Comic Book Monday

I didn't get many comics last week. My usual bi-weekly shipment didn't make it because of the holiday.

I haven't been able to read Mystery in Space because I was, for some crazy reason, expecting Jim Starlin art along with the Jim Starlin writing. It's just his writing which is fine, just a bit disappointing. I'm sure I'll be able to get through it soon.

I've been thinking about the JSA recently. The new series will, hopefully, be coming out in a couple of months, which is nice, but I still don't understand why it was cancelled the last time. Were sales dropping? Infinite Crisis didn't destroy the JSA like it did the JLA, so that's not a reason to cancel the book. What happened?

The only answer I can come up with is that DC figures a new #1 will bring in higher sales and that they don't want JSA to have a higher number than the new JLA. I think DC cancelled it to re-establish the JLA as the premier team of the DCU line. I hope that's not the reason, but I still suspect.

Anyway, I've been staring at this picture way too much today. (And not just for the obvious reason.)

The first thing that gets me is how lanky both Hourman and the new Liberty Belle look. I'm not denying that Eaglesham and Thibert can draw some very nice pictures, but those two characters look wrong to me, stretched out, especially in that first panel. Maybe it's because they're not standing on the ground, but "Damage Smasher's" face. Maybe the coloring will solve that problem. In the second panel, though, Liberty Belle still seems wrong. Maybe it's because she's posing and Jesse Chambers has never struck me as the type of woman who would "strike a pose," especially the way she has her arm curled around Hourman in the first panel.

I have to admit, I don't have a clue what happened to her after the Savitar stuff in The Flash, so I don't know what she was like when she was a member of the Titans. (Was she ever a member of the Outsiders?) Did she pose a lot there?

I'm of two minds about Jesse joining the team as Liberty Belle.

I'm glad to know that she's out there doing the superhero thing. She's the kind of person who would do it even if her parents hadn't been heroes in the past. She's also a legacy character, which I'm a huge fan of. (She was the first legacy character I experienced because I didn't know about Hourman until both "Hourmen" appeared in an issue of JSA.)

On the other hand, I always thought of her as a normal person with superpowers who would help out if she needed to, not as a full time adventurer. She didn't fit in with the Conglomerate, which is why they never came back after that JLQ. And she certainly didn't fit in with the Flash family; she was only there to be a patsy which made her look stupid which she should never be. And I still don't know about her time with the Titans because I don't want to look it up.

Wasn't she the curator of the JSA museum after Alex Montez finished drinking Eclipso's diamonds? Or was that when Ma Hunkel came back? She was involved some how, right?

I always pictured Jesse as a normal person first/superhero when she had to be because she decided to go to school rather than be a superhero like her father was. She wanted her degree more than she wanted to be a hero. She should be running the JSA organization full time. She should be in charge of watching their budget. She should be signing the checks for the museum tour guides. She should be managing the JSA charities. And if her help is needed, she'll put on the tights, head out, and help save the day, but when it's over, she's back to work making sure the janitorial staff has enough cleaning supplies.

Maybe it's just me.

Although, I must admit that she looks really good in those tights, especially with that Veronica Lake hair thing going on.