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Mild Mannered Reviews - JLA Comics

JLA: Classified #47

JLA: Classified #47

Scheduled to arrive in stores: November 28, 2007

Cover date: Late January 2008

Writter: Mike W. Barr
Penciller: Randy Green
Inker: Andy Owens

"Repo-Men" - Part One

Michael Bailey Reviewed by: Michael Bailey

Click to enlarge



After a meeting of the Justice League of America several Destroyers from the planet Qward invade their headquarters to steal weapons that the League has collected over the years. Despite their seeming departure Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Green Arrow and the Atom surprise the Destroyers. After a brief battle several of the Destroyers distract the League with an explosive device. Green Lantern shields his comrades with a protective bubble while the Atom ducks into a sub-atomic universe to avoid the blast.

GL briefs the League on the history of the Destroyers. Knowing the Destroyers can't be allowed to keep the weapons the League quickly leaves for Coast City. Green Lantern knows of a wormhole that can take them to the Anti-Matter universe. Their journey is a rough one but they manage to take down a squadron of Destroyers and steal their uniforms to disguise themselves once they reach their desitnation. They enter the main city and do their best to fit in with Hawkman playing the part of the strict and tyrannical Weaponer, the rank below the Destroyer to near perfection.

Word reaches the high command of suspicious Weaponer behavior. They check the security footage and see the League arrive. The Master Weaponer orders all of his subordinates to immediately assemble as part of his plan to uncover the invaders.

Green Lantern and Atom arrive at the Dataport where the Weaponers records are stored and begin searching for the location of their lost weapons. Before they can find them an alert pops on the screen demanding that all Weaponers report to the Citadel at once.

At the Citadel the Master Weaponer orders his men to kneel. The only ones who fail to do so are the disguised members of the Justice League, which blows their cover. They try to fight through the crowd of assembled Weaponers but are eventually taken down by what the Master Weaponer calls Project Zero. When they regain consciousness Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Green Arrow and the Atom find themselves stripped of their personal weapons and face with a group of Destroyers who now have possession of them.

4Story - 4: You know, it wasn't the greatest story I've ever read but based on my affection for Mike W. Barr's writing and my numerous problems with the previous story arc I rather enjoyed this opening chapter to "Repo-Men".

I didn't think I was going to. When I read the plot synopsis I had severe doubts. The story sounded like a Silver Age JLA story brought to the present with contemporary art, which is always a dodgy proposition for me as a reader. I am not the biggest fan of the Silver Age JLA. I like the history and the plots are more often than not interesting but the dialogue is just not for me. So the concept of the Justice League getting their weapons stolen and having to get them back did not get me all excited.

While the dialogue wasn't the best I've seen from Mike W. Barr it did capture the feeling of those older stories. The Leaguers were friendly, chummy even. Considering the past several years of angst, angst and more angst it is kind of refreshing to see Green Arrow and Hawkman getting along. I also dug the fact that the League came back to catch the Destroyers while they were pilfering the weapons case. It just made the League look good.

The rest of the issue was enjoyable as well. It felt like the early sixties League as written with the conventions of the seventies. The "Satellite" League had a certain vibe to it and that's how this story felt but it also had the very Silver Age, "Oh no! The Weaponers have stolen our weapons! We're powerless" edge so it was a nice mix of the two eras. I liked the action and the sneaking around and even the ending, which may have seemed like your standard cliffhanger ending but was a lot of fun nonetheless.

I think that's why I liked this story. It was fun. Not an earth shaking epic or a shift to a new status quo or something that changes how we look at a character forever. It was just a group of super heroes going off to another world because someone stole their stuff.

And for this month that was enough for me.

4Art - 4: Randy Green and Andy Owens drew a great early era Justice League story. The characters and action both looked good. I may write this a lot but I am a big believer of the art and writing complimenting each other and that was certainly the case with this issue. Honestly I have no complaints that are worth mentioning.

Wow, I liked the writing and the art. That's kind of amazing considering my recent bout with not liking about half of what I read.

4Cover Art - 4: This was a solid, old school style cover. As with the story I liked this piece more than I thought I would. It tied in with the story and was a nice bit of art at the same time.


Mild Mannered Reviews

2008

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

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