Customer Reviews

Justice League of America: New Maps of Hell

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

JLA Classified: New Maps of Hell is a Justice League of America comic by Warren Ellis and Guice Jackson. It features Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter. It also features some of the most stunning artwork I have ever found in a comic book.

Like I said, the artwork is amazing. There is a thoroughly realistic look to the human characters, and Lois in particular is striking: smoking hot facial expressions and exquisite depiction of her posture, even reclining on a couch. She is truly beautiful, and not in a smutty way. From the first few pages I was hooked on the treatment of Superman and Lois; more adult and serious - not dark per se, just "down to earth" (pun intended). However, Lois and Superman were the only characters I got this good feeling for, probably because none of the other characters had a "partner" of any sort to contrast with.

Secondly, I was pleased to find a decent level of science fiction in this comic. I readily admit that I am not well read in comics, so maybe this is a norm for super hero comics, but I don't think it is. Superman uses his super-vision to see his environment at a microscopic level; he discovers a weakness in the antagonist by analysing the wavelengths of visual signals. The Oracle at the Bat Cave uses a network of super-hero analysts to decode messages. Some of the sci-fi elements seemed natural to me, like Superman using his super vision to look at the microscopic world. Some elements seemed a bit dodgy, such as telepathic broadband! Does that mean there are some super heroes stuck on telepathic dial up??

A third element I enjoyed was the brief introduction to Lex Luthor as a hard hitting business man who had made himself president of America. I imagine he will be a serious antagonist in this role in future issues.

What I didn't enjoy so much was the overall story. It was too short. There wasn't enough of it to really suck me in, to involve me emotionally in what the characters were going through. Perhaps it is simply a reflection of the relative brevity of the comic. Maybe it needs to be "novel" length to get really serious with the story. Or perhaps Watchmen spoiled me; having read Watchmen recently, I secretly expect the same depth in every comic.

I thoroughly enjoyed this comic for the artwork and science fiction concepts used. I found the story deficient, but not so much that I regret buying the book. 4 out of 5.

I'm a pretty big fan of Warren Ellis' other stuff and Guice's art looks very nice (he draws a great Oracle!!!) but this story, at best, is mediocre JLA stuff. You know, the type of JLA story where they go fight something powerful, lose in the fight for a bit, but eventually beat it. While that may be considered good for other writers, I was really hoping Ellis would have it be better than that. Unforunately, that's not the case.

Ellis should be ashamed that he wrote this.

There is no motivation for any of the characters to act they way they do.

And why is Green Lantern all of a sudden being drawn in a costume that was never seen before.

Truly, a missed opportunity.

I had a look at this because Warren Ellis was writing it. It is not bad, and not good, either. It is basically an average Justice League of America story, with a little bit of a JLA twist. Ellis only fans probably won't be too interested, but JLA fans won't mind it too much at all, it is just another of things.

I've disowned the JLA ever since The Tenth Circle came out, but I picked this up because I desperately missed the company of my old DC friends. The art work was definently some of the better stuff I've seen, but the writing was not what I wanted to see. I got an overall sense of a blase attitude from the JLAers in that "Sure, this guy is a little tough, but we've seen worse, we'll beat him eventually." There was very little doubt in both my mind, and I think the characters' minds that they would overcome the threat by the end of the book. And that's what I hated the most.