MAFUS REVIEWS:

Nostalgia seems to be the comics industry's stock-in-trade these days. Sometimes this is taken to the extreme (as with Marvel's recent relaunch of nearly every 70's title like Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Spaceknights and Defenders.) When handled incorrectly, this is a bad thing. Marvel made Luke Cage a hip-hop parody that bordered on the racist (I prefer the more reserved Brian Michael Bendis version appearing in Daredevil) and Spacenights was a revamp of the superior toy-based comic ROM that, due to legal reasons, couldn't even mention it's original inspiration. I admit that I was on-board for every appearance of Nova. But I was usually disappointed. When publishers re-launch a once-popular book, they usually do it with a writer that wasn't necessarily a fan of the original and doesn't have a grasp of what made the character(s) charming in the first place and an artist who either redesigns the character(s) or has no business drawing comics in the first place. Nova was the perfect example of this. Fabian Nicieza turned the formerly unsure-of-himself loser Rich Rider into a shallow, overly-confident jerk. The unbelievabley bad artist Chris Marinnan gave him ridiculous-looking red leather staps and buckles and a stupid ponytail. (Nova was supposed to be streamlined, guys!) These creators had no business working on this book

The other extreme is when the book is relaunched with the same creators taking over the reigns again, hoping to recapture that original magic. When George Perez took over Avengers for the relaunch, it really seemed to click with readers. (I didn't care for the book personally. Sorry, George.)

This seems to be the case with Formerly Known as the Justice League. All the original creators are back. Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis return with the familiar humor. Kevin Maguire and Joe Rubenstein supply the comical facial expressions. Even Bob Lappan is back to letter the book. When I first heard about this book coming out, I was really excited. The original incarnation of this group of JLAers has always been one of my favorite runs and I'm a real sucker for nostalgia. The idea of seeing Booster Gold and Blue Beetle bickering again and spouting all those cute one-liners had real appeal. I really wanted to like this book.

Unfortunately, the idea of reading this book and the actual reading of it were two different animals.

The artwork is...okay. I was a big fan of Maguire's artwork, especially his old Aquaman covers. It's clean and uncluttered and it serves this type of simple storytelling very well. But Maguire's artwork doesn't seem to have matured much since the original series. And he relies too much on his reputation for doing realistic facial expressions. Frankly, he's not as good at this as his reputation. It looks like he's using a mirror to try and duplicate every expression literally. Everybody ends up looking constipated. Some of the best "drawn" facial expressions can be found in animation. Animators also look in mirrors for inspiration, but then take it a lot further. This is a minor quibble, though. Overall the artwork is fine. (Personally, I can't look at anything Maguire does anymore without flashing back to those awful comics the man did for the short-lived Penthouse Comics magazines. Those things were just wretched.)

The writing. Again, nothing seems to have matured. I was hoping for the feel of the original, but with a little more complexity of characterization. Booster is greedy. Beetle is reluctant. Maxwell Lord is persistent. L-Ron is long-suffering. All the characters are exactly the way they were in the original. The only noticeable exception is Fire, who appears to have become a Sapphic Webmaster selling cheesecake shots of herself online. (It will be interesting to see what they do with her character without her former foil, Ice, around to play off.) There seems to be just enough characterization to set up the one-liners.

I did like some parts of the book.

The coloring is nice. It harkens back to the muted tones of the original, doing away with all the annoying computer effects of today. That said, there are some nice, subtle gradients here and there to add dimension. There are a couple of weird washed-out areas but that appears to be just crappy printing.

There are a couple of nice scenes, including a laugh-out-loud funny scene when Max tries to recruit Booster for his new team, especially considering he'd already told Beetle that Booster was "on-board." The contradiction was subtle and the writers didn't beat you over the head with it like you would expect and when I realized it, I actually chuckled. Good one, guys. The amusing surprise at the end would have been more interesting if the cover illustration hadn't given it away.

And, the cardstock cover was a very nice touch. I hope it's a trend.

Overall, the book was exactly what it purports to be: a mildly entertaining rehash of the glory days of the humorous era of the Justice League book. If you want something more, you'll probably be disappointed. The readers who remember the book have grown up and gotten a bit more sophisticated and I was hoping this book would have as well. Blue Beetle says it best on the cover: "Here we go again...!"

 

Back to Reviews...