Tuesday, February 01, 2022

It really made me want to read COPRA now too, come to think of it.

This is a bit of a classic, although picking it up again the other day I think I had forgotten Giffen drew this one! From 1988, Justice League International #13, "Collision Course" Plot and pencils by Keith Giffen, script by J.M. DeMatteis, inks by Al Gordon.
Nemesis has been lanquishing (I believe that is the technical term...) in a Russian prison since Suicide Squad #7, and it's about as much fun as it sounds. Colonel Flag wants to go back in to get him, but Amanda Waller absolutely refuses: it's obviously a trap, and would be a political disaster. They may not realize someone else is taking an interest in Nemesis's plight (another cliche, er, technical term...) as Batman wants to help as well: he knew him from Brave and the Bold appearances, and knew he was cool. Batman even goes so far as to lean a little on his new teammate, Rocket Red 8, Dmitri. Dmitri calmly explains, despite the "connections" Batman expects him to have, he doesn't know everything that goes on his country, but wasn't Nemesis caught breaking in somewhere? Then a Rocky & Bullwinkle joke, because this was the style at the time. (Dmitri was often played as a simpleton, largely because he was foreign, but he was a pleasant family man who the Soviet government apparently thought was a good candidate for stuffing into a rocket suit given to them by freakin' Kilowog!)
Flag calls the Squad together for an emergency mission, no time for briefings, go go go! With only Nightshade in on his plan, they make their way to Russia, but not unnoticed by Waller, who visits Reagan to get the okay to sic the J.L.I. on the rogue Squad. Both Black Canary and Blue Beetle suspect Bats of paying the "villains" off to go rescue Nemesis, and may only be half-joking. An increasingly sullen Batman is furious at going where he wanted to go "for the wrong reasons" and J'onn firmly suggests he not try to use this to help Nemesis. Meanwhile, the rest of the Rocket Red Brigade and "Red Star of the People's Heroes" are made aware of the situation as well, in two really jokey pages! Seriously, go check them out, then imagine the same spread in Suicide Squad with Ostrander providing dialog. It'd be a completely different tone.
At the prison, Batman tries to intimidate the warden into getting access to Nemesis, but is refused until Dmitri calls in a favor. Dmitri and J'onn both have to tell Batman to be on his best behavior, with Bats seemingly regretting putting J'onn in charge of the team at least a little: he was pretty used to getting his way, and this might be the first time J'onn gave him any pushback. When they find Nemesis in his cell, beaten and unconscious, Batman is back in their faces, though. It's undermined a bit by Beetle and Miracle in the background, but J'onn lets Bats know in no uncertain terms he will throw him off the team. (Just looking at that page now, I know we see him roughed up at the beginning of the issue, but I wonder if Nemesis isn't playing possum a bit.)
Batman does back down...for now; but the Suicide Squad has now entered the chat! As back in the states, Amanda Waller and Max Lord debate how it's going to play out; the Rocket Red Brigade, Red Star, and most of the Soviet army are closing on the prison...to be continued, in Suicide Squad #10! Wait, the next issue banner says #10, but it was actually #13: Batman did appear in Suicide Squad #10, though. I haven't re-read SS #13 in some time, but now I want to compare and contrast the jokes in it: in JLI, is everyone jokey just because that's what they did there? I seem to recall the jokes from the comedians of both groups not landing as well in Ostrander's book; not because they weren't funny, but because nobody was in a mood for that nonsense.

7 comments:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Oh agreed 100% about COPRA! I keep meaning to but never get around to it. LOVED his Bloodstrike stuff though. Very much in keeping with the series & concept even with modern art.

So I went to that readcomiconline website I got to to read comics, and it has the issues listed as JLI#13 & JLI#13b for SS#13. Weird.

Good of J'onn to show backbone though. It's not like he wasn't be unreasonable about it, just Batman being typical dick Batman. No Wonder Batman quit not long after this.

Also, and it just hit me after you pointed out Giffen's jokes, but now that look back at it in modern sensibilities, he kinda reads, and GOD forgive me for making this comparison because I'm not proud of it either, similar, not exactly like, but similar with the jokes, like fucking Bendis. Wonder if that's where Bendis got the idea for every superhero team her writes always having to sit around and shoot the shit with witty repartee all the time. At least Giffin didn't overdue it like Bendis does. And now after making that comparison I need to take another shower...

H said...

I have the JLI trade that has those issues, and it is just painful to read the Suicide Squad issue that comes after this. It is no fun, and everybody is written as way bigger jerks and way more unlikeable than they were in JLI. Only thing I can figure is that the crossover was mandated by DC, because I doubt Giffen and DeMatteis would want to put up with that nonsense otherwise. Seriously, this put me off Suicide Squad and John Ostrander for life.

Plus, Batman quit JLI in the Suicide Squad issue. That was a pretty Jim Starlin 'I don't like Batman having a sense of humor or humanity' type move. It's writers like that have made DC such a mess nowadays.

CalvinPitt said...

The Suicide Squad issue is kind of weird tonally. You have comedy stuff like Boomerang trying to fight a brain-damaged Guy Gardner who mostly sits in a green bubble and asks if they couldn't just get along. You also have Batman and Rick Flag beating the crap out of each other, and Vixen and J'onn having a heartfelt conversation.

Also, I'm ride or die for Ostrander and Suicide Squad, so I'm of a completely opposite opinion to H on the issue. I mean, Bats is acting like a huge jerk right up there in the JLI issue, are we saying that's all Ostrander's fault?

googum said...

There's a WHAT THE--?! page I always think of, Terry Austin's Inking School: "Here's a typical panel of pencils for you to ink!" And it's a stick and some circles, and each inker makes something completely different out of it.

I was thinking how differently this issue would've read with Ostrander scripting instead; but now what if he did this one and Giffen/DeMatteis scripted the SUICIDE SQUAD issue?

And god help us, Bendis would've had even more balloons, for stops and starts and repeating what someone else said? What someone else said? What someone else said.

googum said...

Oh, the SUICIDE SQUAD issue has Beetle with Batman's broken 'ear,' and he thinks that's going to go over well? C'mon, man.

H said...

No, but at least he had a sense of humor in the JLI issue. I will blame Ostrander for Batman quitting the JLI in the issue though. He seems determined to keep Batman from being anything more than a one-dimensional grumpy loner.

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

To be fair I blame Frank Miller for getting that ball rolling, as well as making Batman & Super eternal frenemies, Starlin & fans for killing off Robin, which made him pull a Shawn Michaels and lose his smile for a decade plus (Not that I blame him though) and then future writers seemed to double down on that aspect of Batman, keeping him as dickish as possible and increasing it year by year.