JUSTICE LEAGUE : RISE AND FALL : TPB Review: contains: Green Arrow 31 32, Justice League: Rise and Fall Special, Justice league: The Rise of Arsenal

Covers: Green Arrow: Mauro Cascioli, var Mike Mayhew/Andy Troy, Rise of Arsenal:Greg Horn, JL: R&F spec: Art Germ

RATING of 1.5 out of 5
Pathetic... doesn't quite seem pathetic enough... to describe this storyline.
SO ...I went to an online thesaurus,  which had the following words as a synonym for pathetic:

commiserable, deplorable, distressing, feeble, heartbreaking, heartrending, inadequate, lamentable, meager, melting, miserable, moving, paltry, petty, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, plaintive, poignant, poor, puny, rueful, sorry*, tender, touching, useless, woeful, worthless, wretched

Looking over the list, I would scratch through tender, melting, moving, and touching, because those... are not pathetic and don't describe the story, but... the rest seems pretty much on the mark.

I'm kinda leaning toward wretched... as the best description.

THEN... I saw the word Crummy on the same page as pathetic  ... and it's synonyms:

cheap, contemptible, crappy*, grotty, inferior, miserable, pathetic, poor, rotten, second-rate, shabby, sub-par, third-rate, useless, worthless 

Oh wow... it's hard to choose.

I know what I'll do....I'll use them all. {I say with a evil grin}

This story is a wretched pathetic attempt to use cheap theatrics in an effort to shock readers. This is a contemptible shabby storyline, not only for mega DC Comics publishing, but is miserably inferior to even a third-rate publishing house.  The writer, KT Krul's, sub-par attempt at a grotty comic story became laughable. It is deplorable that a  heartwretching and heartbreaking story of any hero loosing a loved one became laughable.

As far as I can tell, Krul made a feeble attempt to match other DC stories which were poignant, such as The Killing Joke and Identity Crisis.  DC stories such as those, are moving and have become classic, but this story, JL: Rise and Fall,  is a inadequate and paltry attempt to do the same. When in comparison, this rueful sorry story is quite pitiable.

It is lamentable that these worthless theatrics are distressing ....me, but I'm not alone. There are others who commiserate with me on the useless way that the character of Roy Harper can be brought down and then.. kicked.  Roy Harper was KT Krul's poor cat after a bad day.

Phew!!! I feel better. Though... I think I missed a few.

After saying that about this story, I don't mind Krul's writing when he is writing happy team stories ...I just read Teen Titans #92 and it was pretty good.  But PLEASE DC... I plaintively request to take pity on us meager readers and keep Krul far away from stories about character's death or how they handle death.

Reading Order of single issues:
Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal #1
Justice League: Rise and Fall Special
Green Arrow 31-32
Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal #2-4

        ********Spoiler******

A picture is worth a thousand words...and yes..that's a dead cat he just saved while high on drugs.
















Credits: JUSTICE LEAGUE: RISE AND FALL TPB
Writer of all the storylines: J.T. Krul
Justice League: Rise of Arsenal 

Associate Editor: Sean Ryan
Editor: Brian Cunningham
Pencilled by Geraldo Borges, Kevin Sharpe, Fabio Jansen, Sergio Arino
Inked: Marlo Alquiza/Scott Hanna/Mark McKenna/Mario Alquiza/John Dell
Letterer: Rob Clark Jr.
Color: Hi-Fi
May, Jun , Jul, Aug 2010

Justice League: Rise and Fall Special
Penciled:Diogenes Neves, Mike May hew, Fabrizio Fiorentino
Inks: Mayhew, Vicente Cifventes & Ruy Jose
Colors: Nei Ruffino & Andy Troy
Letters: John J Hill
Editors: Adam Schlagman and Eddie Berganza
May 2010

Green Arrow 31-32
Interior Artist: Federico Dallocchio
Colorist: Michael Atiyeh
Letter: Sal Cipriano
Editor: Adam Schlagman

May Jun 2010

Publisher: DC Comics

Justice League : Generation Lost Vol 1 Issues 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Review

RATING 3.9 out of 5

The story isn't over yet...but the ride getting to the end is well worth the cost.  Winnick is doing a wonderful job with this mini. It's a mega long bi-weekly 24 issue mini. This TPB, Justice League: Generation Lost Vol 1,  covers the first 12 issues.  It is jammed packed with action, adventure, and mystery.

When I first heard about this storyline, I wasn't gung-ho about it... at all.  Don't get me wrong, I like Keith Giffen...but he gets a little wordy, with lots and lots of gab between characters. Most of the time it's really witty, but I have to be in the mood for it, so I was a little put off by him being on the cover. As it turns out, Keith Giffen only gave the outline, or breakdowns, of the first 6 issues, Judd Winick does all the script.

Winnick has done a awesome job with character dialogue.  I love the interaction and relationships that he has written, even though a lot of the relationships were already there and created by Giffen when he wrote  the Justice league International series.  If you know nothing about the characters, don't worry...their backgrounds are explained to keep you from getting lost.

Minor Spoilers:

Max Lord died at the hand of Wonder Woman, but was brought back to life by the White Lantern at the end of Blackest Night.  In issue 1, Max Lord is able to mind wipe his existence from the world, except Boaster Gold, Ice, Captain Adam, and Fire.  Now they are on a search for Max Lord and on a quest to stop him at all costs.

What has he done? Many.. many horrible deeds, but those are not the biggest reason that they want to stop him. It's what he will do that they fear the most. They must stop him because of the terrible future that he causes to happen.

While at the same time that they are trying to catch Max, Max seems to be orchestrating their every step, almost as if he is recreating Justice League International, which was a team of hero's that Max was not only part of, but led.

Max claims that he is only trying to... save the world. Now ....why would he lie about that?

Justice League: Generation Lost:
Story: Judd Winnick & Keith Giffen
Script Issues 1-12: Judd Winnick
Breakdowns issues 1-6: Keith Giffen
Editors:Rex Ogle, Michael Siglain, Brian Cunningham
Pencils: Aaron Lopresti, Joe Bennett, Frenando Dagnino
Inks: Matt Ryan, Jack Jadson,  BIT & Raul Fernandez
Colors: Hi-fi
Letters: Sal Cipriano, Pat Brosseau, SWANDS, Travis lanham
Cover issues 1-5: Tony harris& JD Mettler
Cover issues 6-11: Cliff Chiang
Variant Cover 1-6, 9,11-12: Kevein Maguire & Hi-Fi
Variant Cover 7-8: Ryan Sook, Joel Gomez & fernando Pasarin, Randy Mayor & Carri Starchan
 Variant Cover 10: Felipe Massafera

Justice League of America #44

Justice League Of America : issue #44

Title: DEVIL in the Details

Writer: James Robinson

Pencils:Mark Bagley

Inks: Rob Hunter & Norm Rapmund

Color: Ulises Arreola

Letters: Rob Leigh

OVERALL  RATING: 3 out of 5 points

Why the Rating of 3? Not great, but was worth the money. I enjoyed the fight scene, but I can’t say that I will remember it.  For the most part the dialog seemed blocky and didn’t flow, but I enjoyed the panels with the cameo appearance.

POSSIBLE CROSSOVER RELIVANCE RATING(out of 5 pnts):

Brightest Day: 1

JSA: 4

FULL REVIEW: ******SPOILERS of the Story included.

The best part was the Cameo of Etrigan. I hadn’t read any of the previews for this issue so I was pleasantly surprised.  This fight with Etrigan for me was great. Etrigan was in full rhyming mode and was quite able to take on each of the JLA members individually.  It was only the teamwork that conquered the demon.

FULL  STORY: SPOILERS

This issue starts out in the JLA holographic training room called THE KITCHEN.  The current four members are training together; Donna Troy, Batman/Dick Grayson, Starman, Congo Bill.  Dick and Donna are trying to gauge what kind of powers that Starman and Bill’s possess.

There is a rumble and the side of the JLA Satellite ruptures. Bill and Starman rescue Dick and Donna from possible death. The JLA auto defenses make a monitor womb closing the Rupture.

They find out that the Rupture was caused by a passing green glowing meteor. The meteor lands in Russia. The JLA team goes to investigate and finds Etrigan enraged fighting the German Elite Guard for the meteor. Etrigan seems out of his mind with the need to possess the meteor.  The four fight Etrigan off the Elite Guard.  Donna Lassos him with her blue lasso, we find out that this is the “Lasso of persuasion.” She inserts her will over Etrigan to change back to Jason Blood.

Scene Change; JSA headquarters, Medical Lab. Green Lantern Alan Scott is in a hospital bed with all kinds of instruments attached to him. Alan is emanating a green glow lighting up the room. JSA member surrounding him.  Mr. Terrific comes in the door and tells everyone of the meteor. While eyes are turned on Mr Terrific, another man comes to the door, Sebastian Faust. Faust announces that this is a sign of  the beginning of “The end of the World.”

Scene change: Back to Russia. Jason Blood explains the JLA team that he was in Budapest and he saw the meteor coming and how an urge over took him “Not to just follow the meteor and be with the meteor, but to OWN it.”  He says that both him and Etrigan were possessed.  This apparently is the end of this cameo as Jason walks away.

Congo Bill and Donna see a fissure in the glowing green meteor and they decide to prie it open. It pops open and reveals Jade.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS from a Woman’s point of View:

Lately Starman just looks HOT.  In Cry for Justice, and in this issue of JLA, my eyes keep being drawn to how well he is drawn.  I know he is gay, but I don’t care.  It’s not like I’m going to get any action, he’s a comic book character.  I keep thinking “MMmm mmmm mmm Good god... what a waste.”  It must be the Elvis curl to his bang, Please, Oh please, Oh please... let him stay shirt free.