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Underground > Comic Books >

JLA: Classified #2

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14:31 / 29.11.04

Coming Dec. 22nd! The ultimate (ha ha) Christmas/Hannukah/equinox/pagan holiday hijacked by the X-Christians present to us all!!! Calooh, callay!

Very much looking forward to this.

Hih. Hh. *snort*

16:27 / 29.11.04

Any previews come out for this yet?

17:00 / 29.11.04

There's one preview page in the thread for #1, I think, towards the very end. Nothing else as of yet...

20:22 / 29.11.04

I take it back, the one-page preview for issue 2 (along with the nifty androideriffic cover) is on page 2 of the 4-page threads under #1.

miss wonderstarr

22:59 / 02.12.04

I read the first post as "2nd December" and went to my comic shop today all excited

03:51 / 03.12.04

Me too. The guys there looked at me funny.

20:55 / 20.12.04

TWO DAYS!!!

TWO!!! DAAAAYYYYYSSS!!!

lonely as a cloud...

07:28 / 21.12.04

Really looking forward to this. I always love George doing the JLA...just such fun!

Haus of Mystery

18:58 / 22.12.04

Just got this from 'Fanboy Rampage':
Artist Matthew Clark has alerted THE PULSE to news of his next project after Adventures of Superman. Clark is working on an arc of JLA Classified written by Peter Milligan

Woo Hoo!
Did that 'Kid Amazo' thing ever come out? Did anybody buy it?

02:37 / 23.12.04

I think Kid Amazo got put back on the shelf, i.e. indefinitely postponed, not sure...

JLA Classified #2 = GREAT FUCKING COMIC

Neb-Uh-Loh in his human ram or whatever form actually creeped me out. This was just really amazing, felt like I was back in Grant's first JLA run. Grant has the ability to make me scared that these characters might actually lose, even though I know deep down they'll win. That ability is something that always impresses me in any heroic fiction. I feel VERY scared for the Ultramarines and pretty scared for the JLA.

Ed McGuiness is a great match-up with Grant M., whod'a thought it?

Black Death is right cool. That page of his diary was creepy.

and a reference to 'the Seven'! Yay!

14:17 / 23.12.04

Oh, aye.

Didn't think of that. Was just thinking of the 'big 7'.

I think Warmaker One is running about naked, at that bit when Glob puts Knight's head in himself.

Not as good as #1. Still really, really good, though.

Haus of Mystery

16:22 / 23.12.04

Surely that was Superman keeping the diary?

Absurdly satisfying on every level. I want to see the JLA hurt Grodd.

Will write more when I finish my chips.

16:58 / 23.12.04

Technically, Warmaker One IS naked. No clothes at all. No body, either.

(Sort of like Wildfire of the Legion, but without the energy projection)

18:03 / 23.12.04

I love that part where superman says : PLEASE don't hurt these people anymore than they already have been. black death is massively overpowered and superman still says please. proof positive that grant GETS superman.

and of course: 'Apes evolved from humans'

this comic makes me feel good inside.

18:13 / 23.12.04

so we're going meta meta now?
our universe is a baby universe?
Are we just a part of GM's imagination? :P
Do heroes taste like chicken?

BOOM TUBE ENGAGE!
BOOM!

18:26 / 23.12.04

Ah, sorry to ask...
I tried to find Black death on the net... found nothing
Did this guy exist before? What are his powers?

Haus of Mystery

19:18 / 23.12.04

Umm...poisoning people and stuff?

The beginning sequence was really atmospheric. The infant baby universe being ours and all, I loved that they had to stay hidden. Just little glimpses, motifs of power. The fact that Superman said that our universe is bad enough without supervillains. Fucking top.

Haus of Mystery

22:29 / 23.12.04

Oh yeah. Batman:

That went well

Made me piss my knickers.

23:21 / 23.12.04

Poor Kurt Busiek and any other writer taking on the JLA. Grant not only shows you how it's done, he makes it looks easy and I wonder why it can't always be quite this good.

The way Black Death's writing appears on his journal, all cropped up to fit the panel, it makes me wonder if there are more words than what we see and perhaps his thoughts are not as we read them...

Some favorite bits:

Black Death's poison pen!

The Matrix phones in the baby universe!

All the BOOMs and references to Thunder - what's that all about?

"This was their best?"

and IT'S NOT OVER UNTIL THE WORLD ENDS!!!

23:52 / 23.12.04

Black Death has no previous DCU appearances that I've been able to uncover - my guess is that he's the revamped Black Hand Morrison was talking about, just in time for the 7 Soldiers revamp.

(Black Hand and the Nebular Man were the major villains against the original 7 Soldiers).

Love the Frank Miller-style 16-panel grids for the superhero-less world. LOVE his diary. Bothered that the colorist has now decided that it is grey mucous seeping from Grodd's nose and not glorious brain blood (though it was likely editorial).

Like the silly bit with Neh-Buh-Loh saying he was sent to kill the seven, inferring the JLA, but we know the truth.

LOVE that Grant gets Batman trussed up and bonded on a proper spit. Now his hunky man with the gentle curl can come and rescue him, even if chances are he's got it figured out already anyway. Why do no other writers take advantage of Batman's lovely kink? Of course he leads the JLA...

"I've always wanted to eat Batman. But now... I don't know where to begin."

06:33 / 24.12.04

Shit, I knew I'd be late for the thread and this is the best part of the comic apart from the comic itself, which wouldn't be a part of itself now would it? I rest my case.

Cool bits:

* The Atto-Earth inside the Infant Universe of QWEWQ. A world without superheroes. This is so blatantly supposed to be our world or an Earth-Prime analog but Grant has the JLA try to leave our Earth uninfected by these gods. Self-imposed fiction/non-fiction barrier?

* Black Death, evil cahnt.

* Batman treating his JLAndroids as pawns in a huge game of chess. (OMG CHESS BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE PLAYING BLACK OMG SEAGUY?)

* Fauxlash dismantling Grodd's gun like an exploded map diagram.

* The 4x4 grid at the very beginning. Super-compressed information for a super-compressed micro-universe. I wouldn't be suprised if Grant is trying to compress the entire DCU down to QWEWQ size.

* Beryl's entire dialogue makes my heart go pitter-pat. And fings. Oh, and the hook dedicated soley to her pony-tail during her mission impossible moment.

* Batman, for all his planning, still needing the help of the OTHER members of the cast. Good stuff.

* Inner-Glob POV as he inserts the Knight's head into himself. Ooh er.

Loved this, things have really skipped along like stone across a pond in the space of two issues. Loved Batman's assault on Superbia, Grodd's insane dialogue. Nebulo is a creepy fuck and I'm not sure who's manipulating who here. Like how we were right when we said there's more than one way into Nebulo. Him being in his own shape, the shape of Pulsate and - presumably - in the shape of QWEWQ at the Pluto Base. Roll on #3.

More as I remember it.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:04 / 24.12.04

"They told me you were educated on the streets. Were these the streets of Princeton, Beryl?"

Batman as sarky fucker: I love it.

Who knew Ed McGuinness was this good, I mean seriously? The way he crams in all the clever formal stuff like the gun-dismantled-into-componenet parts and the 4x4 grid and yet keeps it so cartoony and pop. Great.

If clumsy Clark Kent saving the woman by knocking over her drink doesn't get you excited for Morrison's Superman, well...

My only complaint: I would have preferred it if Grodd's response to "What happened to all those people?" was simply "I ATE THEM!" again...

BrianFitzgerald

14:44 / 24.12.04

Having never heard of "The English Batman" before, I am amazed at how much I really like The Knight. Handing out guns, verbally spanking/sparring with Jack, planning the assault to take back the city, trying to convince himself and the others that he's not worried about Beryl. . .in short, quite a lot on his mind, yet when the Master's betrayal is revealed, The Knight starts barking orders before anyone else realizes what the hell's going on. I'm not sure, but I think, on my first reading, The Knight figured it out before I did, and I already knew about it. How cool. And his orders were good, too; if only his teammates could move as fast as he thinks, they might have taken down The Master.

Plus, his first concern when captured: the innocents. He really is Batman, and yet he's not THE Batman, and yet he's not a wannabe or imitation. . .he's somehow the real deal, like a manifestation, like he's tapped into the Batman Force in the same way that Barry and Wally and Bart and Jesse all tap into Jay's Speed Force. This is superhero storytelling at its finest.

Of course, it's generally pretty easy to spot the coolest character in a Grant Morrison tale: just look for the bald guy.

There were so many great moments in this issue, but I think my favorite was Batman's almost-laugh in response to Beryl's "Take care of yourself" line.

17:55 / 24.12.04

i love the pace of the whole thing. notice how there are still a couple ultramarines in the backround we haven't even met yet. the olympian, tasmanian devil, and maybe dr mist and another lady by the look.

so it's intro them and the JLA, bigg ass fight, more grodd screaming, batman reveals he had THE PLAN all along, and then it's the freed ultramarines and and jla against grodd and nebulo, with a heartfelt reunion for knight and squire. tidy wrap up and out in 22 pages.

and more goraiko. curb stomping grodd. cause it's the right thing to do.

did anyone notice the bat bomber they flew in on this ish? wtf? brilliant.

13:27 / 25.12.04

Anyone want to identify the all ultramarine corps in that square?

and, when Batman s struck by Nebulo, he is taking something from his belt, and when he is tied, his hands are fists.

13:36 / 25.12.04

A trick of all escape artists from Houdini to Jim Steranko, clench fists and tense your body so that when you relax there is a bit of slack in your bonds for the escape.

16:20 / 25.12.04

"Batman has a plan ?"

"How soon they forget , Batman always has a plan"

Kingdom Come

ONLY NICE THINGS

20:36 / 25.12.04

Anyone want to identify the all ultramarine corps in that square?

At a guess... left to right:

The Little Mermaid: Presumably II, as the first was killed by Jack o'Lantern (I, I think) in the Giffen/DeMattheis Justice League.

Impala

Pulse

Tasmanian Devil (?)

4-D

The Knight (II)

Olympian

Jack o'Lantern

Not sure about the last one - she was a member of the Suicide Squad, but I can't place the name offhand...

22:34 / 25.12.04

Looks a bit like Vixen.

00:17 / 26.12.04

Anyone know what the equations from Goriako were this time? I was very impressed that 'Lithers knew the equations from #1.

I love that Batman, famous for being nigh-undefeatable in Grant's "first" JLA run, gets totally clocked here.

I'm a sucker for silouhettes of the JLA with their logos/icons highlighted....I know it's cliche by this point, but I still love it. And I dug the close-ups of the JLA's icons and logos too, in the little panels.

Haus of Mystery

12:55 / 26.12.04

Earlier I said it was Superman keeping the diary, but friends have claimed I talketh the bollocks. I've only read it once so far, but was I totally wrong? My initial reaction was that it was Black Death, but then I figured the words could equally apply to Supes. Am I totally misguided?

13:41 / 26.12.04

You are, unfortunately, utterly misguided, if for no other reason than visually. The man writing the diary has a black suit and cleanly slicked-back purple-highlighted hair. He wears gloves. His tie, and the ink are also purple, which is Black Death's motif-color in the issue. When Clark knocks the glass over he's not wearing gloves, and as he leaves the diner his suit is blue.

All that aside, Superman would never in a million years write those words down. I love its broken dreams? Half-people? Drab lives? What wishy-washy goth Superman inhabits the pages of your mind, dear MacGyver?

Also, Superman does keep a diary, in Kryptonian.

Haus of Mystery

14:37 / 26.12.04

Yeah I think I'm 100% not on the money here. For some reason I liked the idea of Supes Big Secret being that he longed for normality and anonymity... Ahh well, that's what happens when you post after reading once, in a pub. It just seemed like a nice touch.

Believe me though Dones, I have no desire to see a 'wishy-washy Goth' Superman.

But I bet you secretly love the Sandman with all of your heart 'dear'.

19:07 / 26.12.04

Hahaha - Touche'.

A beautiful tunnel of ghosts

23:04 / 26.12.04

I like the Master's costume, which I noticed this issue has the Sephiroth of the Qaballah represented on it, with Kether on his forehead. The Sheeda Spine-Rider, which I think is the issue's second reference to 7 Soldiers, could be seen as a Qlippothic demon, appearing as it does on the back of the Master's neck, the 'reverse' of the 'Tree'.

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