Endorsement: Justice League Unlimited

There is a lot happening in the DCU right now. And, surprisingly... I endorse almost all of it, including...

Justice League Unlimited, whose second issue I have just read.

Written by Mark Waid and Art by Dan Mora.  Already, it's a winner.  Nobody is better at handling a large cast of characters than Mark Waid (of Legion of Super-Heroes fame), with a demonstrated understanding of core personalities and how to convey them. 

Waid nails Ray Palmer in one panel. Grinningly confident scientist. You know have all the information you need about his personality, organically shown.

Mora's art makes every character solid, colorful, and distinctive but within a unifying style; he's the ideal superhero comic artist, especially when you need to put a wide variety of characters in the same context.

An example of Mora's work from the series that makes my point.

Waid's mastery is evident right from the start.  He overviews the League's new headquarters, its scope, and its principle players, then introduces an Overt Threat storyline (the remnants of Apokalips left in the wake of Darkseid's death), a Shadowy Threat storyline (the "Inferno" group), an Interior Threat storyline (the new double agent within the JLU).  By the end of issue 2, the current manifestation of the Overt Immediate Threat is understood and dealt with; the Shadowy Background Threat is identified as such but neither understood nor dealt with; and the Hidden Foreground Threat isn't even identified (except to us, the readers).

With these three different story levels, Waid is giving us: in-your-face action sequences which tests the League's muscle and tactics; lurking mysteries that test its brains and strategy; and a Columboesque howcatchum that creates Hitchcockian tension for the reader by giving us knowledge of threat unknown to the characters.  

Pictured: threat unknown to the characters and Comic Book Irony.

And even with the Hidden Threat, it's made clear there the reason the Question was engaged to be Head of Security on the satellite headquarters was because the JLU's leader (the Big Three) suspect that there is SOME lurking threat within the group's ranks and that a relenting inquisitive, skeptical detective is just the person needed against such threats.  A potential weird use of DC characters ("Why is former Gotham cop in charge of a space facility full of super beings?") is plotted to not only make sense, but to be almost the only thing that WOULD make sense.  So, too, the assignment of Perennial Problem Character the Red Tornado as the now-bodiless AI running the satellite, takes a character's potential downsides ("He's a robot and blows up regularly") and re-contextualizes them into a logical role for the character. It certainly makes more sense than having demigods bitching about having to sit on "Monitor Duty".

Sometimes, you or I might not agree with the particulars of what Waid does in any story, BUT you cannot disagree that Waid always knows what he is doing.  

Waid is The Batman of DC writers.

Unlike some modern writers, Waid isn't using the characters to act own his own emotion problems or to explore literary theory; he's plotting the bejeezus out of every panel to keep your brain engaged and your feelings invested.

In all this, he makes sure the Justice Leaguers are shown to be competent and expert (in their own ways).

JLU: "Hey, Batman. You're not super, but do you more know about what's going on they we and can therefore advise us?"
Batman: "Yes, of course. I'm Batman, that's what I do. I think and I know things."

Waid does not STOP things to talk about How The Characters Are. He lets the situation show us.

Waid uses this sequence of the JLU solving a problem with the Overt Threat to show ways in which Wonder Woman and Mary Marvel are similar but distinct, connected by different, and he does it in mildly amusing way that doesn't stop the action or jar the overall serious tone.

If it seems I am gushing over what seem like Basic Writer's Doings, I must remember that such things cannot be taken for granted.  I remind you that Some People's Justice League took four issues TO STAND UP FROM SITTING A TABLE.  If there is a Sherman, a MacArthur, Cincinnatus in The War Against Decompression At DC, it is Mark Waid.

In two issues, we are shown, in context, the personalities and abilities of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, both Atoms, Atom-Smasher, the Question, Blue Beetle, Air Wave, Star Sapphire, Flash, Stargirl, Red Tornado, Mister Terrific, Mary Marvel, Martian Manhunter, Dr. Occult. 

Honestly, I could kiss Waid simply for so strongly introducing Dr. Occult.  Not because I am some huge fan of Dr. Occult, because I am SO sick of John Constantine even typing his name brings me close to throwing up.  Dr. O fits the Arcane Consult role perfectly and without sticking out from the JLU's tone.

Waid gives more definition and personality to Dr. Occult in one issue than the rest of DC's writers have in the NINETY YEARS since he was introduced.

Waid even recognizes that J'onn J'onzz is a secretive, deceptive, lunatic and uses that to add another Potential Threat storyline. More on that tomorrow.

If you are reading more than one DC title currently, you'll notice that incidents in them are referred to in JLU and vice versa.  The title isn't just its Own Wacky Thing; it's the hub for what's going on in the DCU. In two issues, Waid (supported by Mora's matchless art) has made the Justice League something it has always deserved to be (and in my memory, has almost never been): 

an essential, exciting, enjoyable read for any DCU fan.

I have no trouble endorsing that fully.