Greatest Stories Ever Told Fact To Blow Your Mind
In TWO of DC's "Greatest Stories Ever Told" trade collections, Justice League of America and Superman, a story by Joe Kelly is featured.
Is your mind blown?
Is your mind blown?
posted by Brian Cronin at 2/26/2006 12:25:00 PM
44 Comments:
pJoe Kelly is the Robert Zemeckis of comic books.
Which makes Bob Gale the Bob Gale of comic books.
And please note that I don't even, like, dislike Joe Kelly's work or anything.
Just...one of the greatest Justice League story ever told?
Yeah....no.
Wait, what collection are we talking about here? I have an old beat-up copy of "The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told" that I must've bought when I was ten that has some kickass stories by Elliot Maggin, Byrne and Kirby along with (I think) "For The Man Who Has Everything," which I guess I naively assumed was still in print through its sheer awesomeness.
They have a new version in print, with Kelly's Action Comics #775 instead of Moore's story and some others.
If I'm remembering correctly, Action #775 was good (that's the first "Elite" story, right?)...but worth replacing an Alan Moore story?
I think the appropriate response is "What were they smoking?"
That ELite story was way overrated to me. It was supposed to be a response to the popularity of the Authority, but it actually made SUperman look worse in my opinion.
I was actually talking with Tadhg the other day about how I should do a bit about how Action #775 was a pretty good story.
The reason why I find it necessary to point out that is because, due to the overwhelming praise for Kelly's story by DC, there has been considerable backlash against the issue, to the point where some folks talk about hating the issue, which I think is overly harsh, as, well, it's not Kelly's fault that people over-praised the book!
I used to love Joe Kelly comics, circa Deadpool. Now? I hate Joe Kelly's comics.
Here's the thing. Action Comics #775 is a really good Superman story, and it's certainly the best issue of Joe Kelly's run on the title. It's just that it only really works as a one-shot deal, and everything he did after that became self-referential to that one set of characters that he fell in love with, fancying himself to be Warren Ellis when, in actuality, he's the guy who wrote Deadpool.
Is it as good as "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" Well of course not. But that story's in another trade now, marketed as being a great Alan Moore story rather than a great Superman story. On its own, though, "What's So Funny About..." was probably the best Superman story for a few years in either direction in those titles. So I can see how it happened.
"Two Minute Warning," though... It is, without question, the best issue of Kelly JLA, but that's like being the prettiest waitress at Denny's. It's nowhere near as good as any given Morrison or Waid issue, and that's a slot that could've been taken up a lot better by one of the Despero fights, either from Detroit League days or the sequel story from Giffen/Dematteis that features Adam Hughes art. Those issues are phenomenal, and unless I missed it, there's not much representation for Vibe & Co. in the trade.
(Not that, you know, there should be a lot...)
Obviously, DC just really needed something post-Morrison so that it doesn't look like that book stopped being good five years ago, and "Two Minute Warning" is exactly the kind of decent, self-contained story they were looking for. And I imagine the keyword here is "self contained," as these types of collections don't really lend themselves to reprinting single issues of multipart story arcs, like, say, any given issue of "Rock of Ages," which would've blown the whole Joe Kelly ouvre away.
I really liked the Elite story. No problem with it being one of the best-of-the-best Superman stories. Certainly better'n any of the John Byrne stories.
And the best of the JLA book was pretty clearly made through the ultra-scientific "Bobbing for comics" procedure, where they dump every issue of every JLA comic into a tub of water, and have an intern pick twelve issues out with his teeth. (ONE Garnder Fox story? And no-where near the BEST Garnd
So the results THERE shouldn't be surprising.
One Gardner Fox story? Missing (First Series) 100-102? But stuff from both Joe Kelly and Gerry Conway? I scoff. *Scoffs.*
It is like the opposite of the old cliche of a thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters. Instead, once Kelly has wrote thousands of mediocre stories, there was bound to be one turd that floated to the top.
That was cruel and unduly harsh wasn't it?
The Elite story was full of weak non-sequitors and shallow characterisation, in which we learned less about Superman than we did about Joe Kelly's opinion of John Constantine.
It was a very bad comic. It might even be a very stupid comic.
Of course, it doesn't take anything away from the superb moral ambiguity and sharp wit of DeadPool.
But every time I see the Elite story trotted out as an example of good, modern, relevant Superman comics, it makes me a bit mad. Because it's none of those things.
//\Oo/\\
I really liked both those stories, and most of Kelly's run on JLA. Aside from "White Rage" or whatever the Axis Amerika arc was, his run was not only better than everything that the title has seen since (except maybe Crisis of Conscience), but even more consistently good than Waid's run.
If it weren't for the fact, that it only features two Leaguers, I'd totally have included "The Dark Nut Returns" over "Two Minute Warning," though. Easily the best single issue of Kelly's JLA run.
Matthew Craig, I totally agree.
The Joe Kelly story was, in my opinion, totally patronizing. It used the shallowest, most simplistic analogue of the Authority to make its point and was about as subtle as a jackhammer.
It was so self-congratulatory while simulataneous missing the point of a good Superman story that it sickened me.
So, for those of us who read and forgot most of Kelly's run (and frequently wonder WTF happened to Kelly between leaving Marvel and getting to DC), which one is "Two Minute Warning" again?
His first issue of Justice League.
Called "Two Minute Warning" because it showed what each leaguer was doing for two minutes before an "S.O.S" came in.
And then had the emergency itself.
Nice little story. May very well have been the best issue of his run, but that's damning with faint praise.
T. -
I disagree - the Authority are the shallowest, simplistic version of the Authority. Anything else just can't get shallow enough to make the point.
Kelly's Superman story was okay - it had the subtlty of a jackhammer, but it wasn't supposed to be subtle. It's also meta-commentary on the state of comic books in general, and those are rarely good. It wasn't a terribly good Superman story, but I may not be a good judge because I don't think that there has been a really GOOD Superman story printed by DC since, oh, about 1986 or so.
Including it in a "Best of" collection? Eh - it just shows how much they had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to come up with SOMETHING recent done with Superman that's any good at all. It probably is the best (in-series, non-Elseworld) Superman story done in the past ten years - and that's truly a sad statement for one of the cornerstone characters of the DCU.
I thought Action Comics #775 was good, but not great, certainly nowhere near the level of "For the Man Who Has Everything". Overall, the previous Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told had a much better selection, even though it overemphasized the '50s at the expense of the '70s and '80s.
The story selection for the Greatest JLA Stories book is just horrendous. I have nothing good to say about it. They left out #74, #100-102, and #144 (or alternately #145). They included only a paltry three pages from #200, and the Giffen/DeMatteis story they included is hardly the best of that run (#38-40 would have been a far better choice).
By the way, I agree with Brad that the Calendar Man story is the weak link in the original Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told. Pretty much every other story in that book deserves to be there. It should be the model of how to assemble a greatest-stories-ever-told collection.
"Well, it's true :)"
Are we going to give the 20th person to say that a toaster or something? Are you guys who spend all of this time pointing out that, hey, people who blog here like Grant Morrison just trying really hard to win a toaster? Well, there's no toaster coming, so you can stop if that's your motivation. I'm sorry if someone (Cronin) implied otherwise. They lied. I may be able to hook you up with a George Forman grill though. We'll see.
"We have X pages to fill. Quick, which JLA story runs X pages? And isn't connected to an ongoing story? And doesn't suck?" Boom- instant "best of."
My "Best of Justice League" already exists- "Rock of Ages."
I will allow that Kelly's run is probably better than Waid's.
Again, damning with faint praise.
While we're at it, he also did a better job than Gerry Jones and Dan Vado.
Geez. I really, REALLY, liked Waid's run. Especially that big huge giant sized issue.
That would totally go in MY best of the JLA.
And, lessee.
46-47. (I think.) The Anti-Matter Man Story.
55-56. Introduced the Earth Two Robin and this whole "Heroic Legacy" concept that Geoff "I can't spell "J-E-F-F" Johns built his career on.
JLA # 60. Batgirl vs. the Queen Bee.
100-102. Seven Soldiers of Victory.
111. Injustice Gang.
Maybe 200, just 'cause a lot of other people like it. And Conway was on the book forerver.
Second series (Giffen) # 1,
And, yeah, 38-40 were pretty good.
And third series # 5. (Tomorrow Woman.)
I was thinking about how #5 would have been perfect, but I will allow that it IS sorta heavy on continuity of the time.
1. Metamorpho's death
2. Superman's new costume
Uh...that's it, but that's enough!!
I was very upset that "To Kill a Legend" and "The Autobiography of Bruce Wayne" didn't make the cut for the new "Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told" trade.
Both those stories were -far- better than the replacements.
I'd vote for Mark Millar's one-shot tale from JLA #28 featuring the Atom. Fine, self-contained, and genuinely representative of the Morrison era JLA despite not actually being by Morrison.
But the current "Greatest" volumes are, as much as anything, a marketing tool. A lot of the stories in them, like JLofA #166-8, are there for reasons of current demand -- that trilogy, for instance, apparently drives Identity Crisis and Crisis of Conscience.
Likewise, the Alan Moore and JLA/JSA stuff are available elsewhere, so DC have no reason to flood their own market. And the Fox story they chose, "Jail the Justice League," was likely picked because it's got lots of recognizeable supervillains in it including Luthor and the recently high-profile Captain Boomerang and Doctor Light.
Me? Keeping the "no duplication of recently repro'ed material" rule for convenience's sake, I'd have gone with JLofA #25 ("Outcasts of Infinity," an especially fluid and imaginative Fox/Sekowsky outing), #111-12 (a two-parter featuring Len Wein, the Injustice Gang's wacky incarnation, and Amazo), #140-1 (the classic Engelhart Manhunter story), Justice League #2-3 (Giffen/DeMatteis featuring the Justifiers), JLA #5 (Tomorrow Woman), and JLA #28 (Millar's fill-in).
Probably too many pages, but it seems like a good sampling of the very best to me.
From a mass-market perspective, the first half of JLA 5 would be somewhat impenetrable - Hitman, Damage, Artemis, and Max Mercury are inactive in the current DCU, and I don't think they'll show up on the cartoon.
I liked most of Waid's run, and most of Kelly's, but they're not exactly "classics." If I were to choose a short Morrison story, I'd go with JLA 6 & 7 (which has its continuity issues, but not as much as issue 5).
"From a mass-market perspective, the first half of JLA 5 would be somewhat impenetrable - Hitman, Damage, Artemis, and Max Mercury are inactive in the current DCU, and I don't think they'll show up on the cartoon."
Eh - they're bit players in the background, mostly. They could have been any generic "superheroes" - the story doesn't depend on people knowing who they are.
I agree with Cronin - the "Electric Blue" Superman is much more of a problem than the background players. I'm not so sure about Metamorpho's death being a problem either - its enough that "some other superhero" died and they're at a funeral. You don't need to know who Metamorpho is or really how he died to appreciate the scene.
Give the mass-market readers some level of credit - not everyone needs to be a "known quantity". If the cornerstone characters are there, many folks will go along for the ride. This is also why Electric Blue Superman is a problem - you shouldn't much with your cornerstone characters in stories for the mass market.
Of course, I personally think that Howard Porter's artwork will prevent any of Morrison's JLA stories from hitting a "bet of" volume any time soon. His style is something that I know a lot of comics fans like, but anytime I tried to get my non-comics reading friends to try Morrison's JLA, they'd comment on how ugly the art was and pass.
I had serious problems with Action Comics #775. It was so utterly black & white in its regard to proactive superheroes, and didn't even try to acknowledge the innumerable shades of gray that one finds in real-world morality.
The biggest irony I found about that story was that it took place during the time when Lex Luthor was President of the United States in the DCU. It was rhidiculous for Superman to be arguing that the Elite were in the wrong when he just sat back, did absolutely nothing, and allowed a man he knew to be a murderer to be elected to the White House.
The problem is that DC Comics want to have their cake and eat it to. They want their heroes to be bastions of morality who never kill their enemies. At the same time, they have villains like the Joker murdering literally hundreds of innocent people, escaping from jail on a weekly basis, repeating the same horrific crimes over and over again. You can't have it both ways. Superman and Batman look like imbeciles when they unflinchingly put their faith in a criminal justice system that is shown as completely ineffectual.
Ben Sherman,
You nailed it. Action Comics #775 pretty much ignored any of the good aspects of proactive superheroing in order to defend the outdated moral codes of it's hero. I also hate DC's excessive adherence to the policy of not killing under any circumstances, even self-defense or defending others lives, mainly because it implies that anyone who kills a bad guy under any circumstances is just as bad as said bad guy.
That's bunk. If that was the case, than military men that killed Nazis and policemen who kill criminals holding hostages are weak or immoral? Please.
Superman has killed to save lives, in the mainstream DCU comics.
He executed the Phantom Zone Criminals of the Pocket Universe, considering them a threat too great to leave alive.
But, I don't think that story has been reprinted recently, so many wouldn't know about it.
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