Monday, August 31, 2009

Cry For Justice continues to make me laugh...and cry, alternately, depending on the page

Hey, remember back in April when DC's DC Nation column featured that comical image of some of their male heroes just cold ogling Supergirl's breasts?

I had made fun of it at the time, but also noted that "I’m sure this isn’t a full image, and was maybe cropped like it is to avoid a spoiler."

Well, it turns out the only cropping was done at the bottom of the image. The actual page of the actual comic features her head off-panel, in order to make room for her breast in the foreground. DC's Source Blog posted some pages from Justice League: Cry For Justice #3, and that page is one of them:


Reading through them for anything as comical as the last batch of preview pages contained, I was depressed to find out that this issue deals with the ethics of torture, and the heroes are all a-okay with it. Famously liberal Oliver Queen at least asks his highly Republican pal Hal, "Is this right? I mean, isn't this torture?"

Hal responds, "Prometheus is a villain, Ollie. He's a murderer." And when Ollie points out that they're supposed to be the good guys, Hal answers with, "Ask me that when the sting of Bruce and J'onns death and all the others has gone away, if it ever does."

Which is, of course, hilarious because Hal has returned from the dead, as has the person he's talking to.

Now the fact that writer James Robinson at least has the characters talking about whether torture is good or not—even though Ray "The Atom" Palmer eventually agrees with Hal and tells Ollie to shut up, while Ollie, Captain Marvel Jr. and Supergirl all stand around watching the torture—leads me to believe (hope?) that he's eventually going to get around to siding with Ollie and agreeing that yes, Hal and Ray are fucking monsters and torture is never justified and if anyone eschews tortue it should be these peple who refer to themselves as the Justice League.

But in these half-dozen pages, all I see is a half-dozen superheroes taking Vice President Dick Cheney's side of the real world, really fucking serious discussion, and I get depressed.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Shocking. Looks like someone wants to get fired.

Dean H. said...

DC has always used male heroes ogling women as their justification for cheesecake shots. The basic idea of the image is certainly within that tradition.

However, what is becoming a theme with this series is that the execution is offensive.

Matt D said...

I haven't had the heart to actually read Cry for Justice yet, being the huge James Robinson fan I am..

but I get a real kick out of the fact that there's a legacy villain Crazy Quilt.

James Figueiredo said...

Y'know, Caleb, I couldn't wait to read what you had to say about this preview.

I agree with everything you said, but what I couldn't get past THE MOST was how horribly sexist the script for those few pages is. I mean, out of the blue, Hal Jordan snaps at Supergirl, and Ollie's comments in response make me believe that he shouldn't EVER be around any being of the female gender.

Actually, the Hal Jordan wankfest is really getting on my nerves too.

SallyP said...

It really is all so completely, horribly, wonderfully bad.

Frankly, I've been laughing my ass off through the whole thing.

Kid Kyoto said...

So... wait... I don't get it.

Hal was almost killed by JAVELIN????

Also... on torture, I've been overseas 4 out of the last 5 years and NOTHING America has ever done hurt us more than the decision to use torture and lies and half truths to paper over it.

The fact that the Israelis do not torture should have ended this issue before it began.

Bella's owner said...

... I couldn't get past THE MOST was how horribly sexist the script for those few pages is. I mean, out of the blue, Hal Jordan snaps at Supergirl, and Ollie's comments in response make me believe that he shouldn't EVER be around any being of the female gender.

Yeah, I laughed when I saw Hal made Supergirl cry, and then Ollie's just like, "Hey, I always thought you had a small dick Hal, but I guess you're also a jerk" or something.

I find myself laughing a lot while reading random pages of this. (I like when someone calls Captain Marvel Jr. "Elvis Jr," even though he's painted so that his hair looks not even remotely Elvis-like anymore).

I can't wait to get this trade from the library some day...