As some of you may know I have started a new tumblr blog dedicated to the new Justice League book that is coming out in September from the creative team of Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. I’ll be focusing more on this title then any of the other titles to come out of the DCnU reboot since it is the flagship of the reboot. With that being said it doesn’t mean I am yet a big fan of the current direction of this Justice League. Heavens no, I have my big qualms with its roster, and that’s what this blog post is going to be about. Things I would be doing differently if I was in charge of the Justice League reboot.
First off with them promoting the idea of diversity with in the titles as well as in the Justice League I would definitely be changing up the new roster, but still keeping to the tradition of the original seven. So yes you would still see Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter, those seven are the heart and soul of what the Justice League is, or at least they are to me. But that would only be seven of the members, and since Septembers Justice League is going to be fifteen members so shall this, and the remaining members would be; Doctor Light (Kimiyo Hoshi), Vibe (Paco Ramone), Cyborg (Victor Stone), Zatanna (Zatanna Zatara), The Ray (Ray Terrill), Steel (John Henry Irons), Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond & Jason Rusch), and the Atom (Ryan Choi).
Now with my roster I would almost rather see Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern, because I find him to be more relatable version of the character, but I can also see the point that DC has of how he is one character away from really connecting to the new audience. Yes you need to know the history of Hal Jordan, at least up to Emerald Twilight. Another reason I would want to see Kyle over Hal in the Justice League is because Hal seems to be far to busy in the Green Lantern books that I don’t think he would have the time to be a part of the Justice League. Finally Kyle is just more interesting then Hal. I’m not saying this because I came in with Kyle being Green Lantern, no when I started reading Green Lantern it was with Hal staring in the book, but compared to the personality Kyle has Hal is just far to vanilla. He’s just kind of dull and bland, and they even had to bring over some of Kyle’s personality to liven him up in the movie.
Beside for the Hal Kyle issue I would accept the rest of the Justice League as classic incarnations of the characters, even Barry over Wally as the Flash. But as mentioned earlier I would still have J’onn J’onzz Martian Manhunter still on the team because of all the potential use of the character, as well as he is one of the classic pillars of the Justice League. If I were on the title would have the first story arch be that of J’onn being the elder statesman of the team and bringing all the characters together. As well I would have in the individual characters books one when background character that looks the same which we would find out in Justice League to be J’onn watching & monitoring the heroes to see when they would be ready to be apart of the Justice League. As well we would see him brought back to the role of tactician in a very similar way to how he was in JLA. It really on makes sense that he would be giving strategy trough his telepathy so they could still surprise their adversaries with their tactics.
As for my choices in the my eight other members for the League each one has a purpose as well as a tie to other classic incarnations of the Justice League, and yes some of their origins/backgrounds would be changed. One character that we would see changed would be Vibe; he wouldn’t be so much the breakdancing super hero that had street gang ties. No this time I would make it so that Paco was used as a tool by a Crime Cartel in New Mexico for his ability to shatter walls with his sonic shock waves. We would also see the Martian Manhunter be the rescuer of Paco saving him from his life of imprisoned servitude to the cartel. This would decrease the datedness of the character being a primarily a stereotyped 80’s Hispanic Break Dancer. As well it would harken to the days of Justice League Detroit, it would just be a nod to the history of the team.
Steel would basically fill the role of Ironman on the League, but also he would show the significance of what the heroes do in this Universe with being a shining beacon of hope and potential for all people of the world. John Henry Irons is a man; yes a man able to build a high-tech suit that gives him powers to fight crime but still just a man. He shows that anyone could become the hero when inspired. It doesn’t matter if you have powers or not, but given the skills that you already have you can do what is needed to make the world a better place. There is also the added benefit of him being heavy into tech development which when partnered with other members of the team could lead to such marvels as the; JL Satellite base, teleportation devices, and the Javelin.
Cyborg who is already on the Geoff Johns and Jim Lee Justice League would still play a pivotal role in my version of the Justice League. Much like Steel he would have a big part to do with tech, but he would also play an important role in leading. To me the often miss used and under appreciated former Titan could play just as critical of a role in the role of field commander as Superman or the Martian Manhunter. He has all the necessary strength, speed, and durability to go head to head with many heavy hitters, but he also has all the sensory upgrades to make him perfect for stealth-based missions. Cyborg is a well-rounded character with a natural born leader quality that makes him perfect for the team. He’s more then just a guy to leave on the satellite to rebuild Red Tornado when he is broken or goes haywire, Victor Stone deserves to play with the other big name players of the Justice League.
Out of all the characters on Justice League Dark why is it Deadman that is on the Justice League proper? If I were to pick one character from Dark that would make a better connector to both Justice League’s I would pick Zatanna hands down. She has all the magical power of a god as long as she can talk; as well she has a longer history of active membership in the Justice League (like that matters in a reboot) as well as being a former leader of the League. I realize though that there could be a stigma for the character of Zatanna being on the Justice League thanks to Identity Crisis and the issue of mind wiping, but that can always be taken care of by retconning that story out of existence, its not like it would be the first time a big event has been retconned out of existence, example: Crisis on Infinite Earths. An easy way for DC to retcon mind wiping out of Identity Crisis would be by having Kimiyo Hoshi become the first and only Doctor Light. As well the inclusion of Doctor Light would give the team a doctor that isn’t a PhD, but instead she’s an MD, which would suit the team perfectly if they wrote her as someone with a background in meta-human medicine.
Reason I chose The Ray to be on the Justice League is because it’s about time that the character got a shot a being a full time member of the Justice League. We have a history of him being a reserve member on the Justice League and the Justice Society. As well Ray was a member of such team as Justice League Task Force, Young Justice, and the Freedom Fighters. With this reboot feeling like its trying to go back to the 90’s why not bring it back with one of the better characters from the 90’s. Ray has got a great power set based off of light.
With the character of Firestorm it seems to me that it would be best to use both Ronnie and Jason as primary members of the Justice League. They could still be Firestorm Red and Firestorm Yellow that form together to be the Composite Firestorm that is ten foot tall, which would allow for some major possibilities in field operations. Say the team has to split into two attack squads then each one, in theory, would be able to use a Firestorm, even if it was depowered compared to the Composite Firestorm, on the mission and then when regrouped they join for the extra final push. That’s just a theory anyways, but the other reasons I have for Firestorm to be on the Justice League is because both members of the Firestorm Matrix have a connections to past incarnations of the Justice League which you can see has been very important to me in choosing my Justice League roster.
As for Ryan Choi I just find him a lot more interesting over his predecessor Ray Palmer. He has a far more interesting dynamic to him, especially when you bring into play the fact that he really doesn’t need the belt to change sizes. Also Ryan has far less baggage compared to Ray, come on Ryan doesn’t have a crazy ex-wife that accidently murders one of his best friends wives to stage an attack so they could get back together. He also doesn’t that same crazy ex-wife become taken over by a super evil fallen angel type of thing. No, Ryan doesn’t have that at all, but what he does have is super awesome sexual chemistry between him and a female super villain. As for what about Ray and his connection to the Atom I say why not make him more of a mentor type character, in a similar fashion to how Dr. Stein was for Ronnie Raymond, but instead have him be veteran professor well Ryan would be the newly hired professor at Ivy University.
As for mentioned I will be getting this new Geoff Johns and Jim Lee Justice League, these would be some of the changes I would have made to the team roster given a chance to work on this book. Just like any other fan I’ve chosen characters I would most like to read, and I hope others would too.
