Was Brad Meltzer's Justice League Run A Missed Opportunity?

[Timothy Hunter]

I had a whole essay prepared on my gripes with this run, it got lost, so I'll give you the cliff notes version:

Brad Meltzer's Justice League suffers from 2 major problems:

1. Pacing. Meltzer's decompressed storytelling worked for Identity Crisis and The Archer's Quest because those were finite tales with a clear ending that did not overstay their welcome. The Tornado's Path moves at such a glacial pace that certain plot elements become difficult to follow. By the end of issue 1, the Trinity are still talking over a table in the Bat Cave. It takes until the end of issue 5 for the Justice League to form. This initial storyline is followed up by a crossover that does little to further the status quo set up by Meltzer is previous issues. The penultimate, self contained issue 11 would be excellent if Meltzer's Justice League have more room to breath, but feels greatly out of place next to two bloated story arcs.

2. Lack of finality. Meltzer sets up various plot points such as a romance blooming between Red Arrow and Hawkgirl, Black Lightning masterminding a web of informants, Geoforce obtaining his late sister's abilities, and Vixen losing the totem which is the source of her powers, but none of these are resolved by the end of his run. Meltzer's final issue plays the part of a half-assed epilogue with another scene with Red Tornado and his family, Hawkgirl and Red Arrow in bed, Deathstroke revealed to be behind Geoforce's new powers, and Black Lightning talking to one of his informants, but none of these scenes resolve any of the loose ends set up in the previous issues. The end teases Martian Manhunter and Arthur Joseph Curry joining the team but this never happens.

[Will Evans]

I had a whole essay prepared on my gripes with this run, it got lost, so I'll give you the cliff notes version:

Brad Meltzer's Justice League suffers from 2 major problems:

1. Pacing. Meltzer's decompressed storytelling worked for Identity Crisis and The Archer's Quest because those were finite tales with a clear ending that did not overstay their welcome. The Tornado's Path moves at such a glacial pace that certain plot elements become difficult to follow. By the end of issue 1, the Trinity are still talking over a table in the Bat Cave. It takes until the end of issue 5 for the Justice League to form.

2. Lack of finality. Meltzer sets up various plot points such as a romance blooming between Red Arrow and Hawkgirl, Black Lightning masterminding a web of informants, Geoforce obtaining his late sister's abilities, and Vixen losing the totem which is the source of her powers, but none of these are resolved by the end of his run.

Agreed. It was more set up than an actually run.
At least the JLA/JSA story had a beginning, middle and end.

[Holt]

The clear writing for trade hurt it a lot. I’d seen people joking refer to the first arc as 5 issues of the Justice League sitting at a table and talking, and that’s not far off.

[Restingvoice]

Agreed. It was more set up than an actually run.
At least the JLA/JSA story had a beginning, middle and end.

What comes after that?

[j9ac9k]

The clear writing for trade hurt it a lot. I’d seen people joking refer to the first arc as 5 issues of the Justice League sitting at a table and talking, and that’s not far off.

Only if you think the Trinity are the Justice League. The whole point was that while the Trinity were up their own butts deliberating, the Justice League was forming on its own anyway with Hal, Dinah, Roy and Ollie (though he makes way for Roy) becoming involved with the Red Tornado story, essentially just looking out for their friend at first. The Trinity was talking (and providing introductions to the characters) while the others were doing. It's a flip on expectations, but is also in keeping with the idea that the Trinity sometimes aren't the most committed to the team. (even Batman says so at one point) And then the Trinity themselves are invited to join because Hal and Dinah invited everyone who was there for the Red Tornado/Amazo case. So all their talking didn't even form the team anyway. I thought that was clever. The other criticisms are valid and I don't recall the issues enough to speak intelligently about it, but I will disagree that "nothing happened in 5 issues before the team was formed." The team was officially formed after their first case, not before it, despite the setup.

[MoneySpider]

I had a whole essay prepared on my gripes with this run, it got lost, so I'll give you the cliff notes version:

Brad Meltzer's Justice League suffers from 2 major problems:

1. Pacing. Meltzer's decompressed storytelling worked for Identity Crisis and The Archer's Quest because those were finite tales with a clear ending that did not overstay their welcome. The Tornado's Path moves at such a glacial pace that certain plot elements become difficult to follow. By the end of issue 1, the Trinity are still talking over a table in the Bat Cave. It takes until the end of issue 5 for the Justice League to form. This initial storyline is followed up by a crossover that does little to further the status quo set up by Meltzer is previous issues. The penultimate, self contained issue 11 would be excellent if Meltzer's Justice League have more room to breath, but feels greatly out of place next to two bloated story arcs.

2. Lack of finality. Meltzer sets up various plot points such as a romance blooming between Red Arrow and Hawkgirl, Black Lightning masterminding a web of informants, Geoforce obtaining his late sister's abilities, and Vixen losing the totem which is the source of her powers, but none of these are resolved by the end of his run. Meltzer's final issue plays the part of a half-assed epilogue with another scene with Red Tornado and his family, Hawkgirl and Red Arrow in bed, Deathstroke revealed to be behind Geoforce's new powers, and Black Lightning talking to one of his informants, but none of these scenes resolve any of the loose ends set up in the previous issues. The end teases Martian Manhunter and Arthur Joseph Curry joining the team but this never happens.

The totem is not the source of Vixen's powers, she was born with those powers. The totem just helps her focus on her powers better so that they don't overwhelm her. In that storyline where she lost the totem, she was thinking less and less like a human and thinking more and more like animals. Without the totem, she was still able to fly like birds, etc. and she was able to latch onto the power of the human animal.

[j9ac9k]

Also, Vixen does get her totem back when she rips it from Amazo's body. He had been using it as a regulator for all his different powers and without it, he blew up. So, that was resolved by the end of "Tornado's Path."

[Captain Nostalgia]

Granted I'm only really motivated to read the JLA when Hal is on the team...(which isn't a lot in the last 20 years) it remains one of my favourite JLA runs.

My only complaint is that his run was too short. (12 issues if I recall correctly)

I wish Meltzer had stuck around to write longer, alongside Kevin Smith his Green Arrow run remains my favourite of all time.

[HandofPrometheus]

I really liked his run but my problem was the climax of the Legion story. What happens after that?

As for Vixen it gets resolved with Mcduffie's run which was right after Meltzer so it felt like a smooth transition for her storyline imo.

I really loved that BL direction.

The Trinity kinda took a backseat in his run but I love how the other members got to do so much.

I bought his deluxe edition that collects all his issues and it reads way better in trade. He needed more issues imo.

[Lightning Rider]

I do remember Tornado's Path story dragging, but thought it was a decent run. Some memorable character moments. The lineup is still praised often. More could have been done with it towards the end but I still like it.

[Stanlos]

I liked what he set up but it was unfortunately overtaken by the Legion of SuperHeroes crap and pissing on WoWo's lasso

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

I find it funny how Metzer spent the first six issues trying to argue how Red Tornado was this massively cool character because he has an android body (and using Batman as his fanboy-stand-in voice), and McDuffie spent all of his first two issues completely undoing whatever Metzer had done and having Tornado go back to his pre-Metzer status quo. I'm open to somebody making me care about Red Tornado, and yet Metzer, for all his fannish enthusiasm, completely failed to do it.

[Stanlos]

I can't disagree with you outright on Tornado. I came to like him and his trappings through Young Justice by PAD. But I admit there is little cooler than how Zatana and Reddy got one up on Super Amazo! That was a moment!

[Sutekh]

I had a whole essay prepared on my gripes with this run, it got lost, so I'll give you the cliff notes version:

I wanted to like it, just because the line up was kinda fresh (and the art was nice!), with Vixen and Black Lightning, Red Arrow and Geoforce and Hawklady (I don't remember, Hawkgirl? Hawkwoman?). It wasn't the same old band. (That said, with Red Arrow, Red Tornado and Black Lightning on the team, I was wondering if there would ever be a color-themed Justice League, with all the Green Lanterns, Red Tornado, Red Arrow, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Black Lightning, Blue Devil, Blue Beetle, etc.)

But it just sort of farted around and never went anywhere.

Much like a few other teams that intrigued me at around that time, IIRC. (Justice League of America, with Martian Manhunter, Steve Trevor, Catwoman, Katana, etc.) Neat line up, not at all the factory standard, but kind of fizzled out.

[Nomads1]

It was a purely nostalgia driven run, ignoring the evolution of certain characters (such as making the always rebelious Arsenal into a wide-eyed sidekick that would go as far as abandon an identity he created for himself in favor of a cloned identity of his mentor, or all the previous Red Tornado evolution, such as in PAD's Young Justice), right up to the cross-over bringing back the classic LSH, and definitively killing the Threeboot Legion (which, despite whatever my personal opinion on it may be, deserved the chance and the shot in the arm that Shooter was giving them). The pacing was, IMHO, boring as hell, and the insistence of Meltzer in depicting the super-hero world as a tight-knit comunity where everybody knew everybody and their secrets really bothered me immensely (the mere idea of an untested rookie such as Kendra, and others, calling a paranoidly secretive guy like Batman, Bruce, was cringe-worthy). Really, I felt it was Bendis' New Avengers all over again. I came in with such high-hopes, just to be sorely disappointed. Yet, despite all the criticisms, Benes art was, IMHO, beautiful.

Peace