Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

JLA #92

By Koppy McFad
January 31, 2004 - 14:10

It's "Hard-Travelling Heroes Redux" as the JLA take a shape-shifting alien on a tour of the world. This time, they're sensibly using an SUV instead of a pick-up truck but the whole issuse-- the second part of a trilogy entitled "Extinction" -- still has a feeling of having been plucked from an earlier time and updated for modern sensibilities.

Apparently the JLA has nothing better to do for two weeks except escort the alien through various hellholes and tourist attractions around the world. Anyone who has been reading comics in the 1970s knows what happens next: the alien begins to question whether humans, with their slums and suicide bombings, should be allowed to continue despoiling the planet. How the alien reacts will have to wait for the next issue.

Despite the old-style plot, the story is told in the modern manner, meaning we get pages and pages of the League walking through slums, driving down rural highways, basically not doing anything very heroic. Had this story been written in the 1970s, when multi-part story arcs were the exception rather than the rule at DC, we would have probably seen half a page devoted to this, with maybe six panels showing Superman flying the alien to the Taj Mahal, the Bronx, the Amazon rainforest, etc. There is some nice dialogue with Plastic Man being used well for comedic effect but overall there seems to be no real conflict in this comic.

Frankly, it doesn't make for very compelling reading. And Tan Eng Huat's art, emphasizing the squalor and drabness of the world, doesn't help either. Tan's style deserves a story brimming with weirdness but he doesn't get much chance to strut his stuff here. He draws a realistic-looking Third-World slum though. As for the League, they deserve more than acting as tour guides to aliens, no matter how well meaning.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12