More proof, if proof was needed, that Geoff Johns was using the (mainstream) public preconception of characters and concepts as a touchstone in his New 52 work comes in yesterday’s Justice League #7, where – for the second time in two issues – a particular phrase is used to describe the JL:
Thinking about this, the use of Darkseid as big bad for the first six issues makes a lot more sense. It’s not that he was a face familiar to all of us comic fanboys who worship at the altar of the Fourth World books – Well, at least, I certainly do – but that he’s a familiar face for those who saw Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show on Saturday mornings in the mid-80s.
Just as Aquaman has made a big thing (Too big a thing? Maybe) about the “Aquaman is lame, he just talks to fish” idea, I wonder whether we’re going to start seeing a similar war against the “Super Friends” label being waged in Justice League while Johns simultaneously uses and takes advantage of fond memories and nostalgia for the more useful, less lame parts of the team’s non-comic history…
March 22nd, 2012 at 9:49 am
Do people really refer to them as that? I groaned when the phrase came up again, foreseeing an instantly tiresome ‘talks to fish’-style riff.
March 22nd, 2012 at 11:22 am
I picked this issue up after being totally disenchanted with the first issue, hoping that the established team would be less annoying. And I was right. I really like a comic where the super-hero team is actually liked by the public, and seems to actually be a team. It’s not the greater comic ever, but it was fun.
March 22nd, 2012 at 10:36 pm
This issue shows some very interesting concepts and makes me curious to see where it goes in the future.
March 23rd, 2012 at 7:39 am
The term “Big Bad” makes me grind my teeth every time I see it.
March 23rd, 2012 at 10:33 am
For a moment I thought this article was going to be about the fact that Geoff had Batman go against everything that happened in JLI, what with Bats giving Booster and the team moral support…then turn around and tell the JLA that the JLI sucks and should be disbanded.
Thanks Geoff Johns…now Batman is like that girl in high school that gets her friends to bad mouth some boy, then runs to tell the boy what the ‘mean girls’ said.
March 23rd, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Is that Mark Waid in the suit talking? Julie Schwartz in the back making the sorta gangster sign calling them Superfreiends? Any othe Comcast pros in they crowd?
March 23rd, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Dang auto correct * Comics pros