Monday, July 12, 2010

Justice #1 (October, 2005)



Missiles streaked through the skies, striking major cities the world over, killing everything in their eruption's wake. In Metropolis, Superman barely saved Lois Lane before setting her somewhere safe... except no place was safe, and Superman's Girlfriend was soon no more. The Man of Steel called on his super friends.

Wonder Woman, holding back a wall from collapsing on children, answered "I hear you, Superman. The same thing's happening in Rome. I don't know. I don't..." The Amazing Amazon's legs began to turn into stone, and the malady continued upward, until her face was a mass of fissures. "Hera help me. S-superman...?" Diana died first among her fellows, her smoldering corpse still leveraged against the wall.

An omniscient commentator criticized the heroes' performance as the Earth itself perished:

Some might say that I am being unfair. That mankind molded you into the beings you are. We made you into gods, like a potter would a piece of clay. You did not claim this for yourself. But I ask you, what were reasonable men to do in your presence?



Priscilla Rich awoke from her nightmare, nude in a luxurious circular bed, her twin cheetah companions unstirred in the penthouse suite they shared. Rich also shared the dream-- each of her compatriots in the Legion of Doom troubled by their nocturnal vision. Action would have to be taken, to save all of humanity from the coming failure of the Justice League of America...

"Chapter One" was plotted and painted by Alex Ross. The script was provided by Jim Krueger, and the penciled layouts by Doug Braithwaite.

Continue the story through these character-specific posts:

3 comments:

LissBirds said...

Pet cheetahs?! I want one!!

I have no idea if this Pricilla Rich is simliar to the Priscilla Rich from regular continuity, but I remember liking her here. I don't know why having a jungle/cat-based villainess works for Wonder Woman, but it just does on some level. (At least for me.)

Diabolu Frank said...

Maybe because unlike most WW villains, the Silver/Bronze/Modern Cheetah represents nothing? She just looks cool and has cat powers. I've been meaning to do an article about her...

LissBirds said...

"She just looks cool and has cat powers." This is always a winning formula for ANY female heroine, I think. You just can't go wrong! (Okay, there probably is an example out there, but for the most part...)

I kind of like the idea of villains standing for nothing, just being evil for the sake of being evil. I really dislike humanized villains--e.g. in the current issue of Batgirl we see Calculator's truamatic past, and that ridiculous musical "Wicked" which ruins everything about The Wizard of Oz, IMHO, by giving the Wicked Witch "motivation." Oh, please. Having a villain be evil becuase it's just plan FUN to be evil is a lot more entertaining in my book.

The only exception I'll take to humanized villains is Two-Face, and that's only becuase he's off the charts awesome, and tragic on Shakespearean levels.