Story:

"Syndicate Rules Part One: Maintenance Day"

Credits

Character Appearances

Featuring

Villains

  • Construct (an electronic consciousness formed from the network of humanities broadcasts; last appeared in Chase #2-3 (March — April 1998))
  • Powderkeg (meta-human thug - see note in Comments section; first appearance)
  • Crime Syndicate of Amerika (notes last appeared in JLA Secret Files 2004 (Nov 2004); except for Power Ring III) - Johnny Quick (The Flash’s anti-matter doppelganger), Owlman (Batman’s anti-matter doppelganger), Power Ring III (John Stewart’s anti-matter doppelganger; first appearance), Super Woman (Wonder Woman’s anti-matter doppelganger), and Ultraman (Superman’s anti-matter doppelganger)

Other Characters

  • Birgrit Ramot (Project supervisor of Pokolistan reconstruction project; first appearance)
  • Joseph R. A. Katuku (Exterior Liaison UN Cooperative Extranormal Warning System; first appearance)

Cameoes

  • Green Arrow I (member of the Justice League Elite; pops in to use the Watchtower computers)
  • Shilo Norman (Head of security at the Slab, former protege of Scott Free)

Story Details

Locations

  • JLA Watchtower (Duty cycle between Flash and the Martian Manhunter)
  • N-Space (A subdimension somewhere between Earth-Zero and Earth-616)
  • The Electromagnetic Plane (A naturally occurring cyberspace like domain; home of the Construct’s intelligence)

Continuity

The Watchtower is situated between the Ritter and Sabine Craters on the Moon’s surface. The third Thursday of each month is Maintenance Day at the JLA Watchtower. Unseen case: A Tidal Wave Near Jakarta. Unseen case: The Flat Earthers unleashing the “Heterodox Wave” in Alicante. The JLA has been monitoring the Construct on a quarterly basis. The Martian Manhunter has a civilian identity who works for the UN.

References

JLA/Avengers - At the end of the series Krona was sucked into an infant egg universe within N-Space.

Comments

This issue follows on from the second story in JLA Secret Files 2004 (Nov 2004). This issue contains a promotional eight-page Heroscape insert comic by Ty Templeton (writer), Billy Dallas Patton (penciller), and Sandra Hope & Kris Justice (inkers).

Batman is shown on the cover, but not appear in this issue. Aquaman appears to be back as a JLA member for the first time since the Obsidian Age (JLA #66-75 (July 2002 — Jan 2003)).

Powderkeg may look familiar. In a thread on the DC Message Boards JLA writer Kurt Busiek commented that Powderkeg was originally meant to be the Green Lantern villain Sledge, but somewhere down the line the name was changed in the script. The different name actually makes sense as Sledge was killed in Chuck Austen’s Superman: Metropolis #1-12 (April 2003 — April 2004) so this new character could well be his brother. Standard comic book operating practise: killed off a character you want to use again? Just introduce their never before seen brother/sister/parent/child and continue as normal.

N-Space? In Doctor Who N(ull)-Space was an alternative dimension populated by ghosts, Larry Niven had a short story collection called N-Space and there is always a possible connection with the Fantastic Four’s N(egative)-Zone. This N-Space appears to be a barren sub-dimension somewhere between Earth-Zero (the DC Universe) and Earth-616 (the Marvel Universe).

The Construct played a key role in Kurt Busiek’s Red Tornado #1-4 (July — Oct 1985) mini-series.

The Atom only appears in this part of this story, but in JLA #113 (June 2005) it is noted that only days have passed since the events of this issue. Therefore, the entire story takes place concurrent with or earlier than Identity Crisis.

Synopsis

Previously in JLA/AVENGERS: Metron of the New Gods had conspired with with En Dwi Gast, the Grandmaster of Earth-616, to divert the rogue Oan Krona to the Grandmaster’s home universe. They wagered to see if the assembled heroes of their Earths could stop Krona from destroying both universes in his pursuit of forbidden knowledge. The Justice League found themselves variously allied and arranged against Captain America and his Avengers. Together they defeated Krona and his essence collapsed into a Cosmic Egg - a baby universe waiting to be hatched.

Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Atom gather in N-Space to monitor the evolution of Krona’s Cosmic Egg. The Egg has been pulsating and there are notable fluctuations in the Mesa-Enthropic Spectrum, but there is no clear evidence of a link to the Egg or of what the Egg will do next.

The Martian Manhunter and the Flash are left to preform the monthly Watchtower maintenance cycle. The Manhunter makes the routine situation checks in his stride, but the Flash finds the paperwork dull. He appreciates its importance, but he feels that his time would be better spent actually out in the field hitting bad guys.

Part of their work is the quarterly observation of the Construct. They find that his hostile intelligence is reassembling at a rate far greater than previously estimated. They split the single hostile Construct intelligence into a vast number of smaller peaceful intelligences - essentially reformatting the monster into an entirely new sentient race.

Unknown to the heroes their endeavours are being watched by the Crime Syndicate of Amerika - hostile visitors from the Anti-Matter Earth.

Review

This eight-part story was meant to have been the first arc with Kurt Busiek and Ron Garney on board as the new regular team. Unfortunately the workload associated with a team book like the JLA didn’t cooperate with Kurt’s well being and with DC’s consent he handed back the assignment after completing just this story. One has to wonder if this didn’t actually work in DC Comics’ post-Infinite Crisis favour - after Geoff Johns and Allan Heinberg’s next arc there really isn’t much of a League left for anybody to write about. Nevertheless Kurt and Ron gave us cracking romp. This is high concept JLA, with sentient internets, interstellar warlords, and the hicks from the next door universe.

Kurt Busiek is certainly one of the more wordy JLA writers and it’s something of a jolt to come from Chuck Austen’s decompressed style of storytelling to this densely plotted arc. At eight issues this is one of the longer JLA arcs (The Obsidian Age is longer) and it packs in a hell of a lot of plot. The best characterisation - and nearly all the best lines - belongs to the Crime Syndicate. And despite all that plot and the nice characterisation of the Syndicate and Qwardians the League themselves remain third-fiddles in their own book. Not so surprising given that this arc was originally meant to have been a Crime Syndicate mini-series. I wonder how well it would have worked if it had been split into separate stories spread out through a longer run - more of an ongoing border war between the two universes.

We’re familiar with the Crime Syndicate from Morrison and Quietly’s JLA: Earth 2 (2000), but here we are given a far more detailed view of the politics and the day-to-day workings of the mirror Earth. One thing that I really loved about this issue was Garney’s depiction of Ultraman pretending to be Superman. His arrogance is brilliantly portrayed with the sneers and body of the language of the Syndicate reinforcing their inherent nastiness. I think that it was a mistake to completely remove the metaphysical rules that Morrison imposed on the anti-matter universe, but I can certainly understand how they tie the writer’s hands.

My only exposure to the Qwardians has been as stock alien-invadersTM so it’s rather interesting to see their society rationalised and explored. I’m really not sure how much Busiek invented and how much was a matter of connecting the dots, but the effect was brilliant. I’m reminded of the redefinition of the Klingon and Vulcan cultures that occurred during Deep Space Nine and Enterprise. I find the Qwardian leader - Irik T. Roval - particularly compelling. It is so fresh to actually see a comic book alien leader display real leadership qualities (courage, intelligence, charisma). Erdammeru is given a great origin and an even better build up, but you keep wanting to see more of it.

Ron Garney’s art has definitely picked up a bit from the previous arc and there are some very nice page layouts. I particularly like his use of the Flash’s staccato after images in JLA #107 (Dec 2004). With a Kurt Busiek story that is this crowded it is almost impossible not to compare the artwork with George Busiek’s work on the Avengers. Perez certainly beats Garney on the massive crowd scenes, but that comparison is unfair as Perez beats everybody on massive crowd scenes. However, I do think that it’s in the quieter, less crowded moments that Garney really gets to shine. The artwork on the first and second issues is particularly expressive and in the later sequence when the Syndicate are trying unsuccessfully to impersonate the League.

David Baron’s colours continue to give the book a distinctive look and while the switch to glossy paper is welcome I’ll miss the muted matte colours of the Watchtower. The mirror Earth is nearly always nighttime or overcast whereas the positive Earth is nearly always bright daytime or twilight. There are other almost pop-culture touches scattered throughout the arc that really show that the art team take there craft seriously. Things like the real 19th century French posters in JLA #110 (March 2005), the rare use of duotone behind the last shot of the Panopticon in JLA #114 (July 2005), and the shear number of birds that appear all over the place (Howard Porter use to draw a lot of them as well and I think Garney’s shares or shared office space with him).

(7/10)