[Reaction To] Justice League International Ending With #12
Well, another one bites the dust – Justice League International will be ending with issue #12 making it the seventh title to cease publication since DC’s New 52 launch back in August 2012. While the original six were canceled due to sales the decision here seems to be story-related, which brings up a couple of things…
From Daniel Cole, the current reviewer of Justice League International:
With the cancellation of Justice League International the biggest question becomes, what next for these group of characters? Clearly DC has plans for them as the cancellation is story related. As the reviewer of the title it doesn’t really come as a surprise that the title has been cancelled in its current form. Creatively it has been moving along with no real focus and recent events seem to be tailored to changing not just the team roster but the tone of the book. What was once a colorful superhero book has become more in keeping with DC’s more “gritty” take on their characters since the reboot. If you look at the most recent narrative beats then what might replace this title is a team book focusing on a proactive team with no ties to any government. Something akin to Judd Winick’s Outsiders perhaps? Whatever happens it would be an utter shame to loose these characters and hopefully we will see them in a new title soon.
Editor-in-Chief of DC Comics, Bob Harras, has been pretty adamant before about keeping it to 52 titles which means there’s a hole to fill.
Outsiders?
A new Justice League series?
The Conglomerate?
Guess we’ll just have to see.
More Justice League @ acomicbookblog.com/tag/justice-league
2 Comments
How discomfiting is this news first reported on acomicbookblog.com of the cancellation–at least in its present form–of Justice League International. And, how completely unacceptable this course of action is that’s been taken by DC Comics. How convenient to just get a do-over, or to simply etch-a-sketch away the tangled mess that they’ve created. Then again, DC Comics has become so very good at that.
Sadly, it’s again yet another opportunity for DC to confront meaningful, real-world issues in the pages of comic book media. Based on a brilliant premise (as superbly described in Colum Lynch’s piece in the widely-read Foreign Policy magazine website foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/26/the_league_of_extraordinary_bureaucratic_gentlemen), JLI featured a UN-sanctioned superhero team comprised of representatives from countries with competing policy interests operating in a world wherein the influence of the US has been significantly diminished. How interesting–and educational–it might have been to witness the team debate interventionism considered against the concept of sovereignty, be hamstrung by the moral restraint of accepted international norms and law, and argue the merits of various strategic approaches based on their opposing individual and national interests. A chance to examine R2P as opposed to very realist-based approaches. Mostly, the opportunity to engage in intellectual thought and discourse as opposed to merely flipping the pages of a brokeback-filled exercise in sophomoric, mindless, cheesecake slugfests.
Instead, what we received was a an oft-confused, indecisive, and reactionary team more focused on their interrelationships than on the greater mission-at-hand. Knee-jerk, compulsive responses based on individual capabilities rather than a comprehensive approach based on achievable objectives. And, how fitting that the alliance dissolves after the [unfortunate] death of a team member, perhaps reflecting perfectly the unwillingness of member nations to endure a “long war” at the cost of blood and treasure. Welcome to the harsh realities of the world, DC.
And yet, DC just quit. Rather than take the harder road, DC merely cancels the book. Instead of depicting the team enduring the painful diplomacy, consensus-achieving, coalition-building, and other realities faced by the UN daily in terms of dealing with both existential and regionalized threats that fill the daily agenda of the UNSC, DC just opted out. How interesting and educational for readers would/could it have been to examine a Syrian intervention with team members (and the Counsel) debating the policy choices and implications of action there? Or perhaps, a UN Chapter 7 mandate for action in the DRC to capture Kony (certainly timely given the social media-driven popularity of the Kony 2012 movement) and clearly a tie-in to the first arc in Batwing.
Sadly, what began as an opportunity to expand the interest of young (and older) readers on processes, policy, and international relations in the global environment just became too difficult, right DC? Again, how convenient to just quit.
My comment will be not nearly as thought-out as the one above. I was just going to say I think the new series to replace JLI (not really, but wouldn’t it be fun) will be Justice League Detroit. The Red Room is situated in Detroit, and Vibe is coming back. It could happen … right?