The Big 7: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter. This is the classic lineup of the Justice League of America. Sure, there are other iconic members: Black Canary, Green Arrow, Elongated Man, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, and the Atom, just to name a few, but those seven have been the cornerstone of the franchise, in one way or another, since the beginning.
In 2009, James Robinson began his run writing the adventures of the Justice League, from the poorly received Cry for Justice on through the end of the Justice League of America title before being relaunched as, simply, Justice League. Over this time, Robinson gave prominent placement to characters like Blue Jay, Congorilla, Jade, Mon-El, Saint Walker and Cyborg. Now, whether this was more of an editorial issue with finding a way to fit the “Big 7” in or not (most likely it was), Robinson rolled with the punches. This caused a lot of people to, probably without reading a single issue, shit all over his run as being not worthy of the title of the book.
However, these people were wrong; Robinson’s run celebrated all of the best aspects of what it meant to be the Justice League of America, and did so in ways that managed to feel new and exciting. Click the jump to read specifically about the final arc of Robinson’s run, “The Rise of Eclipso,” and why it is one of the most quintessential Justice League stories in recent memory.
What needs to be present for a classic Justice League story:
– A threat that cannot be stopped by one hero alone
– An opportunity for heroes with divergent powers to use them all to save the day
– Disastrous consequences if the object is not met
– Some really cool action sequences
“The Rise of Eclipso” has all of that in spades. Eclipso’s great power is in the ability to possess others, and almost instantly we have Eclipso possessing heroes and villains alike who have shadow powers to do his bidding: the Shade, the Shadow Thief, Acrata, Nightshade, Bete-Noire, and Dark Crow. Now, with the exception of the Shade, none of these are exactly A-list characters, but under Eclipso’s control, they are a formidable threat for the JLA.
At this point, the Justice League of America consists of Batman (Dick Grayson), Donna Troy, Supergirl, Jesse Quick, Jade, Starman and Congorilla. Let’s, for a second, discuss how well thought out this lineup is. The “trinity” is present, albeit in a distorted form: Dick Grayson instead of Bruce Wayne, Kara Zor-El instead of Kal-El, and Donna Troy instead of Diana Prince. There is a person with Green Lantern-like powers in Jade, and a speedster in Jesse. And Starman and Congorilla, with their colorful hues, are a new version of the classic Blue and Gold team made famous by Ted Kord (Blue Beetle) and Michael Jon Carter (Booster Gold). Even within this team of “misfits,” Robinson has channeled his best trait — a reverence for, and willingness to play with, continuity — and created a team that looks forward, but gives a nod to the classic teams of the past. The core team is joined by Blue Lantern Saint Walker and, later, Obsidian, the Atom and Alan Scott, as well as some of the reserve members of the Justice League.
Jade quickly falls under the spell of Eclipso, as do the reserve members of the JL that Congorilla brings with him: Cyborg, Bulleteer, Tasmanian Devil, Red Tornado, Animal Man, Zauriel and Dr. Light. It is slowly revealed what Eclipso’s plan is — he wants to kill God. And his plan for doing so was very much tied in with what was going on in the DCU at this time. During Brightest Day, Earth was established as the “most important” planet in the universe, which would explain why so many huge events seem to happen on Earth. This theme is restated by Eclipso, who goes on to explain that God loves the denizens of Earth the most, and how he is loved by them, and so if Eclipso can destroy the Earth and cut off God’s source of love, God will die. So, first step to his plan is to destroy the moon (something that Stormwatch would try again just a few months later) and send the world into chaos before possessing the heroes of Earth and, eventually, destroying all life in the universe except for himsef.
Continued belowWhat is so effective about this arc is that Eclipso’s plan, and the JLA’s plan to stop him, is revealed over multiple issues. Robinson doesn’t tip his hand here much at all, and each issue has moments where the reader is deceived and misdirected — in the tail end of episode 57, the eventual ending is pretty much shown, but it takes a full two issues to see how that will actually come to be. This arc also really utilizes each character’s skill set — they are each there for a purpose, and they have defined roles on the team. So many times in a JLA story, Aquaman is just hanging around, or the Batman is just sort of tossing batarangs at a giant monster — but here, each member’s strengths are utilized, and the book becomes an actual team book — not a Superman plus six book.
There are also some really great fight sequences here, but let me set the scene for one of them in particular: the Atom and Starman are shot from a Blue Lantern construct gun, shot by Congorilla into the Shade’s brain. To borrow a Marvel phrase, ‘Nuff Said.
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| David Mack’s Variant Cover. |
However, any discussion of Robinson’s run must include the final issue he wrote, issue #60. This was not where Robinson had planned on ending the tale; this is where DC decided to reboot its universe. So, after “The Rise of Eclipso” arc ended, Robinson had one issue to tie up as many loose ends as possible and close the series out in a satisfactory way. However, he would up doing much more than that.
The story starts off five weeks after the Eclipso incident is over, and the team is deciding to disband for a variety of personal reasons — Grayson is too busy with Batman, Inc (and believes Batman will want him back as Nightwing soon), Jesse is having a baby, Congorilla feels Africa needs more heroes, etc. Some of these reasons are thinly veiled commentary about the New 52 — Grayson would be Nightwing less than a month later, Batwing, the Batman of an entire continent (didn’t I already talk about this once?) would debut just a few weeks later.
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| The robot revolution we all know is coming, sooner or later. |
But before disbanding, three battles are described — seemingly, these were three storylines that Robinson had planned for this team, before the DCnU put a stop to those plans. Each of them seem like they could’ve been a fun place to take the team — a battle with all of Earth’s robots, a Saturn/Thangar war, and the battle for Gemworld. This single issue is basically a year in the life of Justice League of America, should it have continued. But, of course, it didn’t — this was the end of the line for this incarnation of the team. And I can’t think of a better way to sum it up, so I’ll let Dick and Donna do it for me:
