DC Comics 
www.dccomics.com
 
 
Writer:  
Penciller:  
Inker:  
Letters:  
Colours: 
Separations 
Associate Editor:  
Editor:
Grant Morrison 
Howard Porter 
John Dell 
Kenny Lopez 
Pat Garrahy 
Heroic Age 
Tony Bedard 
Dan Raspler
 
 
"Prisoners of the Twentieth Century"  
  

Steel, Huntress, Zauriel, Plastic Man, and Big Barda, all that remains of the present-day JLA squares off with their futuristic counterpartsd, the Justice Legion A, but soon realize that they must work together to defeat the Hourman virus.  

Yet again, Morrison delivers one of the biggest, loudest super-hero comics around, yet also one of the more intelligent, too.  Amazing, really.  It's too bad that he's undermined by Howard Porter's slipshod artwork.  

I'm surprised that I've enjoyed Morrison's focus on the present-day "second string" JLA as much as I have.  I was quite against their joining the League at all, but now it's getting more and more difficult to picture it without them.  In particular, Morrison's takes on Zauriel, Big Barda, and Steel are all quite good.  His Plastic Man, unfortunately, quickly gets tiresome. However, I did enjoy the sequence starring him, the Huntress and the John Fox Flash quite a bit.  

I still don't like the Huntress, though.  And I think Morrison is playing up the "super-inventor" side of Steel more than he should.  I really don't think that Steel can build a time machine . . . but he does make a rather good leader.  And I enjoyed how he figured out that the Justice Legion A was on their side.  

The only problem that I had with the writing is that the reason *why* the two teams must rebuild Solaris (the future un/super -computer).  Maybe in DC ONE MIL #3.  

Well, that problem and the fact that you pretty much absolutely *have* to buy this comic if you want to understand the rest of the ONE MIL story...  

Like I said earlier in the review, it's a shame that Porter and Dell's art so undermines Morrison's otherwise lovely story.  Over the last few issues, it seems like Porter's art has definitely dropped off.  The scene on page three, with Superman leaping from the Earth to the moon should have looked awe-inspiring and huge.  Instead, it looked extremely ridiculous.  And nearly all of the characters' facial expressions were terrible.  The only bright spots to the art this issue was the battle between Big Barda and Wonder Woman (that was  quite nice) and the scenes with Plastic Man, as his visual appearance really worked for me.  In fact, I bet that Porter likes drawing Plastic Man more than any other Leaguer, since he doesn't have to worry about proportion, facial expressions, or goofy poses when he draws Plas...  Or he can at least get away with all of the above.  

A nice issue, but one that could have been better.  
  

Score:  B    
  

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Takalahesh's Dungeon, Takalahesh & Naralasyth are TM & © Jason Crossman, 1998
First Impressions is TM & © Ross Binder, 1998
Don't be afraid to E-mail me with any comments, suggestions, or queries at 
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