Thursday, March 09, 2006
The Greatest JLA/JSA Crossover Never Told
In the year 2000, we were all a bit less than satisfied with what we got. I didn't get to come to work via jetpack. I live with it to this day. Overall, much was expected and very little actually lived up to the promise of the future.
Except for the criminally under-rated 2000 release of DC 2000. I will put money on the line and say that DC 2000 is THE MOST UNDER-RATED COMIC OF ALL TIME.
Why? In a year where the future was king, leave it to writer "Crazy" Tom Peyer to show us that yes, in order to know where you're headed, you've gotta go back.
A quick note, please, before we begin... the term "crazy" is not a term we toss about loosely. "Crazy" is a badge of honor only bestowed upon men of vision. Men who see comics and see possibilities ordinary men never could. "Crazy" Bob Haney is the patron saint of "Seven Hells!" "Crazy" Robert Kahnigher The Absorbascon's. Today, I proudly add "Crazy" to the Tom Peyer handle.
Scip Garling cites this as "the greatest comics panel of all-time."Colored people rioting in the streets! Atomic bombs being dropped on Japan! "Queer" plastics! Sex! Bullets that can pierce through even the helmet of Jay Garrick, The Golden Age Flash! This is the future The Golden Age JSA cannot allow to come to pass, a future set in motion by villain T.O. Morrow.
I could go on and on about how great this comic is on premise alone but what I'd like to focus on is Peyer's writing. It's simply f*cking brilliant. After reading, DC 2000, you will never be able to see The JSA in the same light ever again. Jay Garrick is, of course, played as the voice of reason siding with The JLA who are forced by the actions of T.O. Morrow to come to the past in order for Earth to have a future.
DC 2000 is, alone, worth its' weight in gold for Peyer's portrayal of The Spectre...
How could you not love a comic where The Spectre supplicates himself before a laptop?The Spectre is portrayed as every bit "The Spirit of Judgement" and Peyer is the only writer who I've ever seen give the reader a sense of what working with him must be like...
Doctor Fate: Heathen!!!Could you imagine having to work with a guy like that?!? Well... actually, yeah.
DC 2000 is the greatest JLA/JSA crossover of all-time and I'd love to tell you how it all ends but it isn't in trade paperback. If you love reading good comics, do yourself a favor and find this one. We should all hunt down "Crazy" Tom Peyer and thank him for it.
Comments:
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Huh. I've never even heard of it. I can never turn down a JSA story. Thanks for bringing it up.
Verification word - nbajjbr, which just might be Kareem's secret codename.
Verification word - nbajjbr, which just might be Kareem's secret codename.
# posted by 
: 3:46 PM
: 3:46 PM
Tom Peyer rocks. Am I the only one who read the Peyer/Morales Hourman series? It's also not in trade-paperback, but it's oh so much fun...
Thank you for making this post Devon. I haven;t laughed like that in a long time.
# posted by : 7:27 PM
: 7:27 PM
"DC 2000 is the greatest JLA/JSA crossover of all-time" yet I never heard of it either. I haven't read much by Tom Peyer (if anything!), but I'll keep that Hourman series in mind too. What was the last series he worked on?
# posted by : 7:37 PM
: 7:37 PM
It was pretty good, actually, although the bit about modern firearms being harder for the Flash to stop displayed a certain ignorance of real ballistics (modern assault rifles really don't really have any better penetration than in WWII, just more reliability and a better rate of fire)... which was a minor flaw in an otherwise charming story. The reactions to the laptop *were* particularly good.
# posted by : 7:57 PM
: 7:57 PM
Peyer's a brilliant madman. I grew up in Syracuse, New York, where Peyer wrote and drew a satirical strip called "Sideshow" in the weekly alternative paper. It occasionally starred frequently-absentee Syracuse mayor Lee Alexander's cat. He also co-wrote "Captain 'Cuse," a Syracuse superhero strip, making that Peyer's first superhero work.
The Syracuse New Times collected both strips in floppy (stapled but thick) book collections and they were a hoot and a half. I've got to dig them out; they're a lot of fun.
The Syracuse New Times collected both strips in floppy (stapled but thick) book collections and they were a hoot and a half. I've got to dig them out; they're a lot of fun.
And oh wow, those are beautiful covers on this series:
http://comics.org/covers.lasso?SeriesID=7103
I gotta hunt these down. You may just have single-handedly driven up the back-issue price on these two issues, Devon.
http://comics.org/covers.lasso?SeriesID=7103
I gotta hunt these down. You may just have single-handedly driven up the back-issue price on these two issues, Devon.
How the hell did I miss this?
DANG IT!
And yeah, that telephone-dialing page is brilliant, in a crazy, crazy way. Mess with pacing, Peyer! Mess with that pacing! HA!
DANG IT!
And yeah, that telephone-dialing page is brilliant, in a crazy, crazy way. Mess with pacing, Peyer! Mess with that pacing! HA!
"DC 2000" was intended to be a thematic follow-up to "DC 1,000,000" though it didn't get nearly as much publicity. Since the JLA had just met their bizarre 853rd century counterparts, let's have the JSA meet their bizarre 21st century counterparts.
# posted by : 7:55 AM
: 7:55 AM
AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!
I loved this miniseries. Reading the JSA's reactions to the JLA of 2000 were just comedy gold.
"Must be weird working with an alien, Superman." "I...don't know what to say to that."
"I make you feel tall, don't I?" "Please. You don't know how much I need this."
And Val Semekis' art is quality. He was the go-to guy for all things JLA-related for years. In fact, he did more JLA stuff than the series' regular artists did! "D.C. One Million," "DC 2000," "JLA: Foreign Bodies" (Another underrated classic), "JLA: Incarnations," and other shit I'm not thinking of.
Good times.
Martin
boztopia.livejournal.com
P.S. By the way, the verification word for this entry was "fbonde," which should tell you how I feel about Daniel Craig. ;)
I loved this miniseries. Reading the JSA's reactions to the JLA of 2000 were just comedy gold.
"Must be weird working with an alien, Superman." "I...don't know what to say to that."
"I make you feel tall, don't I?" "Please. You don't know how much I need this."
And Val Semekis' art is quality. He was the go-to guy for all things JLA-related for years. In fact, he did more JLA stuff than the series' regular artists did! "D.C. One Million," "DC 2000," "JLA: Foreign Bodies" (Another underrated classic), "JLA: Incarnations," and other shit I'm not thinking of.
Good times.
Martin
boztopia.livejournal.com
P.S. By the way, the verification word for this entry was "fbonde," which should tell you how I feel about Daniel Craig. ;)
# posted by : 7:41 AM
: 7:41 AM
DC 2000 was great fun, although I'm not a big fan of Semekis' art (I think of it as "Howard Porter lite," and I'm not a big Porter fan). I don't think Semekis did a bad job, just not art I would go out of my way to find.
Anyway... I loved the scenes with T.O. Morrow's mom, and when the Spectre remarks how "computer" is such an odd name. Peyer should write more comics.
Anyway... I loved the scenes with T.O. Morrow's mom, and when the Spectre remarks how "computer" is such an odd name. Peyer should write more comics.
# posted by : 5:41 AM
: 5:41 AM
I just finished up my run of Hourman last week, and it is hallowed stuff. Peyer's work on that series is remarkable, and anyone who comes away from it with no love for Useless Robot Hourman or Snapper Carr is NOT RIGHT.
Also, the Day of Judgement Crossover was great.
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Also, the Day of Judgement Crossover was great.
# posted by : 7:51 AM
: 7:51 AM << Home
