Cry for Justice! launched on the heels of Final Crisis with Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Green Arrow deciding they needed to seek revenge… Scratch that Justice!… for the deaths of guys like the Martian Manhunter at hands of supervillians in recent years. The two heroes form their own seperate Justice! League to proactively dish out their new brand of Justice!
The book was originally announced as a second ongoing Justice! League title to be written by James Robinson. The series was mercifully shortened to just seven issues. Robinson has since, however, taken over the main ongoing JLA book. Spoilers below…
Since the publication of the first issue of CFJ! the book has been controversial. Fourth-tier DC characters were killed off seemingly without regard. The dialogue was at times ridiculously bad and the whole package desperately sought to be edgy. Hell, several supporting characters never even interacted with the books stars and had no reason for being in the series at all.
As the story progressed, I took it all in with a grain of salt because the art looked kind of nice and it all seemed to be done in the name of turning the villain Prometheus into an upper tier force in the DC Universe.
I’m always in favor of more top heels.
The final issue of the series landed yesterday and proved every single one of the book’s naysayers correct.
I really don’t know what DC was thinking with this one.
This book destroyed virtually the entire Green Arrow universe.
GA’s former sidekick Speedy, also known at one point as Arsenal and most recently known as JLA member Red Arrow, had his arm torn off. That’s a pretty big problem for an archer, but DC can always tack on a cyborg arm ala the Winter Soldier or Cable.
Why? Because it’s edgy.
Speedy’s most interesting characteristic has always been that he was a single father doing his best to raise the daughter, Lian, that he fathered with the supervillain Cheshire. Lian is a decades old character though maybe only six years old in continuity. (People age oddly in comics.)
Of course the most noted casualty in CFJ! had to be this little girl. The only interesting part of Speedy’s character is gone.
Why? Because it’s edgy.
Robinson went further by destroying GA’s hometown likely killing millions.
Why? Because it’s edgy.
All of this would have been a major price to pay to push Prometheus back up to the upper echelon of DC villains, but most troublesome of all, CFJ! ends with Green Arrow firing an arrow through Prometheus’ skull and basically nailing his face to a wall.
Why? Because it’s edgy.
It’s bad enough that the biggest developments in Green Arrow’s life since his own death and resurrection happened not in his own title but in a Justice! League mini-series… But what did any of this accomplish? Producing a suddenly edgier Green Arrow?
Why didn’t they kill Black Canary and Connor Hawke while they were at it? That would have been really edgy. Hell, for all I know Hawke may already be dead. Who can keep score?
DC has promised to follow up on this story throughout the Spring, but CFJ! has generated nothing but cheap heat and I can’t imagine people will buy those follow-up books en masse.
Ulimately, I know some of this stuff will be written out of DC continuity in the years to come War Games-style. It has to be. It’s all too stupid. But that just serves to cheapens the DC universe even further.
Cry for Justice! should never have been published.
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Over the last few weeks, one of our new writers, Ryan, gave us his thoughts about the nominees for Best Picture (here and here) as well as his predictions for a total of 10 categories at this year’s Oscars. The show was last night, all the winners have been announced, how did he do? Ryan managed to hit 9 out of 10 from his prediction list, and got all the big awards.
