Anyone Think That JLA Year One Is a Bad Justice League Origin?

[Timothy Hunter]

-Made the original Justice League look like bafoons
-Martian Manhunter deceives and spies on his teammates for reasons that make no sense
-Barry cheats on Iris West with Black Canary
-Black Canary is portrayed as a founding member despite her character joining the team 9 whole years after the team was founded
-Aquaman has difficulty ajusting to speaking on land. Something that has never been backed up in any other comic.
-Aquaman's personality in general is out of character.
-Locus has no motive for teaming up with the Apellaxians.

I understand why Waid and Augustyn portrayed the League as disfunctional to show later how they overcame their mistrust of one another in order to become the heroes they are today. However I found JLA Year One behind it's Silver Age facade as a gravely mean-spirited and cynical comic.

For a better contemporary look at the Justice League's past, I would recommend JLA Incarnations by John Ostrander and Val Semeiks. It's not perfect but it's more faithful to the comics of yesteryear that it tries to immitate.

The same creative team went on to produce Flash and Green Lantern: Brave and the Bold which I think is lightyears superior.

[Jody Garland]

Black Canary was the Post-Crisis replacement for Wonder Woman, since Legends screwed up her origin by only after her showing up in Man's World in then-current continuity.

Personally, I don't mind most of the things you didn't like, especially Aquaman. This was one of the first times we saw Silver Age Aquaman in canon post-Crisis (The only other story I can think of is the story where Arthur first came to land and met Barry. I think it was by Waid or PAD?). Having Aquaman have to adjust to land while hinting at the hot-headed PAD characterization worked about as well as any attempt at Post-Crisis-Pre-Crisis Arthur.

[Vordan]

I wasn’t too impressed myself when I read it. However I suspect that Johns JL origin will remain the canon one for now given how it survived Rebirth and aside from saying MM helped found the League, hasn’t been touched.

[Dr. Ellingham]

Well, the series was well-received, and Waid and co. certainly meant well. But it was never going to be great:

Redrawing the history and de-emphasizing Superman and Batman makes it feel less like the 'World's Greatest Super-Heroes'. But, the goal was to map the current JLA history to what DC editorial had established by the mid-90s, so their hands were tied to make it seem like that superteam - minus three of its original stars. The Bulls without Michael Jordan. (Which makes Barry and Hal Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, I guess? But you get what I mean.)

How faithful to the core would a Lord of the Rings reboot be with minimal use of Frodo and Aragorn? Narratively it just doesn't make sense.

[Riv86672]

Black Canary was the Post-Crisis replacement for Wonder Woman, since Legends screwed up her origin by only after her showing up in Man's World in then-current continuity.

Personally, I don't mind most of the things you didn't like, especially Aquaman. This was one of the first times we saw Silver Age Aquaman in canon post-Crisis (The only other story I can think of is the story where Arthur first came to land and met Barry. I think it was by Waid or PAD?). Having Aquaman have to adjust to land while hinting at the hot-headed PAD characterization worked about as well as any attempt at Post-Crisis-Pre-Crisis Arthur.

I agree w. the above.

Plus, it was what it was, a reimagining to bring things in line w. the new DC continuity. This really could have been a train wreck, but it was handled very well and made for a pleasant read.
I for one didn’t miss The Trinity, because one, the story did a good job in acknowledging their absence w.out spelling it out for us readers. We all knew what was going on, and didn’t need to be beat over the head w. it; two, it let the spotlight shine on other just as interesting but not as popular characters, and three, it’s not like The Trinity wasn’t going to take things over again in time.

[Midnighter]

I wasn’t too impressed myself when I read it. However I suspect that Johns JL origin will remain the canon one for now given how it survived Rebirth and aside from saying MM helped found the League, hasn’t been touched.

It literally can't be. Snyder firmly re-established that all of the classic eras of the League are back in place. Nothing about "Origins" can be cannon at this point. The only thing that could still be in play from that story is Cyborg's upgrades with the mother box and even that's messy.

[Vordan]

It literally can't be. Snyder firmly re-established that all of the classic eras of the League are back in place. Nothing about "Origins" can be cannon at this point. The only thing that could still be in play from that story is Cyborg's upgrades with the mother box and even that's messy.

Continuity is screwed my man. Somehow Johns JL still happened because otherwise how did Metal happen? That relied on baby Darkseid. Don’t think too hard about it but Bendis over in Superman has also said that the Johns JL origin is still canon.

[Agent Z]

-Made the original Justice League look like bafoons
-Martian Manhunter deceives and spies on his teammates for reasons that make no sense
-Barry cheats on Iris West with Black Canary
-Black Canary is portrayed as a founding member despite her character joining the team 9 whole years after the team was founded
-Aquaman has difficulty ajusting to speaking on land. Something that has never been backed up in any other comic.
-Aquaman's personality in general is out of character.
-Locus has no motive for teaming up with the Apellaxians.

I understand why Waid and Augustyn portrayed the League as disfunctional to show later how they overcame their mistrust of one another in order to become the heroes they are today. However I found JLA Year One behind it's Silver Age facade as a gravely mean-spirited and cynical comic.

For a better contemporary look at the Justice League's past, I would recommend JLA Incarnations by John Ostrander and Val Semeiks. It's not perfect but it's more faithful to the comics of yesteryear that it tries to immitate.

The same creative team went on to produce Flash and Green Lantern: Brave and the Bold which I think is lightyears superior.

Was Barry dating Iris during this time?

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

"Cheating" implies that Dinah and Barry were sleeping together. If you paid any actual attention to the story, you'd know that they did not. They didn't even have a romantic relationship.

[Gaius]

I wasn’t blown away by it but then again the closest thing to a JLA origin I ever liked was New Frontier.

[j9ac9k]

I liked JLA:Year One. It's not ideal without the Trinity, but that was through editorial mandate and shifts in continuity. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Superman and Batman weren't that heavily involved with the League when it was founded, right? I mean, look who's missing from the classic JLA v Starro cover or the story that recounts their origin with the Apellaxians.

I didn't mind Waid's characterizations. It was unexpected that Dinah would be attracted to Barry, but it was cute. I liked how he made sense of her post-crisis origin as a bridge between the JSA and the modern era. Hal being totally at ease with J'onn and reassuring him just made sense. I never read Aquaman, but I appreciate the "fish out of water" aspect to his transition onto a team, etc. The characterization was better in some cases than Johns/Lee JLA origin, imo. I also really liked how the story involved a ton of other DC characters and culminated in a much more epic Apellaxian invasion than the original. I didn't see any "cynicism" in the book.

[Factor]

I don't think I've ever liked a JL origin story. The best JL introductory arc was Morrison's, but it isn't an origin.
I wonder if DC will publish yet another attempt at an origin after Metal. The continuity has never been more confusing, so maybe a new one is needed, even if I doubt it will be good.

[Lightning Rider]

I thought it was an excellent story. It might not be the most universal origin in terms of continuity, but it does its best to marry Silver Age themes with Post-Crisis rules.

The strength of the story is in the characters and relationships. Hal was fresh and cocksure without being a total *******, Barry was good-natured and grew into the role of humble leader, Dinah was trying to live up to her mother's legacy, J'onn was trying to understand humans, and Aquaman was emphasized as a foreigner with a somewhat rigid persona. I loved the way he played them off each other and made their disagreements realistic & reasonable (whereas often they're childish and stupid in other origin stories like Johns'). It had heart, humor, stakes, strong team-building dynamics, and a heroic conclusion. A certified classic for me.

[Lightning Rider]

I liked JLA:Year One. It's not ideal without the Trinity, but that was through editorial mandate and shifts in continuity. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Superman and Batman weren't that heavily involved with the League when it was founded, right? I mean, look who's missing from the classic JLA v Starro cover or the story that recounts their origin with the Apellaxians.

I didn't mind Waid's characterizations. It was unexpected that Dinah would be attracted to Barry, but it was cute. I liked how he made sense of her post-crisis origin as a bridge between the JSA and the modern era. Hal being totally at ease with J'onn and reassuring him just made sense. I never read Aquaman, but I appreciate the "fish out of water" aspect to his transition onto a team, etc. The characterization was better in some cases than Johns/Lee JLA origin, imo. I also really liked how the story involved a ton of other DC characters and culminated in a much more epic Apellaxian invasion than the original. I didn't see any "cynicism" in the book.

Yeah, I agree with all this. The lack of the trinity threw me off at first as well, but I've read the early Silver Age JLA issues, and Batman & Superman were purposefully shown to be "busy" often so that the other characters had time to shine.

[SecretWarrior]

Eh, the Justice League has never had a well-written origin story. Instead of re-telling solo origins over again, DC should look into trying to actually create a well written team-up origin.