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beccaelizabethI am above page 750 in the Justice League Dark omnibus I am reading
and very few of them in this quarter were worth my time.
I don't think it's just me being out of practice reading comics, it really is meaning mash.
They spend about two frames on any given strand of story and then try to make of it a tapestry.
There's no emotion here, just endless motion.
Hollowed out parts that could be characters if you took them to doll repair shops.
I don't even know if it would make more sense with a different selection of issues.
I don't think making sense is something it is particularly devoted to.
And the general feeling of intro outro being all it will ever do continues.
I know they were rewriting their world but it keeps reframing everything and then not giving us anything to put in the new picture.
There isn't a lot of John Constantine or Zatanna in this even if you pick relevant bits out
and I am starting to understand why the fanfic I read only seems to refer to like a half dozen issues
because those ones had a bit of story and some feeling attached.
I am a grumpy person today.
Also, trying to read this ridiculously heavy thing keeps squashing me to the point of feeling sick.
I do not however think that is the primary reason I'm getting bored and annoyed here.
It was however potentially funny earlier on in this reading, when John went somewhere he can neither lie nor shut up. They said the most shallow and obvious things that way, but it's a fun idea.
Also they used John's nightmares to make him obviously extremely informed and scheming, which is interesting.
And it gave him a little explainer box when he went to steal someone else's magic, which actually undermines the amount of writing they've put in to making him seem dodgy, but his motivation for the day was, magic nearly ate him so he doesn't want to leave other people to be messed around by it. Kind of works but every time they flatten him out they leave bits behind. Magic nearly ate him yet he keeps reaching for more magic, can't leave that out.
Zatanna demonstrated she was a hero who would save the innocent rather than attack the guilty, then became miss not appearing in this book.
So, bit boring.
Maybe it'll get over the stupid crossover stuff soon and have a story again?
ETA at 8pm: It did indeed get back to actual story. Turns out the bit I got entirely bored of was three hundred pages of 'Trinity War'. Now it's back to being actually Justice League Dark and Constantine issues it has a finite number of characters. Still mostly John though. Or this universe of John anyway. I kind of like the bit where he held an artefact that makes people evil and he was mostly just depressed since he's seen it all before. I like this bit with the Nightmare Nurse curing him. I pretty much dislike how what is named as a team book is so emphatic about him being the main character. And I keep on having to stop and be annoyed that the evil he's confronting is all this DCU multiverse stuff with the magic macguffins and big costumed whatsits instead of actual grounded at least a smidge political stuff. But then there was one issue where it kind of attempted to link it back to that? Domestic violence and homelessness actually got into the story, instead of just Darkseid and a house made of nightmares.
Basically there's bits that make the animated stories make a lot more sense, and bits where it is telling solid story, and bits that I want to harvest for useable parts.
But they're playing a very different game than the other media or versions of John and it's reminding me of all the reasons I don't read many comics.
and very few of them in this quarter were worth my time.
I don't think it's just me being out of practice reading comics, it really is meaning mash.
They spend about two frames on any given strand of story and then try to make of it a tapestry.
There's no emotion here, just endless motion.
Hollowed out parts that could be characters if you took them to doll repair shops.
I don't even know if it would make more sense with a different selection of issues.
I don't think making sense is something it is particularly devoted to.
And the general feeling of intro outro being all it will ever do continues.
I know they were rewriting their world but it keeps reframing everything and then not giving us anything to put in the new picture.
There isn't a lot of John Constantine or Zatanna in this even if you pick relevant bits out
and I am starting to understand why the fanfic I read only seems to refer to like a half dozen issues
because those ones had a bit of story and some feeling attached.
I am a grumpy person today.
Also, trying to read this ridiculously heavy thing keeps squashing me to the point of feeling sick.
I do not however think that is the primary reason I'm getting bored and annoyed here.
It was however potentially funny earlier on in this reading, when John went somewhere he can neither lie nor shut up. They said the most shallow and obvious things that way, but it's a fun idea.
Also they used John's nightmares to make him obviously extremely informed and scheming, which is interesting.
And it gave him a little explainer box when he went to steal someone else's magic, which actually undermines the amount of writing they've put in to making him seem dodgy, but his motivation for the day was, magic nearly ate him so he doesn't want to leave other people to be messed around by it. Kind of works but every time they flatten him out they leave bits behind. Magic nearly ate him yet he keeps reaching for more magic, can't leave that out.
Zatanna demonstrated she was a hero who would save the innocent rather than attack the guilty, then became miss not appearing in this book.
So, bit boring.
Maybe it'll get over the stupid crossover stuff soon and have a story again?
ETA at 8pm: It did indeed get back to actual story. Turns out the bit I got entirely bored of was three hundred pages of 'Trinity War'. Now it's back to being actually Justice League Dark and Constantine issues it has a finite number of characters. Still mostly John though. Or this universe of John anyway. I kind of like the bit where he held an artefact that makes people evil and he was mostly just depressed since he's seen it all before. I like this bit with the Nightmare Nurse curing him. I pretty much dislike how what is named as a team book is so emphatic about him being the main character. And I keep on having to stop and be annoyed that the evil he's confronting is all this DCU multiverse stuff with the magic macguffins and big costumed whatsits instead of actual grounded at least a smidge political stuff. But then there was one issue where it kind of attempted to link it back to that? Domestic violence and homelessness actually got into the story, instead of just Darkseid and a house made of nightmares.
Basically there's bits that make the animated stories make a lot more sense, and bits where it is telling solid story, and bits that I want to harvest for useable parts.
But they're playing a very different game than the other media or versions of John and it's reminding me of all the reasons I don't read many comics.