JLA #59
"Bipolar Disorder"
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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DC Comics
Writers: Chuck Dixon & Scott Beatty
Pencils: Darryl Banks
Inks: Wayne Faucher
Colors: David Baron
Letters: Bill Oakley
Editor: Dan Raspler
Price: $2.25 US/$3.75 CAN |
Dixon and Beatty offer up a good crossover story that's not too intrusive and still maintains a consistent tone in the context of the series as a whole. They play with the same kind of huge ideas that Grant Morrison and Mark Waid have made an integral part of the series, but there's still something lacking that keeps this from being as powerful as other JLA stories.
A Joker-ized Dr. Polaris travels to the South Pole in order to deal with his multiple-personality disorder, which is compounded by his immense metahuman powers. In fact, Polaris extracts the pole's magnetic power, actually becoming the planet's new south pole. That new status threatens to tear the world apart, but every member of the Justice League finds him and herself vulnerable to the villain's apparently limitless magnetic powers.
Banks does a good job with the art, conveying both the power and the humanity of the title characters nicely. At times, Banks's work reminded me of the styles of other artists I enjoy, like Ron Garney and Sal Buscema. Baron's colors are crisp and fun as well. Still, there wasn't that much visually that really packed a dynamic punch either. The story is told clearly, but rarely goes beyond that level of simple competence.
Dixon and Beatty succeed in the unenviable task of conveying the enormity of Dr. Polaris's power. They have the character use his magnetic might in creative ways, and they describe it in a way that makes the impossible seem more plausible. The same be said for how the Justice Leaguers react to and deal with the crisis.
My problem with the book, though, is that I don't get a sense of any lasting characterization. The strength of recent stories in Mark Waid's run was that the pain and triumph the characters experience in this team book stayed with them. The way these characters interacted made for ongoing plotlines, but I don't get that sense from this story. It makes sense since it's a fill-in, but I still missed that emotional connectivity.
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