By [ad_1]
The way the Death of the Justice League is being promoted and told highlights how comics have changed since the Obsidian Age.
With the recent announcement that DC is planning to kill off the Justice League this coming April, speculation has been rife on what the company’s plans for their characters are going forward, considering a large number of their iconic character may soon be dead. While knowledge of what may happen in “Death of the Justice League” may still be limited, we can look to another story that killed off DC’s most iconic superhero team.
‘The Obsidian Age’ (by Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke) is a classic storyline from the critically acclaimed JLA title that brought readers other classic storylines like ‘Rock of Ages, ‘World War III’ by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter, and ‘Tower of Babel’ by Mark Waid and Porter. Like these arcs, it is a grand superhero that takes full advantage of what stories a universe that has time-travel, magic, and being with reality-bending powers can tell. It was also particularly bold as it killed the DC’s Universes main superhero team, something “The Death of the Justice League” seems to be planning to do as well. However, while there are similarities with “Obsidian Age” and how the “Death of the Justice League” is shaping up, there are some critical differences. Not just differences in the stories themselves, but in how they are told and how they highlight how comics have changed in the past two decades.
‘The Obsidian Age’ focuses on the Justice League quest to find Aquaman and the Kingdom of Atlantis after both had disappeared during the events of ‘Our Worlds at War’. After uncovering evidence that he was trapped 3000 years in the past, the League decided to travel back in time (despite Green Lantern Kyle Rayner’s visions of seeing his dead teammates after their previous battle with Manitou Raven). While Earth was being protected by the “backup” Justice League led by Nightwing, the core JLA ended up locked in battle with a group known as ‘The Ancients’. As Kyle predicted, the League died in battle having been weakened by their trip to the past, and their skeletons are discovered by the new League 3000 years later. The reserve League then found themselves fighting Gamemnae, the leader of the Ancients, who was attempting to submerge the entire planet in water, only to be thwarted by the Justice League whose spirits had been contained in a spell by Manitou Raven thanks to the blood-heart sacrifice of Kyle Rayner.
From what we can tell, ‘The Death of the Justice League’ seems to be very similar to ‘The Obsidian Age’, in that the Justice League find themselves battling an unstoppable “dark “foe and ultimately die in the process. It also looks like a new Justice League will be formed in the eventuality of their deaths to be filled in the void, much like the one seen in ‘Obsidian Age’. However, this also leads to a key difference in how the new story will deal with their ‘new’ Leagues. With “Obsidian Age”, the new JLA was composed of new and former Leaguers such as Green Arrow, Firestorm, Zatanna, the Atom, and Hawkgirl and was formed very shortly after the death of the previous team. With “Death of the Justice League”, there will be no Justice League title, and speculation points to some legacy heroes taking on the mantles of their mentors that they will be the ones likely to take their places on the DC Universe’s premiere superhero team.
Another difference also lies with how the stories were told. “Obsidian Age” was a storyline that was largely kept within the confines of the JLA title, never disrupting other DC titles as a universe-changing event, despite it briefly killing off their most important characters. While we still don’t know the exact plot details about ‘Death of the Justice League’, the fact that it has been heavily advertised and in addition to events in “Future State” and our knowledge of DC’s failed 5G Relaunch, signs seem to be pointing to the event to be the catalyst for a wider rebranding plan for DC as a whole. Though, due to the cyclical nature of comics as a medium, it is likely the original characters will be back, even if gone for an extended period of time.
This difference is key as it highlights how comic book storylines have changed over the past two decades, with what was once a single story arc in a popular title, can now lead to an event that can make major changes to the very brand of a comic publisher. Considering the difficulty comics seem to have in finding new readership despite the success of comic book movies on the silver screen, it may come as a little surprise to some that comic books need to start making more “event” comics to grab new readers attention. By making the Justice League’s potential death more of an event and replacing them with new heroes for readers to follow from the start, DC is hoping to engage them long enough so that they can eventually fall in love with their wider universe line. Such storylines, therefore, act as “jumping on points”, whereas, in the past, it was simply another epic arc that showcased how imaginative superhero stories can be.
About The Author
[ad_2]
