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A review by fangsfirst
Justice League of America Vol. 1 The Tornado's Path by Ed Benes, Brad Meltzer
3.0
NOTE: like most of the Justice League stuff I've read the past few months or so, this was a loan from someone who wanted me to read it
I'm apparently in an absurd minority in that I don't like the art (it reminds me of the 90s school where storytelling and anatomy took backseats to whether it looked "cool" or—for female characters only, of course—"hot") nor the story, though I also don't hate either of them.
It's mostly the beats and tone of Meltzer's storytelling I don't like (see also: Identity Crisis). More "what is humanity?" around Red Tornado? Here for it. More deep cuts and references? Sign me up.
But the violence and darker tone as a whole just don't jive with it for me, and come off competent but still like "dude, it's so 'mature'!" (...also like a subset of the 90s), down to Lindelof's introduction which frames the story as "Pinocchio—BUT VIOLENT!"
While Meltzer does do a good job of separating voices, sometimes it felt like sweeping everyone into a specific box (Wonder Woman is a tactical warrior! Superman likes people to be nice! Batman doesn't trust people!) and had the same feeling of weird mismatch, like even more of the "look how mature it is!" nonsense. It seemed as if Meltzer was trying entirely too hard to make characters he clearly loves into "deep, adult, mature" characters, but did so like an average 14-year-old who is valiantly honing their writing craft: inserting violence and pathos but imperfectly.
Particularly given my divergent feelings on the art, I suspect this is (yet again) an instance where the parts that work for most people I "get", but don't work for me because the "meat on the bones" of it feels imbalanced. Which is to say, something like: everyone else is super excited at this being 100% white meat chicken and I'm looking for a drumstick. We are all after chicken, but want different things from it. And this has just got a wing or two as far as I can see.
I'm apparently in an absurd minority in that I don't like the art (it reminds me of the 90s school where storytelling and anatomy took backseats to whether it looked "cool" or—for female characters only, of course—"hot") nor the story, though I also don't hate either of them.
It's mostly the beats and tone of Meltzer's storytelling I don't like (see also: Identity Crisis). More "what is humanity?" around Red Tornado? Here for it. More deep cuts and references? Sign me up.
But the violence and darker tone as a whole just don't jive with it for me, and come off competent but still like "dude, it's so 'mature'!" (...also like a subset of the 90s), down to Lindelof's introduction which frames the story as "Pinocchio—BUT VIOLENT!"
While Meltzer does do a good job of separating voices, sometimes it felt like sweeping everyone into a specific box (Wonder Woman is a tactical warrior! Superman likes people to be nice! Batman doesn't trust people!) and had the same feeling of weird mismatch, like even more of the "look how mature it is!" nonsense. It seemed as if Meltzer was trying entirely too hard to make characters he clearly loves into "deep, adult, mature" characters, but did so like an average 14-year-old who is valiantly honing their writing craft: inserting violence and pathos but imperfectly.
Particularly given my divergent feelings on the art, I suspect this is (yet again) an instance where the parts that work for most people I "get", but don't work for me because the "meat on the bones" of it feels imbalanced. Which is to say, something like: everyone else is super excited at this being 100% white meat chicken and I'm looking for a drumstick. We are all after chicken, but want different things from it. And this has just got a wing or two as far as I can see.