I hope the rest of the epic is… well, better than this, because this was not really good comics from a reading point of view. I hope Flesh-Eating Grodd was not Morrison’s idea or revamp, because that was simply awful on par with the crassest gore of Infinite Crisis and 52. It makes no sense for his personality at all, and I’d expect a writer of Morrison’s obvious intelligence to realize this and find a less ridiculous way to make Grodd terrifying. I mean… Grodd ate over three hundred people off-camera? Really? And still had room for more? Absolutely ridiculous, even by superhero standards. I assure you any reader not used to these sorts of gory comic book antics would have been instantly put off by this and probably wouldn’t have bothered getting through more than the first issue. I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t read so many good things about it on this site!

There is way too much tell-don’t-show in this story. I know it’s compressed reading, but frankly it’s too compressed and is at points simply bad. It’s not demonstrated or shown clearly anywhere in the book that the Ultramarines kill their foes while the Justice League doesn’t. Finding parallels between the Ultramarines and the Avengers/Ultimates is a nerd puzzle at best; there’s no demonstrated resonance between the Ultramarines style of heroism and what goes on in those other titles. Apparently it is true because Morrison told us in an interview, but storytelling doesn’t work that way! If he can’t be bothered to work it into the text, then it is to my mind irrelevant.

Finally, this story did not leave me with the impression that the Justice League punished the Ultramarine Corps by sending them into Qwewq. Superman does chastise them, but it is Tasmanian Devil who points out that they can hardly expect to be allowed to stay as super-heroes in a world they’ve just ravaged. How the majority of the issue is sorted out is left frustratingly off-camera (obviously it was not much of a problem for Vixen joining the League on down the road!), but I was left with the distinct impression that the Ultramarine Corps wanted to go into Qwewq and try to continue being heroes in a world where they could have a fresh start. Superman suggests it, but he or the League is never depicted forcing the Ultramarine Corps into the infant universe. Interpreting it as such makes the ending bleak, and the League seem impossibly arrogant. I find a reading where the League gently suggests a path to penance and members of the Corps choose to take it far more constructive, and far more in keeping with the tone of the text.

I am not entirely sure that your comments about Beryl’s role in the story are at all germane to what she actually does in 7S. Morrison’s Batman cracks jokes several times throughout the story, of his own volition, and notably before he’s had any encounters with Beryl at all. She is depicted as brave and noble, perhaps recalling Wing’s sacrifice from the old JLA Seven Soldiers arc, but I hardly see her being motivated by approval in this story. The story itself gives the impression that she’s motivated by a desire to help take care of Cyril and help save others, not to impress Batman of all people. It is her strength that lets Cyril break the mind control, by reminding him of his admiration for Batman, and that seems to me to be key to deciphering her importance to the story (and perhaps what Morrison is saying about teen sidekicks). She is important because she cares for her hero and makes assisting and helping him her highest priority, and as no hero is truly invulnerable, this assistance proves invaluable when things are at their bleakest. It seems to suggest that the value of a hero is not their inherent powers or skills, but instead their wisdom and strength of conviction. I far prefer the idea that Beryl is acting on her own initiative and doing what she knows she must, rather than the idea that she’s more interesting in Batman’s approval than in saving her partner’s life!

Despite my points of disagreement with you, I would like to thank you for writing this; some of the explanations helped me unpack the significance of a story that was very dense and rough reading on its own. I look forward to finishing Seven Soldiers with your essays as something of a reading guide, and you will probably be hearing more from me as I go.

“Most of the opening act concerns the Ultramarines team I introduced back in JLA #24. They’ve come back for a brutal ass-kicking as a kind of cheeky analogue of the best Avengers/Ultimates team you could hope to imagine. I hope readers will have fun matching up the Ultramarines characters with their marvelous counterparts.”

Anyway…the JLA Classified story is an eye-opener in many ways. I found myself looking forward to seeing each issue appear on the rack in a way I hadn’t done in years…and for all that the story is so rooted in previous continuity and doesn’t even have the title characters appear at all in the first issue, it’s a remarkably accessible story. A new reader who only knew the JLA from the animated series, say, could pick this up and follow the story. I hadn’t read a single issue of Morrison’s JLA run when this was published, so I had never seen the Ultramarines or Qwewq before. As far as I was concerned, Morrison could have invented them all for this story — except for the heroes I’d seen before, such as Vixen, or the Knight and Squire — and it made no difference in following the action. In the same way All-Star Superman is a stripped-down super-accessible Superman comic, this is the totally accessible team comic.

Dave – yeah, he’s revisiting an idea. But he never really went anywhere with the Ultramarines in the infant universe (except for the crucial plot point in Frankenstein), so I guess he figured he could do it with The Authority.

Keen idea. Smart post. Fun stuff!

It seems that the Grant work I like best is the stuff that, as you said, is a homage to the Silver Age. Most of the other stuff leaves me kinda cold. Wonder if that says more about me or Grant.

Good piece, Greg.

Sorry wifey, but I’m going to be glued to my computer for a month.