Justice League of America #22

If there's one thing the current Justice League of America series has taught me, it's that any attempt to rebuild Red Tornado's body is destined to end in disaster. It seems as if nearly every major conflict in this book has involved Reddy getting trashed in some way. In turn, that's left the Leaguer a bodiless soul with nothing to do but watch his teammates have relations from afar. His present state is actually pretty interesting precisely because of those growing antisocial tendencies. I was almost sorry to see the latest attempt at giving his soul a new vessel.

I was right to be concerned, because this new development is really just an excuse for another villain to appear and rip through the League. What's worse, it's a villain we've seen before in this book's short life. It strikes me that Dwayne McDuffie could have taken this story in so many more interesting directions. The other half of the book fares a little better, with Vixen's dirty little secret finally being aired for the rest of the team. Unfortunately, this half of the story feels almost entirely divorced from the other.

Then there's the romantic subplot between Red Arrow and Hawkgirl. Just... no. Stop it already. I'm not particularly interested in having Superman and Green Lantern give Roy a pep talk on adult relationships. Hal has never had one, and I'm pretty sure Supes has the most boring marriage in comics. Red Arrow and Hawkgirl were poised to move somewhere interesting following the stellar issue #11. Sadly, it never quite happened.

It's always nice to see Ed Benes back on this series, particularly after such a huge slate of one-shots and filler material. Benes isn't exactly at the top of his game, though. The art has a general rough quality that probably comes from the fact that Benes inks his own pencils. I'm not sure why DC wouldn't want to hire a dedicated inker, particularly when it would ensure Benes penciled each issue faster.

JLA continues to display flashes of greatness that are ultimately buried under a heap of missteps and bad decisions. The creative team has the talent, and I'd like to see them put it to better use.