Green Arrow, Wanted Man

While we're waiting for the cinematic dawn of justice to bring some sunlight to the gloomy films of the Snyderverse, let's recall just how stupid the Justice League can be with a look at JLA Vol 1 #69.

"You have failed this city!"

Our story opens...

I was kind of hoping that paper airplane was headed right down his throat, 

choking him to death in broad daylight as the beginning of a grim and gritty comeback for Kite-Man.  Ah, well.

Here, in a Silver Age early example of decompressed storytelling, DC takes an entire silent page to have someone throw a paper airplane out a window.  Stupid? Wasteful? Maybe.  But you will never forget this page now.

Add "paper airplane" to the list of 1000 Ways to Defeat Green Arrow, please.

But DC loved these "Silver Age Set-Ups": odd, unlikely, covers or openings that left you achingly curious and unable not to buy/continue reading.  "Why is Batman holding up a gorilla?"  Well, child, you'll have to buy the comic to find out, or wait until the internet is invented.

"Would"? \Hey, letterer, I think you misspelled "could".

Ah, the subtlety of the Silver Age; Average Schmoes were always given demeaning names like "Charlie Sneed".  I guess in a world where your god-like heroes are named Bruce, Clark, Oliver, and Bartholomew you have to go extra far to designate someone as a regular joe.

Meanwhile, a corpse is found elsewhere in this unnamed city by members of the Dr. Occult Fan Club....

Look, not even Ollie is stupid enough to leave behind his hat like that. And "not even Ollie is stupid enough" is NOT a phrase I use lightly.

When this news goes public, Charlie Sneed, unencumbered by gum, snaps into action!

Flash Fact: 60% of wives on Earth-1 are named "Martha".

Diana Prince, out of costume, reports this turn of events to the JLA, who respond with characteristic serialocution:

Bruce and Barry were always the smart ones.  But Clark is very pretty.

I love the fact that this panel implies that Diana waltzed into JLA HQ and tells some winding tale about the people's case against Green Arrow BEFORE anyone hits her with a batarang/heat vision/ boxing glove arrow/teeny tiny fist or asks how she got in.  By the way, this is the beginning of Wonder Woman's "powerless period"--the mod boutique, the white pantsuit, the hate-hate relationship with I Ching. 

After delivering her astonishing news ("Green Arrow is wanted!  Whooda thunk it!?"), she takes a sabbatical from the League, to which Barry, a true comic book fanboy, reacts thus:

"As Aquaman has lost his wife Mera, 

and Green Lantern has lost Carol Ferris, 

so are the Days of Our Lives."

At that point, there is ZERO narrative basis for Barry's assumption that Superman might marry Wonder Woman; he's just shipping.  Barry's a longtime fanboy who's concerned about changing continuity and how it means he getting old and will be dead in the not too distant for future.  Well, dead for 23 years, anyway.

This being comics, the cops are slower than even a de-powered Diana, and finally issue an APB on GA after she leaves by means of a staccato rasp:

"Green Arrow? Kill someone?! Nonsense; this is DC, not the CW."

Dark Musings.  Staccato Rasp.  If you need to name your metal band, look no further than Silver Age narration boxes.  The League, who finally have an excuse to get rid of Green Arrow, make him leave quickly before they receive orders to arrest him, because they are loophole-loving vigilantes rather than actual cops.  Except for Barry, who's just lazy.

So, leaving JLA HQ, Ollie goes undercover...Green Arrow-style.

Never change, Ollie; never change.

Pre-partum look at Rebirth

Well, now, that Batman versus Superman is behind us, let's look at what's before us: Rebirth.

Before we get to any specifics let's address the overall tone of Rebirth.  DC -- more important, Dan Didio himself -- is admitting it screwed up.  Credit for that, then.  It's very rare for any company of any kind to simply say, "sorry, we made the wrong decisions and now we are going to try to fix things."  That alone is a huge change from DC's usual approach over the last twenty (thirty?) years, which has consistently been, "No, no, fans, you are mistaken and we know better than you do and you should shut up and trust us and buy whatever versions of our characters we deemed fit to dispense."  That kind of attitude is enough to make me wonder whether my friend Van Google is correct; maybe these IPs should not continue to be protected by copyright.  Maybe we would be better off if people were free to make their own versions of DC's iconic characters and let them all duke in out in the marketplace of ideas (or taste, at least). THAT would be a multiverse.

Similarly, they are not even branding it as a reboot.  They seems (finally) to realize that that well is dry.  They seem to be trying to kick their reboot addiction. Just fix stuff, DC.  Simply forget the stories that are in the way.  If you want Ted Kord back, just bring him back.  That doesn't require a universal reboot.

Dan Abnett on Aquaman is already a known awesomeness.  Putting him on Titans will make me pick that up too (and I can't imagine what else would)   Giffen on Blue Beetle(s) is a no-brainer; he created Jaime Reyes and essentially created what we now think of as Ted Kord.  Most creative assignments announced for Rebirth are neutral at worst, many are good, some are great.  Only a handful are head-slappingly stupid (e.g., letting Percy continue to write Green Arrow; slapping a goatee back on Ollie's face will NOT fix that situation, Mr. Johns).

Some people are critical of what they see as DC focusing on a handful of icons to the exclusion of edgier more outre characters.  I say those people are wrong.  Wrong, not because Icons Rule and Outliers Suck.  Wrong because what DC needs to do -- what it has ALWAYS needed to do -- is to solidify and stabilize the core characters and teams of its universe.  Having strong dynastic centerpieces as the pillars of the DCU doesn't squeeze out other characters.  Quite the contrary.  It creates a stable environment for such characters to be introduced.  If you are going to have diversity in your literary rainforest, you need a bunch of solid icons and related characters providing a canopy under which niche figures can thrive.  DC finally seems to abandoned its obsession with going against the grain of its own universe, force feeding us Black Orchid and Captain Atom and Voodoo and pretending that those characters are going to stand on their own.  Instead let them thrive in their own niches in the DCU; not all animals need to be elephants, you know.

DC has also announced that further plans for restoring their universe will come later, once they have their main lines back in order.  For example, the Legion will return (in the future, so to speak).  Many of DC's previous attempts at self-reinvention were too extreme, too much, too fast.  Editorial wasn't ready for it, individual titles evolved before an overall plan was formed, and readers would almost immediately perceive that the narrative problems solved were quickly being outmatched by the new problems being generate.  DC's approach this time seems to me much more deliberate.

The fact that they are being rather transparent about their pans is another good sign. Previous 'renewals' always seemed shrouded in mystery, almost as if DC were afraid to tell you the truth about what they were up to, because they KNEW you wouldn't like it.  This time, however, they seem...relieved.  Like they no longer have to make themselves into some they aren't just to be loved.  Perhaps the success of their characters in other media finally have given them the confidence in the in their own IPs, the confidence that many of us never lost.  They seem to be talking about the characters the same way we do, more as fans or caretakers and less as salesmen. That, of course, is the best way to wind up selling us....

Batman v Superman

I saw it.

I liked it.

Mind you, I didn't love it.  The dream sequences seemed juvenile, Lex seemed like an addlepated homeless person, Batman was way too easily influenced (and a rather poor detective), and MY Superman would be much more concerned about making a mess in the bathroom.  

But most of what I didn't care for (the gloom, the conflict, etc.) is built in to the premise of the movie: Batman VERSUS Superman is a dumb concept to begin with.  That is going to be non-fun, that is going to require them to behave stupidly and out-of-character, and that's going to feel more like a Marvel comic than a DC one.  I read DKR when it came out 30 years ago, and that's how it felt then.  I don't blame the director for that, I blame the adolescent fans who want DKR re-played 30 years after it came out and childishly wonder "Who would win in a fight of Hero 1 against Hero 2?"  And sure enough all the dumbest, hollowest, lines in the movie are ones taken directly from that story.  

After settling in to the movie a bit, my expectations adjusted immediately when I realized: this is an opera.  Just one without music.  It's big ideas and characters tromping across the scene being all symbolic and conflict-y.  If the plot needs someone to be dumb, they are (how quickly did Lois regret pointless throwing away that spear, huh?).  And you can criticize that all you want -- it deserves it -- but to pretend that comics aren't like that, haven't ALWAYS been like that, is simply naive.

I have to admit, when there was a pause in the action for a sec and I saw the Trinity standing there together, ready to fight as a team...it was breathtaking and took me by surprise.  That a film could make me feel that way is enough of a sniff test for me.

Getting the stupid conflict out of the way FIRST, clearing a path to a unified Justice League?  If it's going to happen, better than having it happen later, I say.  And interesting to me that the catalysts for ending the testosterone-laden conflict -- Lois, Martha, and Diana -- were women.  

If anything the end of movie kind of emphasized, "Wow, that was stupid that we were fighting, wasn't it?"  And that's a good place to be going forward.

And in the Third Act, he rose from the dead...

In this interview with Newsarama, Superman writer Greg Pak explains how Superman just got his super-groove back in Action #50:

Nrama: It's interesting that Superman has to hurt himself with Kryptonite before he can heal.
Pak: Yeah, it's this sacrifice that Superman made. He basically let himself be killed off in order to try to save the day.

In this article from just last month, its writer explains that Bruce Wayne has to let himself be killed off in Batman #49 in order to become Batman again to try to save the day.

Initially, Bruce says that by regaining the memories, he could be a Batman without the trauma. Yet when they learn that Bruce would have to go brain dead before being able to receive the memories, the truth comes out. He could never be both. He could never be the happy, well adjusted man that he was during his amnesia and the same watchful protector of Gotham that the city needs him to be. And so he willingly traded his happiness for obsession to once again save his city.  

What's next? Sacrificing the entire DCU so that it can have rebirth as new hero...?!

At Sixes and Sevens

As we approach our landing in the strange new (?) country of the DCU's Rebirth, the contours of its coast are acquiring finest details.  Every week brings more news of who's going to be doing what on which titles.

But on thing remains tantalizing unclear, at least to me:

Who will be in the Justice League.

This has always been a problem in the Justice League. Iconically, the JLA has seven member (or "core members" when it's larger).  The problem is: DC only has six iconic characters.

That's really a misnomer;  DC has LOTS of iconic characters.  Sure, Cave Carson and Oddman don't have a lot of ancillary merchandise.  But Plastic Man, Shazam, Batgirl, heck, Krypto; DC is tripping over iconic characters.  But they are overshadowed by the fact that DC has six, well...'super-iconic' characters.  Ugh, there's really no other way to say that, is there? You win again, Kal.

You know who they are; DC knows who they are; heck, everyone knows who they are: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, and Green Lantern.  

Those were the characters DC chose to include in its modern update of the Justice Society, the new "Justice League", at the start of the Silver Age and its 'rebirth' of DC's superhero lines of comics.  Truth be told, the Justice League, as I have pointed out before, isn't a mere 'update' of the Justice Society. It's exactly the opposite of the Justice Society.  As a publishing concept, the purpose of Justice Society was as a proving ground for superhero characters that didn't have yet enough popularity to carry their own titles.  This is why Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman were members of the JSA in name only and appear only in passing.  This is why when the (Jay Garrick) Flash become popular enough to get his own title, he left the JSA.  Active membership in the JSA meant you weren't enough of an icon to have your own comic.

"Of course, in my case 'raised' means 'wrote a cashier's check'.  It's in my utility belt."

Membership in the JLA, however, mean the opposite.  Only those heroes who were strong enough to have survived the 1950s' "lean years" for superheroes, who still had their own titles (or had found shelter in back-up stories, as did Aquaman), or the revamped ones meant to usher in the new era of superheroes   Only Icons Need Apply.

Oh...and the Martian Manhunter, of course.  The poor Martian Manhunter, who , as previously discussed, never got to do anything but suck or blow in JLA stories, because that wasn't something the others generally did. They could, of course; Superman can do anything.  But they were polite enough not to.  "Oh, thank goodness YOU were here, J'onn; I don't know WHAT we would have done without you! <insert patented Batman Eyeroll> "

Well, it's pretty clear Martian Manhunter's not on deck or even in the bullpen for JLA this time.  His title is cancelled and there's no sign of him lurking in any of the 'new 32' titles that are part of DC's streamlined offerings.  

Rebirth Specials:
• AQUAMAN REBIRTH #1
• BATMAN REBIRTH #1
• THE FLASH REBIRTH #1
• GREEN ARROW REBIRTH #1
• GREEN LANTERNS REBIRTH #1
• SUPERMAN REBIRTH #1
• TITANS REBIRTH #1
• WONDER WOMAN REBIRTH #1 

New #1 Issues (Shipping twice monthly):
• AQUAMAN #1 (with J'onn Jonzz as Topo!)
• BATMAN #1 (with J'onn Jonzz as Detective Jones!)
• THE FLASH #1  (with J'onn Jonzz as Harrison Wells!)
• GREEN ARROW #1 (with J'onn Jonzz as Diggle!)
• GREEN LANTERNS #1 (with J'onn Jonzz as All the Stewardesses!)
• SUPERMAN #1 (with J'onn Jonzz as Joan Jonas the WGBS Weathergirl!)
• WONDER WOMAN #1 (with J'onn Jonzz as Mars!)

Cyborg -- the new 52 replacement for MM  and a character DC has been trying to force feed us for decades -- fares a little better.  He at least is in there somewhere, and with his own title:

Rebirth Specials:
• BATMAN BEYOND REBIRTH #1
• BLUE BEETLE REBIRTH #1
• CYBORG REBIRTH #1
• DEATHSTROKE REBIRTH #1
• EARTH 2 REBIRTH #1
• SUICIDE SQUAD REBIRTH #1
• SUPERGIRL REBIRTH #1 (with J'onn J'onzz as DEO Director Hank Henshaw! Nah; that would never work...)
• TEEN TITANS REBIRTH #1
• TRINITY REBIRTH #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping twice monthly):
• CYBORG #1
• DEATHSTROKE #1
• HARLEY QUINN #1
• JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA #1
• SUICIDE SQUAD #1

He's being relaunched AFTER "Red Hood & the Outlaws", by the way.  It's pretty clear where that places him in the hierarchy of things.  Higher than MM, but nowhere near the Super-Icons.  Unless Harley Quinn's going to be in the JLA, too. Which, frankly, wouldn't surprise me at this point, given how addicted to her DC has become.

Sigh.  I KNEW the internet would have a picture like this.

So, I'm thinking neither Cyborg nor MM will be in the 'core' of the JLA.  But then who...

oh, no.

No, no, no.

GREEN ARROW REBIRTH #1

GREEN ARROW #1

And he even has his own TV show. And was the FIRST hero after the original seven to join the Justice League in the Silver Age.

Oh, this is going to be FUN.

Righting the Ship: Aquaman #49

I cannot fully express how pleased I was to read this week's issue of Aquaman (#49, by Not-Cullen-Bunn-Thankfully).

Writer Dan Abnett did everything he need to right Aquaman's sinking ship rapidly and efficiently.

He checked nearly all the possible boxes for signaling a return to Aquaman's previously schedule life and direction.  Salty the Aquadog, Tula, Murk, and Garth in non-combatant supporting roles.  Amnesty Bay smalltown life. The lighthouse, both as a physical home and as a metaphor for Aquaman.  The strength of Mera and Arthur's relationship. Mera's sense of duty. Erika the police officer.  Humanizing scenes for the entire cast (because, really, if you are from Atlantis, there isn't a reason you would know not to feed cotton candy to a dog). Aquaman running around with his shirt off at home and wearing that little necklace that makes him look like a lifeguard (oh, and Mera in towel, if you like that sort of thing, which apparently some do).  And, in defiance of the Gods of Gritty, a sense of FUN.

Beyond that, he hit all the beats that the plot has a sensible direction to go and that all the elements of the Aquaworld are being position for proper storytelling.  Various scary scenes of apparently random water-based attacks from barely seen monsters provide contrast to the calm domestic humor of Amnesty Bay and promise a Dire Threat from which Our Hero must Save The Innocent.  Aquaman uses his trademark combination of common sense and kingly wisdom to place his teammates on the storytelling board: Atlantis as just another country that happens to be under the sea and needs to be part of the world community, Tula as regent of Atlantis, Mera as the Ambassador to the land, Arthur as the border guard between land and sea with (I assume) Murk and Garth as his 'sidekicks'.  Abnett shows that he understand Aquaman's role in the DCU by showing that Aquaman himself understands it.  Plus some truly marvelous character work with Mera.

Sure, it's a talk-centric rather than action-centric issue. But that what was needed and the exposition, while extensive, still felt natural and discursive.  

For all the many many important and positive things about the issue there's one that stands out as the MOST important:

Geoff Johns didn't write it.

While I have lots of hope that Johns can re-rail a lot of derailed characters in the DCU (and the DCu itself), my concern has been he can't write it all himself.  DC has to start finding other writers who can embrace the essence of their iconic characters while following and extending their worlds and stories, rather than writers who only know how to break things.  

THIS is the issue that gave me hope that that can happen.

Thank you, Dan Abnett.  It's not easy to become one of my favorite writers in one issue...but you did.

Finally

I live in DC (the District of Columbia).  It's known for many things (good and ill) but one of the things it is most known for recently is rapid and dramatic urban upscale renovation (a.k.a., "gentrification").

Now, a lot of things (good and ill) have been said about gentrification.  In my own life, I have been both its beneficiary (as a resident whose home value tripled) and its victim (as a business owner whose shops couldn't keep pace with changing costs).  But in either case it's mostly a natural economic phenomenon.  Just as scrub gives way to bushes and then trees in a biome, an economically poor neighborhood will sometimes be superseded by a wealthier resident/business profile.  This is particularly true if it possess some locational advantage (such as proximity to a transportation hub). There are quite a few neighborhoods in my city -- including my own -- where the opening of a subway station caused a complete rebirth.

And speaking of rebirth in DC....

We seem to be having one in DC (Comics, that is).  

In the real world of urbanism, gentrification happens where it's easiest: it neighborhoods where there are a lot or properties that are abandoned or deteriorating or unused or nonfunctional or dangerous or toxic or some such.  At least that's true in a big city where there is a ready supply of such areas.  

Anywhere where things are bad but not terrible, there are usually attempts (often by government entities) to stanch the bleed out of residents and businesses.  Usually those don't work and if anything just perpetuate the place's poverty.  Eventually, an area can 'hit bottom' enough that, with property values low and lot of opportunities for redevelop, it becomes a place that redevelopment naturally flows to, like water seeking its level.

In the DCU, those physical buildings and areas are instead intellectual properties. Flash. Green Lantern. Hawkman. The Justice Society.  Aquaman.  Those IPs were, essentially, abandoned by DC ...until Geoff Johns 'redeveloped' them (for the most part with great success).

Now, however, after several well-meant attempts by DC Editorial to prop up its neighborhood with patches and odd projects (which I like to picture as 'digital monorails'), DC has admitted that the DCU is broken down and (increasingly) abandoned. At least by readers, myself included.   Sufficiently decrepit, in fact, to be ripe for wholesale gentrification.

They have turned to the creative conscience that has guided their recent strong successes in other media, the same one that guided the earlier in-print renovation of many IPs deemed toxic and irreparably damaged. He is certainly not without his flaws as a writer (who is?)... but he "gets it".  Geoff Johns understands something that Dan Didio never has: why people like DC Comics.  Dan Didio has, on average, only been able to see what's not working in the DCU and to react against it; Geoff Johns is able to conceive of what could work and aim toward it.

You may be skeptical; you have every right to be, given DC's many 'reboots'.  And cynicism is certainly always in fashion.

But I for one finally have something I haven't had in the DCU for a while now:

hope.

Perhaps all may yet be well.

Finally.

Finally, I have a reason to post again.  A positive one, I mean.

Finally, there is someone in charge. Someone with a vision, one that lies between the extremes of non-stop crossover events and authorial chaos.

Finally, DC can, if it wants, stop acting embarrassed about owning some of the greatest cultural icons of the last 100 years.

Finally.... a rebirth.

In which I unapologetically say, "I Told You So."

Well, well, well...

Cullen Bunn is leaving Aquaman. Because fans--fans like me!--have disliked his work, apparently from day one.

As you may recall, I called this early.  I stated strongly that "DCYou' had clearly ruined Aquaman...the ONE thing that the TheNew52 actually fixed.

Aquaman Editor Brian Cunningham and Writer Cullen Bunn then were both dismissive of my criticisms and derisive of me on Twitter.

Well, as rude as this may be...

Guess who's laughing now?

Actually, I meant me.
But I'm sure Aquaman's not exactly broken up about it.

I really shouldn't be, though.  I should be crying. After all,  Brian Cunningham still gets to edit comics, and Cullen Bunn still gets to write them.  I, however, don't get to read them. Not good ones, any way.

Since "DCYou", I am basically reading no DC comics (other than Martian Manhunter, the cancelled Sensation Comics, the cancelled Batman66 series, and the WW77 series); this is why I haven't been blogging here, because it's hard to blog about comics when you're not reading any.

I can only hope this is the beginning of some turnaround for DC.  In a move that couldn't possibly say any more clearly, "okay, we made a mistake", DC is putting Geoff Johns back on Aquaman and picking up the "Seven Seas" storyline that was promised but abandoned.  And that's when I'll start buying Aquaman again.  

And thank YOU, DC, for listening to fans.

DC; don't be afraid to admit that you've taken a wrong turn.  Don't stay committed to Bold New Directions that readers (new and old) don't support.  Stop constantly reinventing your characters and just start growing them; that's the key to please fans, old and new.  

Haikuesday in the Shipping Room

You know, there is SO much to J'onn J'onzz and Apex City, so many repeated themes --the meteors, the fires, the spinning, the ice cream cones, the falling safes and planes, the flocking and the statues, the finger snapping, the vibrating, the blowing, etc.-- that's it's hard to imagine a panel, or even a PAGE, that could get it all in. Not even if George Perez drew it (and that's a challenge to all your artists out there).

J'onn (like God, whom he symbolizes) and Apex (like the Universe, which it symbolizes) cannot be comprehended all at once by the human mind. It would, like, violate the Turing Principle, or some such.  Understanding of them can only be approached asymptotically from the slow accumulation of details, from the cumulative effect of a thousand different panels, each of them like the facet of a cubist painting, or as in one of those portraits composed of photos of other things.

The Martian Manhunter is perhaps less an actual character than a meta-character, an ever-changing synthesis of all that is alien to us, all that we do not understand.  J'onn has been portrayed as 'the one-man Justice League' for some time, but that is all part of his disguise, since he's more like a one-man Doom Patrol.

That said, there are some panels that contain more of JJ's essence than others, and this is certainly one:

We mustn't spend so much time making fun of comics that we fail to notice how brilliant they are from certain perspectives.  Never lose sight of that.

The invisibility silhouette. The falling safe. The floating flamethrower. J'onn's exclamation.  The counterbalancing of yellow, blue, red, black, and white.  This panel is a masterpiece of comic book art.

AND of comic book PROSE, if you read all the words:

BUT AS THE MASSIVE

OBJECT COMES HURTLING DOWN...

'FIRE!' <SHIPPING ROOM>

You might charge that I'm 'cheating' in perceiving this haiku, because it's not entirely 'spoken'.  Well...NONE of the words are 'spoken'; they are all written. You, the reader, are the one making that distinction, in your own mind.  They are all just words on a page, you know...

What haiku can you compose about this panel, the Martian Manhunter, or the phenomenon of compositional character comprehension?

Mr. Moth Week #7: Vibration is Martian-made!

We last left Mr. Moth and the Martian Manhunter in a tense stand-off at the lighthouse!

J'onn's GOT to figure out a way to stop Mr. Moth, because, well, five pages are already gone and there's less than one left to go.  Perhaps .... the vibrations caused by spinning?  As previously mentioned, the first principle of Martian problem solving is: any problem that can be solved by spinning MUST be solved by spinning.  To wit:

It's best not to think too hard about how J'onn is apparently spinning all the individual parts of his body separately.
it doesn't look pretty, I'll guarantee it.

You'd don't kneed to know WHAT problem you're facing, really, as long as you can solve that problem by spinning.

No, I will not explain it.  If you can't figure out how to use spinning to stop a charging lion, then, I'm sorry, you're just not enough of a Martian Manhunter to know.

All J'onn has to work with is ... those colored bulbs?

Observe: the counter-intuitive Martian mind at work!

Not a lot of room to spin inside a lighthouse, but....!

Really; it's a wonder J'onn is still single.

Vibration is Martian-made!

Oh, dear. When J'onn spins, or vibrates, OR snaps his fingers...well, H'ronmeer alone knows what might happen! BRACE YOURSELVES!

Superior Martian understanding of pneumatics and anemology is J'onn's REAL superpower.

Wait...what?  That's .... well,  I wouldn't have thought of that, J'onn.  It seems to have surprised the artist, too, since he didn't have the fortitude to try to DRAW the bulbs being magically unscrewed by the inscrutable suctioning winds created by J'onn's vibrating hand.

Mr. Moth.  Undone by riveting sources of light? THE IRONY!

It was nice of them to let him keep the mask.

Mr. Moth  had a good run while it lasted, I suppose, but -- unlike the Human Flame -- he never got a second go.  Which is too bad, they would have been a great pair, for obvious reasons.  The helmet, which I'm guessing now is just molded plastic, had no special anti-Martian abilities.  The most fascinating thing about the entire story is that, although moths' attraction to FLAMES (as sources of light) is their essential characteristic, there is not a single fire in the entire story.  Fire is common in Apex City...but only when you don't expect it.