DCU Comic Book Reviews

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #31

Welcome to Sundown Town, Interlude: Crisis Of Confidence

May 2009

Written by Dwayne McDuffie

Pencils by Shane Davis

Inks by Sandra Hope

Cover by Ed Benes

Synopsis

On the Watchtower, Dinah Lance (aka Black Canary) summons Green Lantern and Green Arrow to discuss their decisions to create a splinter Justice League.  Dinah is upset.  Hal doesn’t care.  He doesn’t think the league is working anymore and he is going to find a way so it does.  In Gotham City, Dinah talks to Barbara Gordon (aka Oracle) about other developments concerning the league.  Elsewhere, Roy tells Dinah he is leaving the league.   In Keystone City, Wally tells her the same thing.  At the Fortress of Solitude, Superman and Wonder Woman spar with each other and discuss the death of Batman.  When Dinah arrives to talk to them, they both confirm they are taking time away from the league.  At the Hall of Justice, Dinah informs the remaining team members that she is disbanding the Justice League.       

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This is one messed up comic.  And I don’t mean the creative side, although there are problems there as well.  No, I am talking about the editorial decisions that have plagued this book.  This is the flagship title of DC, but DC is instead treating it like a bastard child with spin offs, and tie-ins, and ancillary plots.  Frankly, after Meltzer left, I don’t think we’ve really had a story that wasn’t in some way related to something else (Tangent, Milestone, Final Crisis, even fixing Meltzer’s run).  The current story started off well enough but with this issue, the Milestone arc (and I won’t even get into the fact that story contains characters from a defunct publishing line) gets derailed because DC decided the JLA needed to reflect what is going on in the DC universe.  So we get this issue, which deals with what is happening with the Big Three, the fallout of Final Crisis, a mini-series that hasn’t been published yet, and lord knows what else.  Think about that:  in mid-story, McDuffie needs to change who is in the story.  I feel sorry for McDuffie. 

Having said all that, this was actually a well done issue.  McDuffie does well with what he has been given, writing a nice tale of Dinah’s frustration at what is happening around her.  When we get to the end and she proclaims the end of the JLA, we frankly can’t really blame her.  It makes sense and I give credit to McDuffie for delivering good characterization in the story. 

The opening scene with Dinah, Hal and Ollie was well written and the conversation between played out the way it needed to, but man the impact of what was being said was lost in translation.  Why is McDuffie referencing events that have yet to be published?  I am guessing that when McDuffie wrote this issue, Cry For Justice was supposed to be already on the shelves (or more accurately, the second JLA book was supposed to be launched).  However, various delays and a change from ongoing to mini caused the book to ship later than it should’ve been.  Because this, I still think DC should’ve shelved this conversation until much later rather than now.   

It is not a good sign when the very first page has Zatanna calling out “Dinah” to a character that looks remarkably like Wonder Woman.  Based on the next pages, I assume that is an artist mistake rather than the letterer.  Still, it doesn’t look good when a goof that big and that visible gets printed. 

So, Roy and Dinah meet in a place where he and Kendra would go together, assuming it would be romantic in nature.  So, why are they standing in a cemetery?  Or, I guess, nearby in a cemetery.  The tombstones are visible in the second panel of the conversation.  Plus, Roy is wearing a suit, you know the kind one wears when going to a funeral.  Was something else planned for this page, but McDuffie was forced to change it. 

I don’t know how I feel about the meta-textual comment regarding the Justice League Detroit era of the team (around the mid-80s).  On the one hand, I would think that super hero teams would be a lot like baseball and football teams in that past accomplishments and rosters would be readily available for people to ponder and research.  Yet, few sports players are aware of the past of the sport they play (why would you watch a sport that you play?).  I can’t imagine heroes are fully cognizant of what others are doing, unless they were part of it.  So for Dinah to comment on an old JLA team just seemed out of place, although what she said was true.  However, I’ve got to wonder why Vixen didn’t come to defense of her teammates. 

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