If I had to describe JLA: Age of Wonder in three words, those words would be: Worth the wait. I've been hearing about this project from sometime, mostly from Tantimedh talking about it on the Warren Ellis forum, but this is that rare case when a long development time doesn't herald a project that shows the handprints of too many cooks. Instead, this is a clear alternate vision of DC's super-hero pantheon, with a style that is similar to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Tom Strong, exploring the social ramifications of the super-hero in a different age. Art is provided by one familiar name, P. Craig Russell, on breakdowns, and a new face, Galen Showman, on finished art, and the result is strong and intriguing, just like the story.
Much of the time, a more modern take on super-heroes comes with a somewhat dark and gritty approach, and there are very few exceptions to that. The most notable is the America's Best Comics line, which combines the fresh energy and optimistic viewpoint once produced in the pulps with an unwillingness to embrace the genre boundaries traditionally associated with the super-hero. Age of Wonder feels in many ways like a lost America's Best Comic, using more familiar heroes like Superman, Green Lantern and the Flash but portraying them in a light that is much more similar to Alan Moore's take on his own creations than most creators' takes on these long-standing characters.
The focus of this story is largely on Superman and how he influences the age of wonder in the title, but there's plenty of room to explore the other characters. In fact, the structure that Tantimedh uses is less that of a super-hero team and more that of an early corporation combined with a gentlemen's club. It's an ideal structure for the time period, when such institutions were common amongst the upper crust that the heroes belong to, and it has interesting parallels to the secretive super-hero team as well. Certainly the code of honor that binds these men, and their loyalty to one another, is not unlike that of a super-hero team, even as the way they structure it feels more like a group of friends than a group of heroes brought together by arbitrary writing to "team up."
The artwork has a similar "super-hero but not" vibe to it. It's definitely clear that Russell had a hand in this, as the clean, striking style of the work is very reminiscent of his best work, but Showman's work is not lost in the breakdowns by an old hand. There are some wonderfully imaginative designs for the turn-of-the-century costumes of the lead characters (I particularly like the faux-military appearance of Superman and Green Lantern), and the backgrounds and fashions are right out of the Victorian era, even as the introduction of technological elements give the whole thing a steampunk flavor.
Along with a fascinating setting, Tantimedh and company serve up an interesting and intricate plot that incorporates notions of social change (there are references to the philosophies of Nietzsche and Marx, among others) and the smaller scale story of personality conflicts, love and jealousy. Age of Wonder blends these conventional story tools with the unconventional powers and science of the super-hero genre, and the result is a strong concoction of steampunk fantasy. Along with the recently-released Batman: Nevermore, this raises the bar for DC's Elseworlds as a whole.
