RETURNINGJUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE #39
Published: 28th April 1992
Cover Date: June 1992
Cover Artists: Ron Randall
Penciler: Ron Randall
Inker: Romeo Tanghal
Colourist: Gene D'Angelo
Letterer: Willie Schubert
Editors: Brian Augustyn
Introduction
Around this time I was at university, college for my American friends, I shared a house with someone who dressed a little like Deconstructo white biy dreads and holey black CUD jumper. It has nothing to do with the story or the character, (as I recall he was more a Brian from Spaced) but at least I get a nice memory from this comic!
Plot Synopsis
Oh no Power Girl is dead, as a weird sexy corpse because of the '90s. Flash goes after the villain to almost falls to his death, catching onto one of the hands of Big Ben. Before the villain faded away into a Union Jack flag because symbolism!
We also get a page of him babbling on about classical art, as instead of regular pictures he'll give London complete chaos. Suddenly remember that she's both a doctor and has light powers Doctor Light give an assessment that Power Girl is in fact not dead especially as she looks like someone has ripped the head off a Barbie doll! I'm not sure if it's a comment on how bloodless superheroes fight, that Pee Gee is a plastic doll, or just that someone can't write good tension scenes. Batman, because he's Batman, figures that the villain is just a failed artist who's disillusioned with the world and is doing empty meanless acts of art. Crimson Fox even gets a moment where she's not being slinky as she takes a pop at how she hates Nihilisms because they're afraid to live.
Now I am not a Philosopher or an artist, but as far as I understand it there are two types of Nihilism. There's the poster boy of the movement of Niechiev who came up with almost all of those cool quotes about the abyss and Man and Superman stuff (though some of his stuff later stuff was twisted by his sister who was a die-in-the-wool Nazi). The poor sad philiospher is the one that the media like to trot out when talking about the whole movement. But there's another train of thought, and I apologise for not knowing which philosopher to credit, that things might be meaningless but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be good to each other and enjoy what we've got. And to be fair to this comic it does give Crimson Fox this moment, but in two panels with a really terrible phonetic accent.
When Flash arrives by not trying to find his way home they figure out that Deconstro isn't really warping reality but affecting people's minds, if they believe what he's doing it sort of happens through the power of ideas.
So with a holoprojector, which involves an almost clever joke about Crimson Fox being a twin, Basically Crimson Fox replaces Deconstruto, who's spread around everywhere with herself, drawing the man out so the rest of the team can take the wand, the source of his powers away from him. And with that, he's bought down by the team, and hence all that he's done, well Power Girl at least, is returned to normal.
We have a page of the team being pleasant with each other, with Pee Gee accepting help from Doctor Light, and Batman rejecting the offer of being the leader because he works better alone. This is the man who's been on multiple teams and has already had a few Robins, but yes he works better alone!
And on the final page, we have the arrival of grey-streaked Hal Jordon to become the team's leader!
Final Thoughts
Writing anything is difficult, a skill that I've obviously not mastered, and I'm normally not one to suggest how to do someone else's job, but here's how I'd probably tell this tale.
First, rather than a single page setting up his background, I'd show the villain's growing discontent and disillusionment with the art world. Maybe in the first issue or scattered through the three issues, keep most of the League stuff but drop the stupid who's going to be the leader crap. The second comic can be his spree though taking more time to set up the poor victims before they seem to become part of the villain's performance art, Pee Gee appears to die but makes it less obvious if she survived or not. Finally, the villain won't be defeated in a half-arsed fight but by Crimson Fox talks him down in a debate about art and philosophy and generally shows how she's smarter than I appear.
Maybe still hot trash, but at least more coherent than what we got. Still, we have Hal, things have to get better right?
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