On Monday I jumped on the bandwagon a little to discuss the state of the Justice League of America and left things hanging a little by saying “we’re going to fix it”. I have to say that when I did so it was a spur of the moment thing, but following publication the idea began to take shape and the 24 hour bout of man flu cannot take all the credit. So, how am I going to fix the Justice League?

Why, make a pitch to DC Comics to take over the writing duties of course.

At this point in our proceedings, I’ll quite happily give you a few minutes to fully digest this statement and enjoy the hearty laugh which you no doubt are in the midst of enjoying. No rush. I’ve got time. Hear, have a look at this lovely cover by Ed McGuinness.

Wasn’t that nice?

So, I’m halfway through the manifesto and hope to publish this next week. It is not the most mightiest of tomes,  but I think it adequately captures what I’m trying to achieve and demonstrates a clear vision for where I want to take the Justice League. 

Don’t touch that dial!

Much comics based discussion has been focused on  the Justice League of America and its easy to see why. Just a few years ago the series was relaunched on the back of a company wide crossover event, with direction being set by a high profile team including bestselling author Brad Meltzer. However, after Meltzer had built a core team and worked with Geoff Johns to reinstate the annual JLA/JSA meeting – which this time included one of the myriad Legion of Superheroes  and as a particular storyline endgame brought back Wally West and his family from their Speed Force exile - he left. Post Meltzer, the series had some fill in writers, but in the main it was left to Dwayne McDuffie to write the book on an ongoing basis.

Which is where the trouble really started.

Not with McDuffie per se, but as we have seen in the last few months, the path to production of a consistent Justice League title was not smooth. In fact, arguably the only consistency in the title has been in the negative as critical – yes, and fan – feedback has been poor. What we’ve learned from the man himself is that while he had a direction for the team and storylines in mind all that was scuppered at many stages; an editorially mandated change impacting one storyline, saw him change tack fulfilling the request and setting off in a new direction, only for that to be impacted by another title or editor.  Now McDuffie has gone, fired after he set the record straight. Whether he should have taken such a public stance or not isn’t the issue; Justice League of America is a mess.

This shouldn’t be.

It must be DC’s flagship title. The best and the brightest of the DCU should be amongst its roster and a solid creative team should be in place, driving forward the title, team and characters with a vision for at least 2 years. When you have teams like The Outsiders and two sets of Titans working with a clearer direction than a team that should be as good as, if not better than, The Avengers from Marvel, then something is very wrong.

So we’re going to fix it.

Stay tuned.