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Never read it.

But I believe you.

I totally disagree, besides it is only 3 issues in.

i find it quite enjoyable and fun. though i could do completely without starman and wtf ever happened to sand. they both pollute the book. i also like the name jsa a whole lot better.

but on a whole it is a fun monthly romp.

I disagree. The violence is off-putting, but otherwise this is a good comic. Far superior to its cohort “Justice League of America.”

I think you meant to say “Justice League of America is an awful comic book,” right?

Justice League is also terrible, yes, but everyone already knows that.

I really don’t understand the Johns hate on CSBG. He’s quite good at well-paced traditional superhero stories. Justice Society of America, so far, is good. It’s like classic Roy Thomas stuff but without as much exposition.

Starman does seem out of place in the title (there’s no story logic to explain why they would keep an unstable member with no proven history on the team), but if he’s the price we have to pay for the return of the multiverse, then I’m willing to pay it.

its awfully awesome

I enjoy the crap out of it but a lot of that is due to my biases. I think the violence/language is a bit much for what it’s supposed to be. It’s too early to tell what sort of a book it’ll be, whether i enjoy it or not. They’re still putting all the cards on the table now.

JSA on the other hand was absolutely a great book. I think that Princes of Darkness is one of the best “Oh shit, how are they going to get out of this now?” superhero stories ever, and it did a great job of utilizing subplots built throughout the series.

If so, it’s a damn shame.

The previous volume was very good (for the most part).

I hate it when a good title is let to rot, then canceled just so it can reboot in a totally craptastic manner, albeit with a bright and shining NEW # 1 on it.

Oh well… everything dies.

~P~
P-TOR

Fanboy hatred is getting old. I hate Loeb, I hate Justice Society, I hate crossovers. Everyone seems to hate them, but that same everyone seems to still be buying them.

Outside of that, I don’t think Justice Society is for everyone, but between the action, memorable new characters, piles of mysteries upon mysteries, and amazing art, I find that it’s something I enjoy.

Let’s just agree to disagree.

I think Geoff Johns is, for better and for worse, the modern age’s Roy Thomas. I happen to *like* Roy Thomas, but like Johns, he’s not to everyone’s tastes, and the degree to which you have an affection for old comic book continuity probably has a lot to do with one’s reaction.

it’s a terrible comic if you happen to love nazis and are constantly dissapointed to see Nazis being used as easily defeated goons.

Really it’s Geoff Johns doing what Geoff Johns do, and he’s doing it harder and stronger than he ever has before. If you don’t like that, you really need to be shot in the head for buying more than one issue of this comic. Or else it’s like you’re the guy who is dissapointed that xXx starring VinDielsel had too many explosions and not enough social commentary on the mindset of modern culture.

If you aren’t a hardcore DC continuity fan, most of the stuff in JSA is over your head.

I don’t read JSA, but doesn’t someone get horribly murdered and/or mutilated in the first five pages in every issue? I can’t speak to its quality, but it sounds like a very unpleasant comic, at the very least.

I’ll agree, simply because it’s in no way living up to its potential. The same story could be told so well, but it’s pretty much been crap. I love what they’re doing with Starman, but that’s not enough to mnake up for the insane, over-the-top violence and other weaknesses. Plus, Kindom Come was a great story, let it end.

Also, the cover to issue #3. Is it me, or is Cyclone not wearing any underwear? Creeeeeppppyyyyyy…..

Awful, I’m not sure. But I’m definitely bailing on this arc, and it’s not like there’ll be any point following the crossover with JLA when I’m not reading that either.

I think it’s becoming too broadly accepted gospel among comic book writers that a good story must put characters through the most horrifying pain imaginable before they triumph. It’s like these people never saw a James Bond movie.

It’s like these people never saw a James Bond movie.

Uhhhhh…you did see Casino Royale, right? Because, while I’m sure there is worse pain than what happens to Bond twenty minutes or so before the end….

Yeah, but at least it’s the hero undergoing it and not a 5-year-old- there’s very little bloodshed from the innocent bystanders in that film. The rule with Bond movies is that people he sleeps with or otherwise gets close to are in trouble (and even then you’ve got a 50/50 chance depending on your exact role), random extras not so much.

Maybe I should have used the AVENGERS TV series as an example instead, though. If there is one thing Emma Peel is not, it is introspective.

I was enjoying it, up until the BUZZSAW OF DEATH. Now I’ve dropped it.

I liked the first two JSA arcs, but it quickly ran out of steam for me. I stuck with it for a long time out of habit and remembering how much I liked the first several issues, but dropped the last year of that book. I looked at the new series in the store, but it looked like more of the same, to me. I’m an old-school, pre-Crisis DCU fan, so I should be the target audience, but even I have trouble picking up on all the continuity-references and I just don’t care about a new Liberty Belle or Ma Hunkel’s granddaughter and crap like that.

If you are enjoying it, great. But if you DON’T enjoy it, do what I did, and spend your money on something else!

This Contains Spoilers.

My reaction to Johns’ work is usually heavily influenced by the artist with whom he works. I liked The Flash a good bit when Kolins was on the art chores, and I’m one of the few who was into Dose’s work during “Ignition.” But, when Porter took over and things got all bright and sunshiny again, I had had enough. Teen Titans played a similar tune. I completely dug the issues by McKone and wasn’t all that interested in those by anyone else. When McKone officially left after “Titans Tomorrow,” I dropped the book. JSA was, in that regard, a bit of an anomaly. The transition from Sadowski to Kirk wasn’t too jarring; neither was the shift from Kirk to Kramer.

So, I’m kind of surprised by how little interest I have in Justice Society of America because I’m a big Dale Eaglesham fan. His work on Villains United was a stand-out in the glut of Infinite Crisis tie-ins, and I have no doubt he’s doing his best to make this book look good. However, I just can’t muster the energy to give a damn. After so many mega-events, I’ve had my fill of wanton carnage of the bleak variety for a while (I’m always down for wanton carnage of the light-hearted variety, of course), so Nazi arm-windmills of death don’t sound too tempting. And, the series is steeped not only in continuity, but in continuity I could not possibly care less about. Introducing a new Mister America is fine (I like Golden Age heroes, and I like seeing them revamped, a la Crimson Avenger). Introducing a new Starman who’s actually the same Starman from Kingdom Come? No thanks. Kingdom Come was an entertaining read in its day, but I’ve grown tired of seeing its elements seep into the DCU. Superman replacing the yellow on his chest symbol with black I could handle, since there was a point behind it. But, then, Plastic Man’s kid had to show up out of the blue, as a teenager and a member of the Teen Titans in 52. I can understand the appeal there; Offpsring’s one-shot was the best of The Kingdom event, thanks largely to Quitely’s work. The character’s existence in the modern day DCU, as well as his inclusion in the Titans, is wholly superfluous, though. Which brings us back to Starman. And the female Cyclone. And probably countless other nods to Kingdom Come in Justice Society of America (and elsewhere). Alex Ross’ role as the “creative advisor” on the book places it firmly in the realm of nepotistic continuity, and I’m going to have to pass on that.

Put Johns and Eaglesham on any virtually any other title, and I’ll bite.

Its Craptacular!
I’d figure that we’d get some of the violence lessened after Infinte Boredom, but saying that a Nazi speedster running through a woman and child is a “fun romp”? You have to be effing kidding me? And am I like the only one that is sick and tired of this whole legacy bullshit that’s the JSA stigma? Open it up to new people…get some new blood in there.

Johns’ prior run was decent at best, but he’s been sucking hind tit as of late. I’ll take the Strazewski/Parobeck run of the JSA over both of Johns’ books any day of the week.

I actually kind of like the legacy angle. At the very least, it’s distinct. Unlike other teams that seem to exist just to exist, there’s a rationale behind why the characters are chosen for the roster, even if that rationale is as shallow as “he’s related to so-and-so, and she took on the mantle of whatshisface.”

“Fanboy hatred is getting old. I hate Loeb, I hate Justice Society, I hate crossovers. Everyone seems to hate them, but that same everyone seems to still be buying them.”

Are they?

I complain all the time about crappy books - however, if I don’t like it, I don’t read it.
I’m not sure where this ‘you hate yet you buy’ rumour got started, but it’s really getting old - if only because it’s so dismissive of arguments/comments generally put forward to improve comics (eg. No Loeb or crossovers).

I know Roy Thomas. I like Roy Thomas.

Geoff Johns? He’s no Roy Thomas.

“Awful” seems a bit strong of a label. It’s not a perfect book, but awful? No, I don’t think so.

Sounds like what’s pulling this comic down in the eyes of some folks is the fact that there’s been some pretty brutal acts of violence going on in every issue so far. But it’s tied in to the story that’s going on (in a bit an interesting parallel to the last time this team got a re-launch, back when the book enjoyed a great deal more praise…) and really isn’t all that gratuitous. So the violence level may not be to taste, but it’s not wildly out there, is it?

I’m little surprised that the pacing is getting hammered on; they’re only on issue #3! Yet they’ve already re-assembled the team, revealed the Big Bad, established a basic premise for the group, established several new characters, and roles for people in the group. How is that bad, exactly? So far the pacing seems pretty good.

The dialogue? Yeah, there are a bunch of clunkers going on here. It’s hardly Johns’ best work. Some of it works, though (mostly with the older members of the team that he’s written for quite some time) so it’s not uniformly bad. (That’s Civil War)

There may be a lot of continuity porn in it, but is the book inaccessible to a new reader? If it’s not, where’s the harm?

The art is of very high quality, and well suited to the storytelling that’s being attempted.

I don’t see awful. It’s not as good (yet) as JSA was before Infinite Crisis, but it’s still an enjoyable read to me and isn’t anywhere near the endangered list for me right now.

At this point, anything with a title containing 3 letters including “J” and “A” is pretty much a gigantic neon warning sign for me to stay as far away as possible.

“and really isn’t all that gratuitous. So the violence level may not be to taste, but it’s not wildly out there, is it?”

…no, women and children being buzz-sawed in half is definitely NOT out there. Don’t know where we could have got that idea from!

The whole thing is a farce. I’ve seen people try to justify the buzzsaw fun and games with “oh, well, they’re evil Nazis. They need to be DOING evil Nazi things, or else the JSA have no reason to go dispense some justice”.

….by “dispensing justice”, I’m assuming they mean hit them a few times and put them in jail for a bit, only to have them….ESCAPE and DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN.

Its probably beyond the writers imaginations to ever have one of the heroes consider by swatting at these people with rolled up newspapers, they’re not saving lives at all, but rather slowly condemning an infinite stream of future victims to death.

Oh wow, look! Its Hawkman! Badass Hawkman on the scene, in the midst of women and children being buzzsawed!

and WHAT does he do?

Give some LAME speech about how he’d “cut off the evil nazi chicks legs if it was up to his commander”, but seeing as he’s on earth….he’ll throw a crappy ninja star at her leg instead, incapacitating her for about, oh, thirty seconds.

how utterly, utterly stupid.

oh no wait, I forgot, the entire premise of hawkman is stupid. big scary thug with a mace, yet he never actually seems to kill anyone with it. To me, if a big scary superhero hits you with a mace, you. are. dead.

So of course, he nails someone in this issue with his mace - and they amazingly get back up and bop him one, as far as I can remember. what a nonsense.

heroes in DC are crippled with a ludicrous, outdated sense of “morality” in the face of increasingly nasty bad guys who rape, kill, rape and kill and rape some more. that’s entirely down to the badly thought out logic behind the writing, because they’ve beefed up the bad guys without actually stopping to think that the notion of super powered defenders of the public, who insist on the lamest clinging to ideas of “fair play”, “not killing anyone” and “being a good guy, like mom’s apple pie”, while everyone around them is being pounded into stone pillars face first, is just the most stupid conceit in a comic, ever.

Hawkmans mace has sadly come to represent the inherent stupidity in the DC Universe - a symbol of the lameness of every single person who is supposedly a “hero”. They’re supposed to be protecting the people out there, but they’re just condemning everyone to a drip-feed death.

Hawkmans mace = rolled up newspaper.

Paperghost: nailed it.

The problem isn’t the outdated moral code of the superheroes in itself, but rather keeping that moral code while turning the villains more psychotic, murderous, unrepentant and lecherous at the same time. As you say, it just creates an endless stream of death.

I’d rather read a Geoff Johns DC comic than a Roy Thomas DC comic. I just can’t get through those All Star Squadron issues, and I love all the characters too, down to Tarantula. It’s just like trying to run through molassas. Infinity Inc is almost the definition of a book I should love but it just does nothing for me. I’ve started from issue 1 three times and I’ve never made it to issue 10.

I absolutely love Thomas’ Marvel work, so I don’t know what it is either.

I think a major problem of Geoff Johns’ writing is that he has too much power now. Read the early days of the last JSA series when he worked with Dave Goyer and those stories are really good, fast, clever, epic, and in keeping with the series’ love of the past. But as time goes on, Geoff starts writing alone, and he becomes the front man of DC, he starts bringing in more and more of his personal vendettas, retconning this and that, and putting things back to “the way they should be.” You seriously couldn’t go a single arc without someone being returned for a former state of superheroing or brought back to life. Johns was drunk on the way comics were when he was a fan, and the power went to his head. That’s when JSA (and pretty much everything else the guy wrote) started to get lousy.

And so, it’s sort-of resurrected. You may all thank Brain Cronin, Hero of the People.

You have a lot of varying opinions, man!

I am large, I contain multitudes

At this point, anything with a title containing 3 letters including “J” and “A” is pretty much a gigantic neon warning sign for me to stay as far away as possible.

Good call. JAG was pretty worthless.

All comics are awful. I think I'm going to quit reading them. I'm still going to buy them, though, because I don't want an incomplete run.

I totally disagree with you. Number three was not as well written as the previous two but the series as an entirety is excellent. I look forward to many more issues of the Justice Society of America.

omg you resurrected all the old comments!

I love you guys so, so, so very much.

Thanks

Kingdom Come is not required reading for this series. Personally, I disliked it intensely. But that's irrelevant. All that's important to the context of this story is that the Kingdom Come universe was so incredibly screwed up, that "Superheroes" would pick fights in the middle of densely populated urban areas just for the fun of it....waitaminit...oMG~it's Civil War!

Starman didn't get a speaking role in it, he just hung around while the main chracters duked it out. But it was messed up enough to propose that someone with a fragile enough psyche could have become unhinged by it.

It sure was beautiful, though.

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