Dissolving Deconstructo - Justice League Europe #38

 

DISSOLVING DECONSTRUCTO

JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE #38

Published: 31ST March 1992
Cover Date: May 1992
Cover Artists: Ron Randall / Randy Elliott
Penciler: Ron Randall
Inker: Randy Elliott
Colourist: Gene D'Angelo
Letterer: Willie Schubert
Editors: Brian Augustyn

Introduction
The hardest types of comics to talk about aren't the bad ones, they at least have something to complain about, it's the ones that are meh. And that's not an excuse for the rather sparse posting recently, though it probably didn't help, but this issue is twenty-odd pages of a single plot point.

Plot Synopsis

We open straight from the last issue with our heroes saying that they must take down the villain, whilst Batman wants to watch and learn about his powers. Pee Gee is again the impulsive hothead more ready to punch things than to think about how to deal with problems. Then we're back to the question of who will be the leader, with Power Girl pitching herself as the ideal person, with Batman sensibly bailing rather than getting involved again with such discussions.

The team split up with Pee Gee, Flash and Elongated Man running off after the villain, and when Kara and Wally agree on something you know things are going bad! Crimson Fox is thirsty for Batman, which I get but apparently that is her only personality right now. and only Dr Light is being sensible going to study her notes on the wand that gave the villain his powers.

Are those Cricket bats?

Flash forgets that he can walk on water when they find some houses standing on the Thames, whilst Pee Gee smashes through the front door of a house she's seen Deconstructo entering through. And we get this full-page splash that's meant to be an impressive deconstruction of Britain, except it is a hollow surface-level view of what outsiders think the British are all about (and there are a lot of criticisms you can make about the legacy of the British Empire, though this isn't it). He then disappears with Kara wondering how they catch this guy, which apparently makes Batman happy as watching from a distance he gives a half smile.

Whilst the rest of the team do very little, and Sue seems obsessed with getting a leader, Destructo takes the tube, whether it likes it or not into a Museum. I guess it's the British Museum, but it's never said. For the record, London apparently has 192 museums to choose from! We get a moment where he puts two random tourists in a frieze of Centaur & a Lapith in battle, though they sneak in a random woman, which is part of the  Parthenon Marbles (yes they should be given back) into the carving to quote random deconstructive dribble. It should be horrific, but it has no build-up and is just left as is with the plot moving on with no more mention of the poor couple.

He climbs on the back of the Assyrian winged lion, though the real one isn't coloured, and flies off into the night as Pee Gee and Flash return to the embassy. Meanwhile, we have a moment with Ralph and Batman, where Ralph, who remembers is a detective, figures out that Deconstructo can't create anything, only remix ideas and concepts that already exist. Ironically whilst he can deconstruct things he can't reconstruct things into new better ideas, which isn't a meta[hore for most of 90s comics then I don't know what is!

Anyway, we need to get to the end of the comic so everyone realises that Deconstructo is waiting around Nelson's column and we get another beat around who's the leader before Power Girl goes rushing off to fight the guy, ending up getting a beat down from the Nelson statue, the fight ending with Power Girl apparently being beheaded!

Again a moment that should be shocking but, I'll admit it might be because Pee Gee is still happily around thirty years from this issue, but comes across a little flat.

Final Thoughts

When Morrison or Moore refers does deconstructive thing it's obvious that they do actually understand the things that are talking about or are very good at bluffing it. This however is surface-level stuff, with little or no understanding of what it's babbling on about. Part of the problem is that everything the villain is doing should be horrific, but it's not given enough space for us to get a feel of what's happening. Instead of beating the dead horse that the League needed a leader a few extra panels giving those background characters a little history would have gone some way of increasing the impact of what was happening. I'm not expecting full Vertigo here, but you can't do reality warpers without dealing with just how horrific their disregard for people would be!

Still, we'll have to wait to see how they recover Pee Gee from the rather bloodless beheading, unless this blog has a sudden and rather shocking end coming up!