Patton Oswalt? Who's Patton Oswalt? Isn't that the Penguin's real name? Oh, he's a standup comic, best known for his supporting role on King of Queens? Oh, I know the guy you're talking about. Of course, I'm not a sitcom fan these days, so I've seen little of his stuff on that show. I've heard about his standup, I think, but I've never seen his act. Well, I may not be a sitcom guy, but I am a comic-book guy, so I guess it's time to venture into Oswalt's brain to see what lurking about.
Hmm, looks like there's wit, intelligence, a manic quality tempered with reflective moments and a clear love of comics. Oswalt's first foray into comics storytelling boasts a couple of glitches, sure, but given the strength of his imagination and diversity of tone in the script, I pray these first steps into the medium aren't his last.
The JLA puts a quick stop to an alien invasion at its "beachhead" -- the St. John's neighborhood of Portland -- but in the process, the team teleports the local population to safety within the JLA Watchtower. Everyone is beamed back a short time later, save for a guy by the name of Marlus Randone. He runs his own niche magazine -- about super-heroes, no less -- and getting left behind and going unnoticed in the Justice League's headquarters is something of a dream come true. He sees a side of the world's greatest heroes that few know about, and witnesses a slowly escalating problem on Earth, as the percentage of people with metahuman powers is growing exponentially.
Oswalt clearly has a lot to say about the super-hero genre here and some big "widescreen-comics" ideas to play with as well. It makes for some crowded visuals throughout the book, but Gleason does a fine job of maintaining an extreme and entertaining level of detail. His approach here strikes me as a cross between the styles of JLA artists Howard Porter and Doug Mahnke. Of course, that busy look also works with the frantic tone of the script. One of Oswalt's goals here is to convey the jam-packed nature of these heroic archetypes lives, and Gleason reinforces that notion visually, not only with an abundance of detail but skewed perspectives and panel layouts.
The moments that stand out as the strongest in the issue are those in which the heroes -- notably the Batman and Wonder Woman -- takes unconventional approaches when dealing with the villains. Oswalt points out that the Batman is not only a dark avenger of the night, but a keen corporate negotiator, one who will seize an opportunity to redirect negative forces in positive ways. And Oswalt's training session for Wonder Woman and his suggestion for unconventional uses for her magic lasso was inventive. These are ideas that are worthy of Mark Millar's realistic take on the Avengers in The Ultimates.
The greatest weakness of Oswalt's script is its unrestrained qualities. He clearly has so many ideas, so much to say about super-heroes and these characters in particular, and there's just not enough space in this one-shot to accommodate it all. That one of the factors that leads to the hectic nature of the storytelling here. But it's easy to forgive him, because even when he touches on an idea all too briefly, it ignites the reader's imagination and points to something new that can be said about decades-old characters.
Though continuity zealots might be irked, Oswalt's story also seems to be a celebration of the DC Universe. Perhaps some of the references come from Gleason, but I have to believe that many came right out of the script. Ambush Bug and the Heckler make appearances here, and they're not even the most obscure of the cameos. The story boasts a goofy tone at times, but great respect for the characters and the genre shines through in this book.
