Changing - Justice League Europe #37
CHANGING
JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE #37
Published: 17th March 1992
Cover Date: April 1992
Cover Artists: Ron Randall / Murphy Anderson / Bob LeRose
Writer:
Penciler: Ron Randall
Inker: Randy Elliott
Colourist: Gene D'Angelo
Letterer: Willie Schubert
Editors: Brian Augustyn
Introduction
Today I learned two new words reading this comic, which is good as if shows that comics can be educational. This sounds like I'm about to say this because there's nothing else good about this comic, which surprisingly I'm not, though it's not as simple as you'd first expect!
Plot Sypnosis
We start with a full page of cheesecake as Kimiyo (Doctor Light), who for some reason is in just a towel is zipping up Power Girl's new costume. Ralph, who seems to be innocent here rather than a letch, has the door slammed in his face for looking in on the scene. He then talks to Sue who seems to have been put in charge as they explain that this "new" JLE is being launched at a fancy event that very night. She then meets Inspector Marple (Marple, as in Miss Marple. get it!) who's been summoned after a squatter they had.
In short order, we learn that the JLE has the use of the Embassy for the next few months until the lease runs out and that Sue and Kimiyo surprised a squatter who was graffitiing the embassy (obviously Beefeater has already moved on). Doctor Light give chase but the man gets away with some device that they'd captured from the Royal Flush Gang. To give this comic some credit it's actually a very efficient way to get across this information across. The Detective also call the man a scofflaw, a term I promise you no Englishman has ever uttered! If Google has me right it's a term, just over a hundred years old it seems, for a violator of minor laws, and a law unto themselves which is appropriate to the person when they show up later...
In a less well-done scene, we have Power Girl and Crimson Fox fighting over how they approach their sexuality, especially to controlling men, which quickly pivots to the fact that Kara has mood swings! Yes, boys and girls, we're at that point where it's explained that Power Girl's mood swings are due to drinking diet sodas. To give it a very weak defence it at least comes from Kimiyo, who when first introduced and up to appearing in the first JLI, had a very acerbic personality that has been softened since those appearances. And that's because it's a very stupid idea that didn't deserve all the setup for this very weak payoff.
Talking of weak plotting we have Arthur (Aquaman) talking to Wally (Flash) about who's going to lead the JLE in the field, putting the idea of Wally taking leadership in the field. We also see a superhero costume designer who tries to convince the pair to get new costumes, which does little but confirm that Wally has had a new costume for the last few issues. We also get a brief look at our villain, the before-mentioned squatter, who's waving a rod around and talking about who the JLE has no one from Europe on the team. Which is actually a fair point, even if the character looks like a Gibbson knockoff, I was thinking mostly Ian but Willaim also works in this case!
We then cut to a fancy gallery, apparently just over the road from the embassy, where Bruce Wayne (Batman, if not obvious) is talking to the curator of the building, The man is here to basically explain what a Deconstructionist is, how the interplay between mind and language reveals human creativity. Obviously, it's a play with the term here both the idea of how we use words to define the world and also how literature can take apart a text to point out the flaws and cliches in a work. At this is post Watchmen where the entire superhero genre was taken apart but Alan Moore to show its flaws. The 90s from this point on will take all the wrong lessons from this form the work instincts of 90s comics! Though ironically this issue is still very much still playing to its 80s roots. It's also a few years since another Brit. Grant Morrison, has introduced the Brotherhood of Dada as a bunch of villains based on a surrealist artistic movement.
Ironically, as you may remember Power Girl has appeared with, this is a poor knockoff of the gonzo style of the Doom Patrol of the time!
Oh yes, I guess that I should talk about the costume! It's okay, it's nowhere near my favourite but I don't particularly hate the thing, though the tiny Captain Marvel (the DC version) is not a good look. I just can't seem to work up any enthusiasm for the thing good or bad, it just is a thing that we now have to deal with!
We then in short order find out that the Deconstrutanist can remix or redefine things, in some disturbing (but not gratuitous) panels. In quick order, he goes to flower-headed doves to merge people into statues and paintings, a tiny stabbed man in a Martini glass (with a giant olive to match) and one with metal arms. All our heroes though, supper and otherwise seem to be unaffected but the villain's efforts. In only two pages, and as it's just random extras, it isn't given enough impact to be horrific and just seems overly mean-spirited. Yes, it's something that Vertigo was just about to start doing, and at the time proto-Symbol was about to discover the joys of such things, but that's horror in a horror comic here it just seems out of place.
Our hero's attempts to swing into action are cut short when they slam into a church that came out of nowhere and we get a page of pretentious sayings, deliberately in this case, to introduce the Deconstructionist. For a very pale and thing Batman to rally the League saying the only way to fight the villain is with mastery of the mind!
Final Thoughts
Normally I have a pretty good idea of what I think of a comic, either I like or hate it, or it meh, but I can't quite make my mind up about this one.
It has some solid character moments, but it also has Pee Gee and Crimson Fox fight again, and that whole diet soda non-reveal. Subplots are seeded but with such a break from everything that's gone before they seem so light and substantial. And they both, who will lead the team and who will romance Kara seem to involve Wally (and stupid sexy Aquaman, it's obvious who the writer favours here).
The villains a weak knockoffs of several other better villains, by much better writers, but he's meant to be a cliche and for better or worse the comics does have some surreal moments thanks to his actions.
I think in the end the true test of this comic is that I have no strong desire to read it again any time soon, and I'm not chomping at the bit to find out what happens next.
But onwards I shall go to tell you, and find out myself, just where this story goes next!
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