Going back to the early ‘90s, we’ll examine a title that’s still cited as a fondly remembered “gone too soon” DC book - the short-lived Justice Society of America ongoing from 1992. Released at the height of shoulder pad and gnashing-of-teeth mania, Justice Society of America is most famous for showcasing the early work of Mike Parobeck, and an abrupt cancellation at the hands of DC editorial, who seemed to feel the book was somewhat embarrassing. (Per Wikipedia: Writer Len Strazewski, in an interview explaining the cancellation of this surprise hit series, said, "It was a capricious decision made personally by Mike Carlin because he didn't like Mike's artwork or my writing and believed that senior citizen super-heroes was not what DC should be publishing. He made his opinion clear to me several times after the cancellation.")
Outside of a few trades of the most recent series, I’m only vaguely familiar with the JSA as a concept. I know the basics -- the original team of superheroes retrofitted into the current DC continuity, whatever it happens to be this week -- but I’m utterly ignorant of most of the specifics. I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary that I’m aware of information like this: In the final issues of the four-issue Armageddon: Inferno limited series, the JSA returned to the modern-day DC Universe when Waverider transported the "daemen" of the interdimensional Abraxis to Asgard as a substitute for the JSA in the Ragnarok cycle, allowing the team to return to Earth. Hopefully, I can just enjoy the series on its own merits. So, join in me a few days to hear such incisive comments as “Most comics didn’t look like this in 1992.” and “Mike Parobeck sure could draw.” You can’t get this stuff anywhere else, people.
I still can't believe Mike said those things. He sure seemed nice enough in the interviews I've seen and I think he did a great job overseeing the Death of Superman, which I think is still one of the best Superman stories ever. He seemed to resist a lot of the 90s trends on that story (unless they were a parody/meta-commentary of the trends) and I'm shocked he cancelled a series because it also bucked the anti-hero/teeth-gnashing stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really surprised that Mike Carlin would do something like that. It was under his editorial tenure that the Legion of Super-Heroes became the mangled reboot-requiring mess it did because he refused to let them reference the "modern day" titles in any way. That included the team's long history with Superman and the good-sized role played by the presence of Green Lanterns. He might have been okay on the titles he edited personally, but the others he didn't he tried to destroy through subterfuge.
ReplyDeleteMike Parobeck. Gone to soon. That is one sweet piece or art.
ReplyDeleteDidn't this series come out before Zero Hour?
@wwk5d, yes, this does come out before Zero Hour as several main characters die there. The title is revived and the team reformed as "JSA" later, thanks to interest following a story line in Grant Morrison's JLA.
ReplyDeleteMatt you really think that Death of Superman was good - it was horrible for the Comic Market - It helped lead to the crash of the industry and while the Death of Superman might have okay, what followed ruined Superman for 10+ years to come.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to see how most people look at the Death and Return of Superman watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PlwDbSYicM
@ Scott Church
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a great story. And it didn't lead to the crash, you realize the X-Men and the huge popularity combined with the record high sales of Golden and Silver Age comics led to the speculator boom right? Death of Superman was more a symptom of the speculator boom, and is not the cause of its crash.
Also, I wouldn't say it ruined Superman for 10+ years - besides John Byrne and the Curt Swan eras, no one has ever given much of a crap about Superman. DoS made people stand up and take notice. Plus, it was really more a story about what happens when a world that is so used to a guy like SM loses him (a concept with a lot more depth and very different from what was going on in most other comics at the time). Yes, we got the Mullet and Blue because of it, but A. I like the mullet because that's the Superman I grew up with and B. when Morrison felt like giving Blue something to do in JLA, he was awesome (plus you had artists like Stuart Immonen and Howard Porter making the Blue thing work visually).
I always bristle when people talk about how bad DoS was, or how typical of the 90s it was, because it really wasn't. It did meta-commentary on the trends of the time, but it was very much in the vein of being against shoulder-pads and guns. I give the creative team (including Mike Carlin) a lot of credit for not only having the guts to do something so controversial but actually pulling it off.
That Max Landis video is pretty entertaining, but many of his assertions are either grossly exaggerated or flat-out wrong. I honestly wouldn't take anything he puts forward in there as "how things really were."
ReplyDelete@ Kerry
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts too, and I'd also say that that is not the opinion most people have of that story. But it did have some interesting points, and it was coll seeing all the Hollywood stars he somehow convinced to do the project