Yours thought about "JLA: Act of God" run?

[I'm a Fish]

JLA: Act of God is one of those stories that goes beyond being insultingly bad to just laughably bad--very quickly, too. It's not even worth getting angry about. You just want to point at it and laugh.

As pointed out earlier in this thread, the central premise is inconsistent and nonsensical. "Everyone loses their powers" might seem like an easy hook, but the nature of everyone's powers are very different. Magical beings like Zatanna and gods disappear entirely...but not Wonder Woman. Aquaman and Martian Manhunter lose their powers even though their "powers" are just their natural abilities they were born with. Green Lantern's ring stops working, but tech-based heroes are unaffected. The ring may be alien in origin, but it's still tech.
And so on.

Character assassination abound. Lois dumps Superman because it turns out she only loved him for his powers. Clark then becomes an homeless drunk. Kyle Rayner has a psychotic meltdown and stops showering or even getting out of his costume. Wonder Woman turns to Jesus and tries to commit suicide (while pregnant) when her prayers aren't answered. Aquaman and J'onn and a handful of others become Batman's lapdogs.
And there's something just so...pathetic about Arthur and J'onn (and others) reinventing themselves as Batman-approved pulp heroes with silly gimmick names and themes. Seriously, look at these nerds:


And that's where the real hilarity comes in--just how much this story is built entirely around proving that Batman (and Batman-adjacent characters) are infinitely superior to every other hero in the DC universe. Hell, it literally ends with Clark and J'onn saying it outright.

Specific plot threads seem contradictory at a glance, but they actually form a specific message when put together.
Much is made about how Superman and Wonder Woman were arrogant. They thought there were gods, and it was wrong of them to interfere in human affairs. So you think, okay, the moral is heroes shouldn't take the law into their own hands. But then Supergirl--who's become a cop--laments that she's limited by what she can do because of the law. She wishes she had her powers so she could do things a cop isn't allowed.
That might seem like a contradiction, but it isn't. The moral of the story is: taking the law into your own hands is good, but ONLY if you don't have superpowers while you do it.

But go back to Kyle Rayner, who tries to fight crime without powers and is immediately killed. Well, you see, unlike Supergirl and Flash and Aquaman, he didn't seek Batman's training.
So, the actual moral is: taking the law into you own hands is good, but only if you have no superpowers AND have Batman's personal seal of approval.

Reading it, it quickly becomes evident the author doesn't seem to like anyone in DC who isn't Batman or a similarly non-powered pulp hero. And DC paid him to make a whole story about it.


As for Created Equal...all I say about that is I find it interesting that at no point did anyone question the optics of a story were Lex Luthor single-handedly defeats the entire female superhero population so that Superman can return and rescue them.

Created equal indeed.

I’ve never heard of this story before and I had to read this post twice to make sure I wasn’t having a stroke.

[Nomads1]

JLA: Act of God was written by Doug Moench, who wrote the Batman books for many years. Might explain a bit the Batman fixation.

Peace

[Thezmage]

JLA: Act of God is one of those stories that goes beyond being insultingly bad to just laughably bad--very quickly, too. It's not even worth getting angry about. You just want to point at it and laugh.

Agreed, it's one of my absolute favorite terrible runs.

Specific plot threads seem contradictory at a glance, but they actually form a specific message when put together.
Much is made about how Superman and Wonder Woman were arrogant. They thought there were gods, and it was wrong of them to interfere in human affairs. So you think, okay, the moral is heroes shouldn't take the law into their own hands. But then Supergirl--who's become a cop--laments that she's limited by what she can do because of the law. She wishes she had her powers so she could do things a cop isn't allowed.
That might seem like a contradiction, but it isn't. The moral of the story is: taking the law into your own hands is good, but ONLY if you don't have superpowers while you do it.

But go back to Kyle Rayner, who tries to fight crime without powers and is immediately killed. Well, you see, unlike Supergirl and Flash and Aquaman, he didn't seek Batman's training.
So, the actual moral is: taking the law into you own hands is good, but only if you have no superpowers AND have Batman's personal seal of approval. [/quote]

Their arrogance was in not thinking that Batman was the greatest hero ever. Truly, for that arrogance they must be punished, and all the people who die in the crossfire, well, I guess they didn't have enough faith in Batman.

But, yeah, those Batman trained vigilantes aren't just bad, they're also completely out of character for Batman. Sure, Batman has to bat theme all of his bat gadgets but he and his allies all have very basic, clean designs without all these unwieldy bits like scale shaped bolas or bombs shaped like skulls (seriously, why would J'onn have a skull theme?)