Justice League of America's Vibe #1

Comic writer Geoff Johns has an uncanny knack for taking over entire universes. He now commands the helm of the DC universe, which has shrunken by about fifty dimensions in the last few years, but which still comes with great responsibility. But he can see the forest for the trees. If his recent introduction of Simon Baz as the most recent earth Lantern in the monthly series Green Lantern didn't convince you of that fact, then his re-introduction of lesser known here Vibe in Justice League of America's Vibe #1 ought to bring the point home.

Vibe's origin brings many current political issues to the forefront. He is from Detroit, which is the only large city in America to do so poorly that the state has to take over the city government with an emergency manager. This is also the site of a catastrophic event, the invasion of Darkseid from another dimension, a terrifying moment in the DC universe that affects its characters in much the same way that September 11 affected us. The new DC universe, at its inception, has lost its innocense, as has Cisco Ramon, the boy who will one day be called Vibe. An inter-dimensional port claims the life of his older brother. The same act of violence gives Cisco a strange power that keeps him from being detected by cameras. In this first issue, we immediately understand who Cisco Ramon is, what motivates him, and we have a sense of what his future holds in store.

Not even Marvel's Brian Michael Bendis is capable of delivering something this emotional in his first issue. Johns has the advantage of having written the entire backdrop upon which Vibe's story plays out, but that doesn't necessarily make this kind of work easy. Any of the recently canceled DC titles could have fit into the events of the Darkseid invasion and delivered stories that touch the readers who read them, and yet many did not. But Johns is not just serious. It wouldn't feel as real without his brand of comedy. For example, when Cisco is asked to join a team that prevents further incursions from Darkseid and their beasts, he rightly notes the irony that the government wishes to make a border policeman out of a Latino.

In the end, I am skeptical about this series, but only for one reason. Johns has committed himself to the Justice League, and we know this because he has left Green Lantern behind in order to develop stories just like these. But will Johns continue to write Vibe after the first few arcs? Certainly, if the title is taken over by Tomasi, or another writer who works well with Johns, that could be really fun, but ultimately I want Johns to develop this character for more than just a year. I will stick with Justice League of America's Vibe for at least as long as Geoff Johns writes it. May that window last forever.

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My Favorite DC: Green Lantern

The story of my relationship with Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814 Hal Jordan is also the story of my friendship with a guy named Chad. Whereas Hal Jordan proved that he would be the proper Green Lantern candidate when his father died before his eyes and he no longer feared anything, I first met Chad when our Hebrew Bible professor was over fifteen minutes late to class and he proposed that we take a moment to get up out of our seats and dance. I thought to myself, "Why didn't I think of that?" Little did I know, but the entire previous summer Chad had worked his way into my group of friends and turned them all to Dungeons and Dragons. It was only a matter of time before I was a part of this group, and Chad was one of my best friends.

While Chad was infiltrating my video game playing group of seminary friends, I was spending my time in Michigan getting introduced to the woman of my dreams, Amy Bolan. When I met her, I said that my comic book interests included Marvel Comics plus Batman. The fact that she was a Batman fan made me delve into Batman all the more. I'm still working on a Batman reading list that I had originally intended to be a kind of book club for Amy and I. But when I returned to school, Chad's passion for Hal Jordan converted me from Marvel plus Batman to Marvel plus Batman and Green Lantern, and eventually to Marvel plus DC. "The cool thing about Hal Jordan," Chad would say, "is that he would be a hero even if he hadn't gotten a Green Lantern power ring." Having read the recent Green Lantern #1 from the DC reboot, this fact has been proven. A de-powered Hal Jordan jumps from balcony to balcony in order to save someone who appears to need help. But I knew this before I read Green Lantern #1, because Chad had given me a must read list for Green Lantern comics.

While Chad has adored Green Lantern for some time, it is largely the work of Geoff Johns that makes Hal Jordan one of my most favorite comic book characters. Another friend of mine, Zac, was once commenting on how complicated Hal Jordan's story was at one point. After all, when his home town of Coast City was destroyed during the events of Reign of the Superman!, Hal Jordan's fear opened him up to an ancient entity named Parallax, the enemy of the Guardians of the universe who was once imprisoned in Oa's power battery and supposedly responsible for the fact that Lanterns are historically weak to the yellow element. Hal dies in order to reignite the Earth's sun in Final Night, only to be brought back to life as the Spectre in Day of Judgment. The entire thing was way over the top and completely over-complicated. But it gave Geoff Johns a chance to shine. In the Green Lantern: Rebirth mini-series, Geoff Johns pits Hal Jordan against both Parallax and the Spectre. When both the Spectre and and Parallax are purged, Johns re-introduces Hal Jordan as Green Lantern in the fourth volume of Green Lantern, one of the most wildly successful comics of the last decade. In many ways, it was a reboot of the entire Green Lantern story (making it unnecessary to reboot Green Lantern with the events of the new DCU). All of the inconsistencies were made consistent. All of the evils of Hal Jordan's and the Guardians' past were returned upon them. And now Green Lantern is known for great stories.

You know that my initiation into Green Lantern was the result of a fantastic friendship with Chad. You also know something about the history of Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern. But I don't think that tells you why Green Lantern is one of my favorite DC characters. The truth behind that has something to do with the balance of will and fear in the Green Lantern books. Sometimes I believe that I have the will to overcome great fear. But mostly I fear that I do not. Every time I read a Green Lantern story, I am forced to know if I have what it takes to do the right thing, and honestly to do magnificent things beyond the abilities of normal people. Because if I am conquered by fear, I am conquered entirely. The question of whether I am ruled by will or fear has become very important to me, and I honestly think that it has built me into a better person. Sure, I compared myself to Batman in my previous entry, and Batman was offered a Sinestro Corps ring. Does that make me a character who is ruled by fear? I don't think so. Maybe it just makes me smart and unrelenting, if not a little bit haunted. But I think I can be something better. I think that I can inspire. After all, the way that Green Lanterns overcome the taint of the yellow element is to feel the fear and then to defeat it.

Green Lantern has actually been a driving force toward my personal betterment, and I'm not sure that there are a lot of characters who will ever do that for anyone else. I have to say that I've held high a variation of Professor Charles Xavier's dream for nearly all of my life, but the person of Charles Xavier does not do for me what the person of Hal Jordan has done. He is the man without fear and he lives in the city without fear. But none of this would be true if fear had not once been there only to be conquered.

The New DCU: August 31, 2011 - A Simulblog

The following is a simulblog with Chad P. of Political Jesus, Josh Toulouse of Fat Train, and Arthur of Arthur the Lesser. You ought to be forewarned: there will be spoilers.

Chad's article, "Savage Nerdery: The New Genesis of DC Comics, A Simulblog," can be found here.

Josh's article, "The New DCU: August 31, 2011, A Simulblog," can be found here.

And Arthur's article, "Why I Can't Simulblog," can be found here.

In the scheme of things, I don't know much about the old DC universe. And maybe that means that this new DCU was created for me. As a matter of fact, if it weren't for the influence of Josh Toulouse, Arthur, Amy Bolan and Chad P., I'd probably still be shouting out, "Make mine Marvel" and reading every single X-Men-based comic since 1963. (I've made it all the way to the last months of 1988. That's 25 years of comics.) Since I'm not exactly the oldest supporter of DC comics, I thought I'd lay it all out for you. I've read select Batman stories from 1987's Batman: Year One to 1993's Batman: Knightfall, select Green Lantern stories from the destruction of Coast City in the 1990s to the last few comics before Blackest Night, some stand-alone stories like Elseworld Batman tales and All-Star Superman, and I've been present for several conversations regarding the DCU. The only thing I know about Flash or Wonder Woman is what I learn in cross-overs like Final Crisis. I am a noob to the DCU, and this is the perspective that I am bringing to this simulblog series.

I believe that it is significant that Justice League #1 is the first comic book to be released in the new DCU. With a release date of August 31, 2011, it is the only comic book of the new 52 that doesn't have a September release. Furthermore, its permanent spot on the release schedule is the third week, with Justice League #2 coming out on October 19, 2011. Justice League's September release came out almost a full month early. I think this points to one of the most interesting architectural changes the DCU has ever seen. Whereas the original DCU began with independent heroes isolated to their particular city and acting out independent stories with independent sets of villains only to be brought together somewhat awkwardly a couple decades later, the new DCU begins with unity. The old DCU set up its borders, whereas the new DCU begins with heroes crossing borders. Justice League #1 begins with the Green Lantern of Coast City crossing into Batman's Gotham City and it ends with both heroes crossing into Superman's Metropolis. Hal Jordan comments that the entire space sector belongs to him, but his concept of dominion is soon changed when Superman knocks him flat on his butt.

This serves as a good segue-way into a discussion of who's who in the Justice League, and what the purpose and effect of the Justice League will be in the new DCU. Already we've met Batman, Green Lantern, and Superman. (Since these three are the main characters of the first issue, does this mean that the Big Three of the old DCU, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, are about to be overthrown?) Batman is somewhat insular and brainy, and when he meets Hal Jordan he almost seems as if he's something of a socially inept geek. Of course, he wows Green Lantern by his crime-fighting prowess despite his lack of super powers. Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern, is incredibly over-confident, and it seems clear that he has yet to be knocked down a few pegs by a truly good villain (or by Superman). Batman makes it clear that if he keeps shining his light everywhere he's going to get people killed. Some things never change. Superman is perceived as a rogue alien from Metropolis, and despite the confidence of both Batman and Green Lantern it seems to me that the two heroes are merely covering over the fact that they're kind of terrified of this Kryptonian powerhouse.

The first words that Geoff Johns writes in Justice League #1 are: "There was a time when the world didn't call them its greatest super heroes. There was a time when the world didn't know what a super-hero was." Clearly, by "them" Johns intends to name the Justice League. One is lead to believe that the time when the world didn't value or know of super-heroes includes the events of this issue, which happened five years ago. Not only were the members of the Justice League unknown; they were downright feared. The first part of the story features the Gotham City Police Department indiscriminately firing upon both Batman and the alien that he is chasing (and later Green Lantern). One officer communicates over the radio, "Is it one of them?" and is answered, "The way they're leaping twenty feet at a time? I'd say yes." This leads one to believe that the humans are scared of what in the old DCU would be called metas, individuals with super powers. (Ironically, the GCPD considers Batman "one of them," a meta.) The second part of the story features a Superman who may not stand for truth, justice and the American way, who may not have taken to heart all the simple country values of his Smallville origin and the responsibility that his powers entail. This may just be a self-serving Superman, and he may just be the reason why the world is up in arms against metas. Of course, this is only the state of events from five years ago, a dark period in the history of the new DCU perhaps, but in this same opening we are given hope. Johns suggests that the Justice League will become the greatest heroes, and perhaps just as importantly, the world will recognize them as such.

On the surface it appears that Darkseid is going to be the villain who unites the Justice League and allows them to rise to their rightful place in the new DCU. The alien that Batman tracked through his detective skills and that Green Lantern tracked with the alien-detecting device known as his Green Lantern power ring mentioned the villain before self-detonating. The alien that it took both Batman and Green Lantern to defeat was merely a minion of a higher power, the power of Darkseid. Darkseid and his army of followers are certainly a big enough threat to require the combined power of the world's heroes. Of course, this would be too simple. When the heroes duke it out in Metropolis, they do so in a demolition zone, a site that is being prepared for Lexcorp construction. The sign promises that Lexcorp is "building the city of tomorrow today." An astute reader will notice this and wonder if Lex Luthor is the true villain behind the events that will assemble the Justice League. Of course, this is a new universe: perhaps Lex Luthor is to the Justice League what Professor Charles Xavier is to the X-Men in the Marvel Universe (or what Nick Fury is to the Avengers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe).

Overall, the new DCU appears to be focusing on subtle storytelling rather than flashy new adventures. Of course, that may just be Geoff Johns, but with Justice League as the flagship comic book, it would seem that other writers will be pushed to do the same with their titles. Not only will the new DCU be populated with new and interesting takes on characters, but it appears that a large span of time will be populated with new and interesting takes on the stories that these characters enact. Already, we have a look at what the world looks like five years ago in Justice League #1. I think we can assume that some titles will start their stories now whereas other titles might plunge back even further. We have met Batman, Green Lantern, and Superman, but we don't know how they come to be heroes. I'm not 100% certain where Johns is going with the Victor Stone/Cyborg story, but it seems interesting. It looks to me like Vic's father is spending all of his time studying metas so that his football playing son might some day walk among them as an equal. Of course, there's always that chance that Vic Stone might be transformed into Cyborg as a means of humanity fighting against the metas. Oh, and I'm sure that we'll see Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Flash at some point, too. After all, they are on the cover...

Next week, I intend to read every single new release. That means I will be reading Action Comics #1 (with Grant Morrison!), Animal Man #1, Batgirl #1 (I'm really interested to see how this one plays out), Batwing #1, Detective Comics #1, Green Arrow #1, Hawk and Dove #1, Justice League International #1, Men of War #1, O.M.A.C. #1, Static Shock #1, Storm Watch #1, and Swamp Thing #1. Of course, since I don't believe I could possibly read every DC comic for the rest of my life, I'll probably start crossing comics off the list if they don't interest me as much. Until then, however, read Chad P.'s article, "Savage Nerdery," Josh Toulouse's article, "The New DCU," and Arthur's article, "Why I Can't Simulblog."  And don't forget to leave your own opinion on the new DCU.