Justice League of America: When Worlds Collide
November 9, 2009 | Trades
Justice League of America: When Worlds Collide
Dwayne McDuffie, Ed Benes, Rags Morales, Jose Luis, Shane Davis, Ardian Syaf, Eddy Barrows
DC Comics
$29.99/$24.99 US (Hardcover)
*** (out of five)
It’s a Milestone event in the DC Universe.
In a move that fans really should have seen coming since Dwayne McDuffie took over as writer of DC’s premier team book (sorry, Teen Titans), the heroes of Milestone Comics make their full-time debut among icons like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.
McDuffie, of course, is co-founder of Milestone Comics, created in the mid-90s in response to the perceived dearth of black superheroes available for readers.
When Worlds Collide sees Icon (think black Superman), Hardware (an odd fusion of Batman and Iron Man, who is also black) and the Shadow Cabinet (Milestone’s answer to the JLA, featuring about 50 per cent black membership) come to blows with the JLA over the remains of a dead villain, which the Milestoners (is that what to call them?) believe could be the key to averting a crisis of galactic proportions.
The event is more or less your standard heroes-have-a-conflict tale and doesn’t dramatically change either of the worlds in collision — outside of integrating some new characters into the DCU — but it may help readers reflect on how far things have evolved for the better in comics. Four of 12 current Leaguers (Green Lantern, Black Lightning, Vixen and Firestorm) are black and five in total are women.
Hopefully this is a sign that long gone is the era of tokenism in comics and here to stay is that of racial and gender equality.
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