Justice League of Mediocrity

As a general rule, I try not to be too critical about comics, because I'd rather talk about what is cool, or stuff that's so bad it's funny. But DC have forced me, by making Justice Society (which I like) cross over with Justice League (which I don't read). So, to avoid reading only half a story for the next 2 months over in JSA, I picked up Justice League #8. It had it's fair share of things that bugged me.

But, let's kick this off with what I liked.

Wildcat training some of the JLA's younger members was cool, and something we don't see nearly often enough with the 'big three' of the JSA.

Batman busting Mr Terrific for playing Green Lantern off against Black Canary in chess, when they thought he was playing both of them (blind folded!). That was cool.

Stargirl going all starstruck on Wonder Woman was not cool. If it was the first time they'd met, then maaaaybe I'd accept that, though it would still be a little out of character for Courtney. Problem is, it's not their first meeting. It's not even their second or third meeting. They know each other, there's no basis for Courtney to act like that.

Dear Hourman, just because you've upgraded from popping pills to injecting, does not mean you've stopped using drugs. Thankyou.
Anyway, since when does Rick have to defend getting his super powers from a drug. The whole Miraclo addiction story has been done, he uses a non addictive form now, and really how is swallowing something to get powers really any different from Hawkman strapping on Nth metal?
Speaking of the Hawks...

... they do not 'flap' their wings. They fly using Nth metal, not their wings, the wings are for stability (and looking cool). Plus in the space of three panels, there is a huuuge hole in the script:
"I expect her to dodge and weave."
"Instead, she stands her ground and flaps with everything she's got, hoping the wind will knock it off course."
But c'mon, she really thinks I didn't account for wind?"
So Red Arrow fires an arrow (well, a flag, but we'll call it an arrow for now), and expects Hawkgirl to get out of the way. But he also magically allowed for the wind she might generate. How did he do both? If he expected her to get out of the way, why allow for wind? By the same token, if he allowed for wind, he wasn't really expecting her to get out of the way then, was he? By 'flapping', did Hawkgirl help the arrow get on course? If she hadn't 'flapped', would the arrow have missed? If he hadn't..... you get the picture. Ugh. Now, I know there's the environmental wind he would've had to allow for, but if she was adding to it... ok, I must force myself to stop or my head will implode. Moving on...

The chess game was cool. Black Canary chipping in at the end with "I still got checkmate", is not. Sorry Dinah, you were really just playing Green Lantern, not Mr Terrific. Beating Hal at chess is, I would say, a much (much!) simpler achievement than actually beating Mr Terrific. You'd hope the current leader of the JLA would realise that, but saying "I still got checkmate" seems to indicate she things she just beat the "3rd smartest man in the world".

Which leaves me with just the last page to talk about (because I can't be bothered talking about all the other bad things in the comic). This one is an art problem though. With regards to Power Girl's costume, it's fair to say that Dale Eaglesham over on Justice Society "get's it".

Justice League penciller Shane Davis, on the other hand, doesn't "get it".

I love Power Girl, I love the boob window, I love the fact that she looks like your standard mid-90's Image airhead girl when she's really a computer programmer, strong, intelligent, and the current JSA chairwoman. I love that she bucks the trend of other female characters that look like her, and can be viewed almost as a parody of them. It's times like these I wish she had B cups ('though I suspect Shane Davis wouldn't know how to draw a B cup) and a nice baggy sweater for a costume.

Oh, one other thing that amused me, just to end on a better note, was the two adverts for Marvel products in the comic. I wonder if DC and Marvel have a competition to see who can get the most ads in a competitor's book.