Comments on: A Year of Cool Comic Book Moments – Day 151

By: wwk5d

wwk5d — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:05:48 +0000

I guess I’m in the minority…this scene just made me go ‘meh’.

And poor J’onn! Once again, he needs to look like a weakling, in order to make Superman look great, even though they’re almost identical in terms of power levels.

By: Vincent Paul Bartilucci

Vincent Paul Bartilucci — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:03:13 +0000

Oh, wow. Another “Superman is awesome” moment.

Spotlight hogging jerk.

By: David

David — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:47:34 +0000

@Stephen
“The thing is though… DC had more or less turned things around in their comics by the time Morrison (and Fabe – his role in putting the book together always gets forgotten) came along for JLA. David was on Aquaman, Waid had been on Flash for a while, Marz’ GL was getting going, Dixon had started Robin, etc. JLA was just sort of the final piece of the puzzle more than a revolution – Morrison took a lot of characters who were being handled by good writers and wrote them very well using the bases already in place.”

I agree. I came back to comics in 1996 after a 10 year hiatus to find some incredible books on the shelves and enjoyed them immensely. I think everyone agrees that the late 90′s were a great time for DC. And then after engorging ourselves on an awesome 7 course meal for five years we had to make the trip to the bathroom that must always eventually follow such a feast. In other words we got Dan Didio.

By: Dean

Dean — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 04:09:40 +0000

Morrison took a lot of characters who were being handled by good writers and wrote them very well using the bases already in place.

Well … Superman was a mess as we can see by the blueness of the Man of Steel in the sequence above.

However, your larger point is well taken. Hardly anything really cool is ever the product of one person. Mark Waid had a huge hand in making Morrison’s JLA as awesome as it was. Peter David put Aquaman back into the conversation as a front-line character. Ron Marz had a solid buzz going on Green Lantern. It was a great moment to put those characters back together.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:06:00 +0000

Now, if we can just get Warner Bros to hire Morrison to write a Superman screenplay we could finally get a decent movie out of the franchise.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:55:27 +0000

“What never ceases to fascinate me about the Morrison JLA was its context. The late 80s and early 90s were totally dominated by noisy, bombastic comics that generally had an X somewhere in the title. Dudes with three bandoliers yelling at guys in long leather coats while shooting two machine guns at once. In that context, the JLA and its Big 7 seemed like Elvis Presley at a Punk Show.”

The thing is though… DC had more or less turned things around in their comics by the time Morrison (and Fabe – his role in putting the book together always gets forgotten) came along for JLA. David was on Aquaman, Waid had been on Flash for a while, Marz’ GL was getting going, Dixon had started Robin, etc. JLA was just sort of the final piece of the puzzle more than a revolution – Morrison took a lot of characters who were being handled by good writers and wrote them very well using the bases already in place.

By: Ethan Shuster

Ethan Shuster — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:42:34 +0000

Yeah, Bob, I know the reason. That’s more a commentary on them not writing anything like that into the movie.

By: stealthwise

stealthwise — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:50:24 +0000

The clunky 90s art and the “Yield!” “Never!” were enough for me to stop reading this run and move onto better comics. Mediocre comics that were overrated for their relative quality compared to a ton of crappy comics out at the same time.

By: Dean

Dean — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:33:33 +0000

@David

When Morrison rocks, he rocks hard.

What never ceases to fascinate me about the Morrison JLA was its context. The late 80s and early 90s were totally dominated by noisy, bombastic comics that generally had an X somewhere in the title. Dudes with three bandoliers yelling at guys in long leather coats while shooting two machine guns at once. In that context, the JLA and its Big 7 seemed like Elvis Presley at a Punk Show.

In walks Morrison saying “you think that is loud? Well, this one goes to ELEVEN!” It was like the ’68 comeback special Elvis. Then, he drops that particular guitar and shows everyone that he does a better X-Men than they do on top of it.

Literally, the greatest creative one-two punch in comics history, since Miller and Mazzucelli went from “Born Again” to “Batman: Year One”.

By: Graeme Burk

Graeme Burk — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:09:48 +0000

“YIELD!” “NO!” is probably my favourite moment from Grant Morrison’s JLA (Well, that and “Now we build an anti-evil ray”). I love it.

By: Mea

Mea — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:29:56 +0000

The Morrison run is so chock full of cool moments, you could probably get a full month just off that run…
(goes to dig out her back issues)

By: Pitr

Pitr — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:12:54 +0000

“Key words? How about ‘world,’ ‘end,’ ‘of,’ and ‘the.’”

“Oh, and ‘fish’ and ‘man.’”

That still cracks me up.

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:20:23 +0000

@ Eathan Shuster: Superman couldn’t kick any butt in Superman Returns because he wasn’t given anyone in his weight to throw down with. That’s the problem with the Superman movies.

The moment: “This is the guy who said he couldn’t live up to his myth.”

By: The Cosh

The Cosh — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:12:29 +0000

The way I remember reading this that made it awesome isn’t so much about Superman fighting the big guy, it’s that I think it was established previously that the angel’s touch burns the sinful and the impure. You have Jonn giving it his all even though he knows he can’t win, then Superman turns up and, well, doesn’t get burned.

It’s like Jacob wrestling the Angel. But maybe not as well drawn.

Morrison’s JLA was cool stuff. I really can’t remember why I stopped buying it.

By: Jeff Holland

Jeff Holland — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:26:13 +0000

Actually, my favorite scene here is Aquaman vs. angels. This was still pretty early in the beardy/hooky Aquaman days, when Arthur was just an asshole to everyone for no real reason, but Morrison handled it great.

The scene I’m thinking of is when he’s dangling from his hook-cord wrapped around a rogue angel, who yells, “YOU DARE?!”
And Arthur shouts, “Winged TRIPE, I haven’t even STARTED!”

Everyone remembers the big awesome moments of JLA, but it’s gotta be said that (outside of Kyle Rayner’s excessive “Dude!” phrasing) Morrison had everyone’s voice down perfectly – and even came up with the best way to show Batman being surprised: “Hh.”

By: Thenodrin

Thenodrin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:40:40 +0000

I say that the cool moment from this sequence was J’onn doing the whole, “You shall not pass” thing. He knows he’s outmatched. He can barely stand. But, he is going to stand there, barring Asmodel for as long as possible.

Superman fights the Big Bad? Thats a dime a dozen. J’onn as the last man standing, refusing to yield. That’s cool.

Theno

By: doron

doron — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:16:00 +0000

not to be to big of a nerd, but I believe blue supreman controlled gravity fields thereby simulating super strength

you could have done a year of cool moments from just morrison’s run, i hope you get to the darkseid bit in rock of ages.

By: Ethan Shuster

Ethan Shuster — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:14:58 +0000

Yes, it’s nice to see Superman can just kick someone’s ass in any variation of the character. Unless it’s the version from Superman Returns.

By: chad

chad — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:08:12 +0000

that to me was an omg moment seeing superman go toe to toe with a ticked off angel grant dealing with the concept of superman almost being like a god. even if it was the blue supes

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:34:44 +0000

Zauriel was such a neat character concept from Morrison’s run – if you ask me, we’re lucky he was denied Hawkman. On the other hand, has anything worthwhile been done with Zauriel since? I just read the Shadowpact arc where he replaces Blue Devil on the team, and he’s a completely different character from Morrison’s depiction of him. All humorless and bland – disappointing. (Shadowpact as a whole was disappointing, too, but that’s another matter – I just want to see Detective Chimp do some detecting, dammit!)

Anyway, Zauriel is awesome.