Steaming Pile Part Deux

You know how, when you taste something terrible, you are sometimes driven to tell a friend "you gotta try this"? So it was with JLA #41. I convinced a friend to locate a copy and give it a read. I told him it wouldn't be pretty going in. What you see below is his running commentary, pulled from a chatroom of mutual friends.

[23:56] Frankie/OP: ok!
[23:56] Frankie/OP: here goes
[23:57] Frankie/OP: "America's Dream. Turned nightmare." starting it off classy
[23:59] Frankie/OP: "And some who did survive, MAYBE wished they HADN'T." DRAMA
[00:00] Frankie/OP: is this really Bagley? seems like he's trying too hard to channel Benes, irksome
[00:03] Frankie/OP: i wonder how Vixen can go on about how much she thinks and recalls about Prometheus
[00:03] Frankie/OP: how long*
[00:05] Frankie/OP: "Don't go! Not now!" "I must." EXTREME CLOSEUP, VIXEN'S DETERMINATION TO QUIT IS OVERWHELMING IN THIS THE SMALLEST OF PANELS
[00:05] Frankie/OP: /reading from Robinson's script
[00:07] Frankie/OP: lol
[00:07] Frankie/OP: "Help us, Wonder Girl!"
[00:07] Frankie/OP: "Its Ms. Troy, and fuck off, i don't help people anymore."
[00:07] Frankie/OP: "But the children!"
[00:08] Frankie/OP: "CHILDREND?! OH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIII"
[00:08] Frankie/OP: -d
[00:08] Frankie/OP: "So here I go. Again." ON MY OWWWWN. GOING DOWN THE ONLY ROAD I'VE EVER KNOWWWWN
[00:10] Frankie/OP: Robinson, you are a master of characterization and subtlety. i mean, the way you just TELL us how Donna's feels? GENIUS
[00:11] Frankie/OP: ok, no, really, this art is grating on me
[00:13] Frankie/OP: "The Justice League ails too, my sister." this is what people mean when they say Wonder Woman is (written as) stiff and uptight
[00:15] Frankie/OP: ok, i'm no expert on dialogue from frenchmen in the 1700's, but "a-boil with canker" ? pfffffffft
[00:17] Frankie/OP: i have absolutely no idea whats going on in this 1777 segment
[00:18] khuxford2: That's to be expected, Frankie
[00:18] khuxford2: and to be echoed for almost every scene, regardless of period
[00:19] Frankie/OP: HAHA
[00:20] Frankie/OP: i understand he's recording himself
[00:21] Frankie/OP: but why is this guy talking to himself as though Robinson is talking directly to him
[00:21] Frankie/OP: its like he's found a new form of exposition
[00:22] Frankie/OP: and who is this 90's Image reject?!
[00:22] khuxford2: That scene reads like Robinson realized how terrible his dialogue was but, rather than fix it, he decides to just have the character own up to it as if that makes it good and meta.
[00:23] Frankie/OP: exactly!
[00:23] Frankie/OP: and it just ends up so much worse
[00:24] Frankie/OP: did Damian just call Donna a harlot? HAHAHA
[00:25] Frankie/OP: now i see
[00:25] Frankie/OP: Robinson's inspiration comes from badly translated Shakespearean plays
[00:25] Frankie/OP: "Kid, yes, Drama Queen, Double yes." and Diablo Cody
[00:26] Frankie/OP: "Al Ghul's grankid" IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW, GUYS
[00:29] Frankie/OP: "Judging from your appearance and the tone of your voice, I deduce... you want me in the Justice League." HOW DOES HE GET ALL THAT FROM TONE?!
[00:29] Frankie/OP: oh
[00:29] Frankie/OP: because apparently Dick's some sort of smartass
[00:29] Frankie/OP: are they fist-bumping?
[00:29] Frankie/OP: BAT-FISTBUMP
[00:30] Frankie/OP: RESPEK KNUCKLESSS!!
[00:32] Frankie/OP: so wait, does Donna convince Kimi with just... "But we NEED you."
[00:32] Frankie/OP: "You can't go."
[00:33] Frankie/OP: seriously
[00:33] Frankie/OP: did she just convince her to stay by WHINING?
[00:33] Frankie/OP: if thats how she sets up the Justice League, i don't have high hopes for this team
[00:34] Frankie/OP: oh good, Mon-El zzzzzzzzzz
[00:34] Frankie/OP: i'm sure Mon is only here because he'll need someplace to go after Superman returns to his OWN DAMN BOOK
[00:34] Frankie/OP: the one that Robinson is "writing"
[00:35] Frankie/OP: lol
[00:36] Frankie/OP: i love her argument for why Mon should be in the Justice League
[00:36] Frankie/OP: "Superman did it! Don't you wanna be like Superman?"
[00:36] khuxford2: Argument? Aren't arguments normally longer than 1.5 sentences?
[00:36] Frankie/OP: all i'm saying is, if Superman jumped off a bridge...
[00:36] Frankie/OP: lol hux
[00:36] Frankie/OP: thats my next point
[00:37] Frankie/OP: when did this become "hey! we're making a club! wanna join?" "sure!"
[00:37] khuxford2: Superman ALWAYS ate the lead-poison-cure-reversing-sammich that I made him...
[00:37] Frankie/OP: LOL
[00:38] Frankie/OP: THE RAGE BURNING WITHIN
[00:38] Frankie/OP: THE RAGE
[00:38] Frankie/OP: BURNING
[00:38] Frankie/OP: WITHIN
[00:38] Frankie/OP: i'm not sure i understand how Ollie feels O_O
[00:39] Frankie/OP: wait, its over?
[00:40] Frankie/OP: i know it continues to the next issue, but the ending to this one could have at least been a bit more...climactic?
[00:40] Frankie/OP: instead we get "OLLIE, STOP WHINING AND JOIN US."
[00:42] Frankie/OP: everyone's going about Prometheus and especially that panel with Ollie holding Roy
[00:42] Frankie/OP: but WHO KNOWS WHY OLLIE IS ANGRY
[00:43] Frankie/OP: man
[00:44] Frankie/OP: that was hard work
[00:44] Frankie/OP: trudging through that
[00:44] Frankie/OP: i'm hungry!
[00:44] Frankie/OP: also
[00:44] Frankie/OP: i don't know if its the coloring or inking or Bagley himself or all things combined, but no, this art was not serviceable
[00:45] Frankie/OP: it wasn't eye-raping, like the writing
[00:45] Frankie/OP: but its offensive
[00:45] Frankie/OP: to me
[00:45] khuxford2: Well, I blame it more on the writing. I think what he was given to work with was shit. I think the raping that the script does to you makes you pre-disposed to think of the entire package as shit. So I gave him a pass.
[00:46] Frankie/OP: SO ENDS MY LIVE-TORTUR--I MEAN BLOGGING OF JLA 41
[00:46] Frankie/OP: tune in next time for JLA 42, where i will push electric eels into my eyesockets to save myself
[00:48] Frankie/OP: no i probably won't
[00:48] Frankie/OP: however, that was fun to bash the fuck out
[00:48] Frankie/OP: of
[00:48] khuxford2: LOL
[00:49] khuxford2: I knew you'd enjoy it in a "holy fuck, I can't believe they published this shit" way
[00:49] Frankie/OP: lol pretty much