DCU Comic Book Reviews

JSA #74

Black Vengeance, Part 2

August 2005

Written by Geoff Johns

Pencils by Leonard Kirk

Inks by Keith Champagne

Cover by Alex Ross

Synopsis

Two days ago...the Spectre attacks Hector Hall (aka Dr. Fate).  Today...Black Adam and Atom Smasher help the people of Khandaq against the attacks of the Spectre and Eclipso, who are seeking revenge against Black Adam for manipulating the previous host of Eclipso.  Over the Mediterranean, the JSA are heading to Khandaq to help.  Meanwhile, Black Adam continues to fight the Spectre, who is able to call down the lightning to change Black Adam to a human.  At that moment, the JSA arrives to protect the people against the Spectre’s destruction.  This angers Black Adam; he doesn’t want the help of the JSA and he begins to fight them.  Elsewhere, Sand creates a sand storm while Jakeem calls out Thunderbolt with a wish to blind the Spectre and send him to the fifth dimension.  However, the Spectre turns the table and Jakeem disappears.  Stargirl encounters Atom Smasher and wants to know why he left the JSA to come to Khandaq.  Her tells her he had to.  Suddenly, Eclipso appears and says everything Black Adam loves will die, including his “brother” as Alex Montez grabs Stargirl.

Review

A lot is going on in this issue and I am not just talking about the events in the issue, but all of the character moments.  It seems as if Johns has a checklist of each character and he makes sure to provide a scene for all of them regardless if it fits into the story or not.  Sometimes it works, like Power Girl’s heat vision suddenly going crazy and sometimes it doesn’t, like the reference to the romance between Stargirl and Marvel that was wildly out of place.  Sometimes it is even subtle, such as the quotes around “god” in Mr. Terrific's statement about the Spectre’s boss.  The upshot of all this is that the issue and the storyline comes across as scattershot; there seems to be no focus other than to have the Spectre rampage through Khandaq so we can get that nifty Day of Vengeance tie-in sticker on the front cover (or to promote the new JSA Classified). 

Upon my first reading I thought Black Adam’s anger at the JSA coming to help was silly and a rather stupid way to get the JSA and Black Adam to fight each other rather than the Spectre.  But the more I thought about it, the more it made perfect sense within the character arc that Johns is crafting.  Black Adam invaded Khandaq, the country that he created centuries ago, to protect the people that he considers to really be his people.  It is more than just a desire to protect them as it is a desire to be seen as their protector.  It is not enough to help Khandaq; he wants the world to know that it is Black Adam that helped them, that Black Adam freed them, that Black Adam will protect them.  And for the JSA to help him, well, he would then have to share the spotlight as Khandaq’s protector and that just won’t do.  It is a warped view but in the context of Black Adam’s character arc, it makes sense.  Re-reading the issue, I suddenly understood the frustration and the anger felt by Black Adam when the JSA arrives to fight the Spectre. -- Review by MRB 

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