Collin says :

JLA : Welcome to the Working Week, a clever Elvis Costello reference that was also recently used by the Adult Swim packaging (Monday edition).

The first thing that I have to say about the book is this : the first 14 pages are incomprehensible. Read them, immediately flip to the back-of-book synopsis, go 'OOOoohhh! I get it now!', and reread from page one. I found that this method worked wonders for me. It's not the story or the art that makes it garbled... it's the lack of actual explanation and art in sequence. It's a lot of randomized bits of information we're being fed - sensations, observations, things moving FAST and out of order.

Of course, this is exactly as our protagonist, Marlus, is seeing the world at those moments.... but it leaves the reader, (and by The Reader, I mean Collin, eating Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese for lunch before work) not knowing where they are leaping on. Of course, the back of the book clears it all up, and in spite of the late-topical-humor attempt made with the early and seemingly pointless (except to disjoint me further) reference to the gen-X Woodstock, the rest of the book swims, and swims wonderfully.

Brian's explained the plot - a kid gets teleported onto the Watchtower, along with the residents of his whole town, as the JLA saves said town. Marlus sneaks off and avoids the return trip, chillin' on the 'Tower for a week, scoring a behind the scenes view of the gang. That behind the scenes part is clear enough, and first-time comics writer Oswalt knows his stuff.

He really shows that he's not a comedian trying to write comics. He's a comic fan who happens to be a comedian, and he's also capable to capturing subtleties and plot points as well as any comic writer out there. Of course, I expected a 64 page laugh riot after hearing the author, and there really aren't too many laughs in here. They're far overwhelmed by the serious and interesting quality of what we're given, and I'd MUCH rather have that than attempts at humor that could possibly fall flat. Like the Woodstock thing.

Oswalt writes a couple of scenes that really impressed me, and they're observations on the extreme behaviours of Wonder Woman and Batman. Wonder Woman battles Cheetah, Croc and Shiva on the Watchtower, as they give her tips on how to improve her fighting in turn for shortened prison sentences. Batman tests the limits of his body in a space vacuum, until he's a second from death. Really fascinating exchanges, and it really, really captures so much. It's like we KNEW these psychotic behaviours were there, but these are the sides of the JLAers that we're not even usually shown in the comics, because they're damned creepy.

The art throughout is pretty outstanding. I have a few art problems with the main characters, Marlus, though. Expect his nose to change size a lot, and he's drawn to look a lot younger than he actually is. Something in the roundness of the face is too youthful for being over 20. Everything else, though - handled expertly. Once we get the story going after page 14 the layouts are clever and fast paced, and out heroes are drawn excellently. I don't usually credit the inker, but I've learned that the use of black is really important in defining the look of the comic. Rock on, Christian Alamy! Your shadows really make the book look great.

There's a lot of huge, Earth-shaking villains and micro-storylines that are very quickly resolved... perhaps too quickly. These monumental things happening in the frame of 64 pages feels a bit rushed. I'd LOVE to see more about the minibosses that attack the JLA, but they're there and gone in 3 pages. Defeated, probably never to be seen again. Again, this speed of resolution and rapidity of storytelling also captures how Marlus is seeing these things, but we can only see so much as readers, and I want more! The illustrator makes a lot of personalities and plot points clear without using any words, so that credit goes to him in making the story a bit richer.

Nothing essential to read, but it gives any JLA reader a whole new spin on the scaffolding underneath the works. You may notice a large discrepancy between what we know about the powers of the JLA and what actually HAPPENS in the book, but it's all resolved in the semi-poignant ending.

Four Marties out of 5. Staring at me with those cherry red eyes.

THIS REVIEW SPONSORED BY NUFFSAID COMICS!

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