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nalanzu (nalanzu) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-06-07 22:14:00

Entry tags:

char: green lantern/hal jordan, group: green lantern corps, publisher: dc comics

I may be overanalyzing this.
This showed up in the back of a Superman comic, I think; the bit where Hal Jordan decides what the world needs is another Justice League. There was something about it that really bothered me, and I am wondering if it was just me.

Does this:

remind anyone else of this?

Here it is again. Seriously, am I the only one who thinks that it's just a short step from these-

-to these?

Before DC went all retcon and decided Parallax was a fear demon, Hal-as-Parallax's primary motivation and defining characteristic was that he wanted to fix things and make them right. It seems to me that what he appears to be doing in A Cry For Justice is incredibly consistent with his actions during Zero Hour. It's just a little less, um, drastic.

Yeah. I'm wondering if this is bothering anyone else.

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	okkult3000 2009-06-07 10:54 am UTC (link)
	Ah, "proactive superheroes." How I've missed the '90s. "We're not your grandaddy's Justice League! We're PROACTIVE! To the XTREEEEEEM!" With Fantastic Force and "proactive" JL, how long until Force Works makes a comeback? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	espanolbot 2009-06-07 11:15 am UTC (link)
	Also used in Justice League Elite, the Outsiders, Batman and the Outsiders, the Suicide Squad, and technically Checkmate as well. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

daningram
2009-06-07 11:28 am UTC (link)

To be fair, I think that the concept works alot better than 'Superhero team with a twist!' we usually get with, well...every superhero team that's not the Avengers or JLA (and hell, their claim to fame is being the best super heroes around).

I think the problem comes in that writters can't actually find anything interesting to do with pro-active teams. They think that busting up Luthor in his base is boring. So instead of changing the formula, like say, busting into Luthor's base as he's creating a dangerous, sentient WMD, they just have Luthor blow something up, have the team beat him up and then declare themselves pro-active.

Suicide Squad worked because the writer took the time to establish what the mission/situation was in theory/paper and then completely flipped it in the field. These days, that's too much work.

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bluefall
2009-06-07 01:45 pm UTC (link)

What's fun is that the Birds of Prey never actually billed themselves that way even once - it wasn't a selling point of the book, I don't know that Dixon would even have considered it a primary theme - but they absolutely were a basically effective proactive team for like, sixty issues. They broke up slavery rings and investigated kidnappers and drug czars. It was like, 1/3 "react to Joker launching missiles at people" and 2/3 "turn over rocks until we find something bad and then stomp it."

Which is probably why it worked. He didn't talk about it, he just did it.

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kingrockwell
2009-06-07 08:57 pm UTC (link)

Except in the trades. Throughout every Dramatis Personae, the last line of Babs' says "And no longer content to remain at the sidelines of crime-fighting, Oracle is itching to take a more proactive role in trouble-shooting global crises." (those italics aren't even mine!)

Though, to be fair, that really reflects more on her wanting to take cases of her own instead of waiting for someone to call her about one they're working, which is the only way I ever interpreted it until you just said what you did.

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