Justice League of America #195 featured the umpteenth annual team-up of the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America, this time under the pen of a master. I'm not slighting guys like Mike Sekowsky or Dick Dillin, but when it comes to iconic, perfectly on-model images of super-heroic collectives, Pérez is one of the undisputed champions. The JLA is dead solid perfect, excepting the first three at the top. For some reason, I've never been able to accept Pérez on Superman, perhaps because his realistic style minimizes the Man of Steel. His Wonder Woman was one of the best by the mid-80's, but here his handling is bland and unsure. Red Tornado seems both too robotic and too lifelike, if that's possible. You see, Pérez offers RT a mystique with his narrowed eyes and his subtle Mona Lisa smile. Meanwhile, Red Tornado has always been a shit character with no personality and the nuance of a jackhammer. Those three seem woefully out of place amongst the other gorgeous, finely rendered Leaguers.
The JSA had more problems, as their proportions are awkward, looking a bit too much like fan art. Robin looks excellent though, recalling Pérez's work with the young her on New Teen Titans, and most importantly covering up his terrible Earth-2 costume. At least Dick was in that fetid Composite Batman suit he was also afflicted with at times. Huntress and much of the bottom row also fared well.
2 comments:
I love this picture, but I wish Mr. Perez hadn't omitted two of my favorite JSA members, Sandman and Starman. I understand that the JSA had more members total than the JLA and Perez was trying to maintain artistic balance. But couldn't he have thrown in Adam Strange and the Phantom Stranger on the JLA side? The two flying finheads and fedora-and-cloak fetishists would have balanced each other perfectly.
I never gave it that much thought, but there looks to be room enough for all four, so why not?
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