Mild Mannered Reviews - JLA Comics

JLA #55

JLA #55

Scheduled to arrive in stores: July 18, 2001

Cover date: August 2001

Writer: Mark Waid
Penciller: Bryan Hitch
Inker: Paul Neary

"Came the Pale Riders"

Reviewed by: John-Paul Zito (ZitoMan11@aol.com)


John Jones is out investigating a case involving a serial killer out in a bar somewhere. When the suspect up and leaves John heads out the back way to follow him. As John passes through the exit he is transported a world away into his memories of Mars where he is greeted by his long dead wife and child. But despite his happiness Jonn knows this is all a mental fake and confronts his assailants only to be overtaken by them.

Meanwhile at the Daily Planet, the news room is alive at this late hour. Suddenly something comes over Lois and in a weird display of physical affection she begins to tease Clark in front of Perry. Before anyone can really get a grasp on what's going on Lois reaches around Clark ripping open his shirt and reveals the Superman costume beneath. Then Lois regains her senses and tries to recover from the situation by playing crazy and approaching a copy boy across the room. Lois rips open his shirt as Clark uses his super speed to draw the Batman logo on his chest. Then Lois turns to the news room and rips open her shirt claiming to be Wonder Woman. But instead of drawing a big "W" on her chest Clark lets her make a fool of herself. Clark then makes up a silly excuse about how sick she must be to be hallucinating and the couple rush off to a stairwell where Lois confesses something took over her mind and she couldn't control herself.

Over in Gotham City, Batman swings out around the high rises to save a fortune teller from committing suicide. As he swings above the city Nightwing creeps out from the shadows and cuts Batman's line. When Batman makes his recovery he asks Dick what happened. Nightwing can only reply that he was a puppet and someone or something forced him to do it.

Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Plastic Man, are over in Russia in a town that has all but collapsed from freezing weather and lack of food. Here on a peace-keeping mission the JLA pass out food and offer comfort to the citizens. At the harbor some of the citizens are trying to syphon power from a nuclear sub to fuel a local power plant when the sub explodes. The resulting explosion destroys most of the city. But thanks to Green Lantern, who erects a giant green dome around the city, many manage to survive. Green Lantern explains that it takes too much concentration to keep the dome up and that he's weakening. If the dome falls then radiation will rush in and everyone will die. Out of nowhere the citizens inside the dome go berserk and start attacking the JLA inching there way towards Green Lantern. Doom is inevitable.

As such events occur around the world Martian Manhunter awakes in some futuristic laboratory in the clutches of The White Martians!

To Be Continued....

4Story - 4: The story was a great set up to a White Martian follow-up which I've been itching for since the first time they showed up in JLA #1-4. The only thing that bugged me was the hooky set up between Clark and Lois in the news room, but Mark Wad saves it by having Lois turn around and practically flash the whole news room.

Plus it leaves me wondering how will Kyle save all those people in Russia contained in his dome when their hell-bent on destroying him. I like being left with at least one thing to puzzle.

5Art - 5: Hitch is amazing. The Batman sequence was great. From the neon signs along the adjacent buildings, to the way Batman's cape swooped out as he swung in to save the fortune teller it was all very stunning. Plus, I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, but when Lois ripped open Clarks shirt you could see a little bit of the cape tucked into his shoulders. It always bugs me when that isn't drawn in whenever Supes rips open his shirt.

2Cover Art - 2: It just didn't say much about the book. Looks good. Just has very little relevance to the book.


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Mild Mannered Reviews

2001

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic was on sale.

January 2001

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