional than the original "gee-golly-gosh" Billy and Mary.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	lonewolf23k 2009-05-09 09:40 pm UTC (link)
	Y'know what -I- would've done? I'd have had Black Marvel, right in the middle of a big triumphant badguy moment, suddenly heave in pain, staggering a bit before getting ripped open from the inside-out as Captain Marvel rips his way out, screaming a big "NOOOOO" as he rejects Adam's taint. Because THAT's what Captain Marvel's all about, dammit! (Reply to this) (Thread)

	bluefall 2009-05-09 09:46 pm UTC (link)
	I don't know, I kind of like Billy being pretty much a putz here, and being just as pathetic and easily manipulated and a slave to external forces and events as Mary. It's a bit redemptive of the bullshit "resolution" those two got in FINAL CRISIS. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	volksjager 2009-05-09 09:54 pm UTC (link)
	Please, just give the Marvel family an earth of their own. Leave the JSA in peace. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	fromtheaether 2009-05-09 10:02 pm UTC (link)
	They have one. Grant Morrison will be writing about it in Multiversity: "And then you’ve got the Shazam book, which is called 'Thunderworld.' And it’s just a classic Shazam book but it’s done in a way almost like a PIXAR movie or the way we did 'All Star Superman.' It captures the spirit of those characters without being nostalgic or out of date." (Reply to this) (Parent)

blake_reitz
2009-05-10 12:03 am UTC (link)

Hear hear. Although I think this story was unnecessary, I would like it very much if they would just stop using the Marvel family in the DCU proper. Tell their adventures on the new Earth-5, away from the doom and gloom of the rest of the multiverse. I mean, they can keep FreddyCaptain around to fill out some double-page fight scenes if they want, but otherwise, DC should just put them back where they found them.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	volksjager 2009-05-10 08:51 am UTC (link)
	Oh I agree. Just get rid of all the Earth S crap they keep forcing on filks. More than enough for a quarterly Multiverse book of stories. (Reply to this) (Parent)

fromtheaether
2009-05-09 09:59 pm UTC (link)

Three things I hated about this.

1. The Wizard acting like a complete bastard. It's bad enough the Guardians have regressed to that.
2. The one-panel erasure of the Trials. No, I didn't like them, but a lot of work was put into them, and they were tossed out without even a backward glance. Reminds me of Starlin and Hawkman.
3. The utterly unnecessary "Let's make Black Adam look like a skinny Vulcan again" bit.

The whole story seemed like Ordway wanting to reclaim his toys, and to hell with the consequences.

(Reply to this)

	jlbarnett 2009-05-09 10:14 pm UTC (link)
	vengeful Egyptian gods. Just say it's all because of pissed off Egyptian gods because Billy changed Adam's word. (Reply to this)

	jupiterrhode 2009-05-09 10:38 pm UTC (link)
	Wait a minute, how the hell did the wizard take Isis's powers? Yes, in 52 Adam needed Billy to activate that amulet thing, but then once he did the full powers of the goddess Isis became Adrianna's. Adam himself remarks that she will be a goddess and far more powerful than him. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-05-10 04:01 am UTC (link)
	Presumably because she died, and was only revived by Adam's powers. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	filbypott 2009-05-09 11:22 pm UTC (link)
	Anyone else suppose the keeper of the Rock of Finality and/or the being who appears at the end might be Mordru? (Reply to this)

	starwolf_oakley 2009-05-09 11:56 pm UTC (link)
	Shazam being shortsighted has been covered before. The Superman/Captain Marvel miniseries "First Thunder" has Superman bitching out Shazam for giving such power to a child. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-05-10 04:15 am UTC (link)
	Really? My respect for Superman just plummeted further then, what with examples like the Legion and Teen Titans in his past personal experience. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jlbarnett 2009-05-10 07:31 am UTC (link)
	Billy was anywhere between six and eight years younger than them. And Billy had just gone batshit on a criminal because his friend had been killed. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-05-10 07:42 am UTC (link)
	Umm... no. Wally West was no more than 15 when he became Kid Flash, Wonder Girl 14 or 15. Gar Logan has had his powers since he was 5. Danny Chase served on the Titans at age 14. Invisible Kid was markedly younger than the Legion norm and seemed to be about 14 or 15. Billy Batson is usually depicted as being about 12 or 13 at the youngest. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jlbarnett 2009-05-10 07:47 am UTC (link)
	I'd thought he was ten at the oldest in that series. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	kagome654 2009-05-10 08:49 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, he was just a little guy, emotionally vulnerable and quite isolated. Superman's righteous indignation worked for me in the context of that particular series. (Reply to this) (Parent)

starwolf_oakley
2009-05-10 05:00 pm UTC (link)

This was a YEAR ONE style story, the first time Captain Marvel and Superman met. The Titans were probably not together yet and Superman hadn't met the Legion of Super-Heroes. This miniseries was before INFINITE CRISIS and the retcon/revelation that Clark knew the Legion when he was a teenager but not Superboy.

Still, Billy Batson was/is younger than the Titans or the Legion.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-05-10 05:22 pm UTC (link)
	Except as Billy IS younger than the Titans and is closer in age to Tim than Dick, by the time Billy was an active hero, the Titans would have been active for some years. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	filbypott 2009-05-11 02:19 am UTC (link)
	I'm commenting for no other reason than to use this icon, 'cause Highfather knows when the next time such an opportunity will come up. (Reply to this) (Parent)

aulayan
2009-05-10 02:02 am UTC (link)

Am I the only one who feels, almost, that the Black Adam of JSA and 52 and the Black Adam of Countdown and Justice Society are two different..continuities?

In JSA and 52, there was none of that "His Power is Corrupting." In JSA, you were given Adam's side of the story. Khandaq was destroyed, along with his wife and kids, because he was helping out Khufu's Egypt. And because it was a different time, a different era, he disposed Justice. But he was a little single minded in his vengeance, and the Wizard did not appreciate the power being used for Vengeance (Sorry, I would've done the same).

Then in Countdown, there's "Black ADam's power corrupts" in Justice Society "Black Adam's Power Corrupts!" it's all, "WTF?" It wasn't corrupting in 52 when Osiris and Isis had it. In fact, we saw Adam turning nicer due to the influence of having a family around him.

Having "His power corrupt" is completely weak and bad storytelling. It turns him from being a complex character to "Absolute Power corrupts absolutely." It turns Isis and Mary's arcs into "Eh, not their fault they went nuts. It was Black Adam's power."

Isis going nuts because she was killed, brutally, and the world turned on her husband afterwards (However rightly they did) that'd make sense. but "HIS POWER CORRUPTS" takes that away. She's not a woman that went insane due to personal events. She's a woman that went insane because of POWER!

Having the Wizard go batshit insane on Adam? Fine. That works for me. But the way this arc ended, it almost went "And look, this big bad will bring back Adam and Isis soon and they'll be EEEEEEEEVIL" and...That, along with everything post-52 (And a bit of 52 IMO. I'm wondering how much of the Black Adam OVER reaction was redone by Didio) completely goes against what was established in JSA before.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	pyrotwilight 2009-05-10 09:32 am UTC (link)
	Yep, I indeed hated it. You can't corrupt a power source, it all comes from the wizard after all, or the gods that gave it to them. It's nonsensical to think Adam somehow corrupts them. Isis didn't even HAVE a connection to Black Adam's power, she had her own source from that necklace or whatnot. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	pyrotwilight 2009-05-10 09:33 am UTC (link)
	And in the end my question is what happened to Desaad who was controlling Mary? That was the reason Mary was evil, in Final Crisis anyway. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	filbypott 2009-05-11 02:21 am UTC (link)
	Johns said in the first couple pages of this issue that Desaad "seduced" Mary. This is a pretty blatant retcon, since it was clear in Final Crisis that Desaad was controlling all of her actions. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	jlbarnett 2009-05-10 05:59 pm UTC (link)
	They say it's Adam's power. I think that could be fairly open ended. For example, if the Egyptian god that provides wisdom is pissed off then it could manipulate how they think (Reply to this) (Parent)

	cainofdreaming 2009-05-10 03:57 am UTC (link)
	The popular theory seems to be that this means Billy's dad took Jay to the CSA's world. If that's the case maybe they got the wrong wizard. Nah, I don't imagine they'd be that subtle. (Reply to this) (Thread)

bluefall
2009-05-11 12:43 pm UTC (link)

I actually mulled that myself, but that would mean Billy and Mary's dad is a) also evil, which would be dumb and annoying; or b) a cosmic dupe, somehow convinced that he's in service to higher powers as penance when he's rather the opposite or c) an impostor of some kind, either of which seems too obscure to merit randomly bringing the character in out of left field like that as a literary choice.

I mean, it'd make the use of Jay make more sense - if a good guy imprisoned an evil Shazam such that only another good guy could get to him to free him, a dimension-hopping stalwart like Jay is a good place to go to solve that. But what meaning does Billy's father have for Jay? Seems like an odd choice of messenger.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	proteus_lives 2009-05-10 04:36 pm UTC (link)
	Oh come on. Would the JSA actually just leave the fucking statue there?? (Reply to this)