JLA #57

WARNING! LET THE SPOILERS HIT THE FLOOR, LET THE SPOILERS HIT THE FLOOR, LET THE SPOILERS HIT THE FLOOOOOOOOR!

Title: Mind over Matter
Release Date: October 2001
Writer: Mark Waid
Penciller: Mike S. Miller
Inker: Paul Neary
JLA Members: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Martian Manhunter, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Plastic Man.
Guest Stars: Krypto.
Bad Guys: the White Martians.
Cameos: Steel, Impulse, the Atom, and Zatanna.


So what happens?
First, this whole issue is a muddle.

It starts off badly. The first page features Steel trying to keep Arkham Asylum locked down, the people of Atlantis suffocating without oxygenated water, and Impulse discovering that Earth's atmosphere can no longer support fire. Problem: in light of the recent "Our Worlds at War" series (See JLA: Our Worlds at War for more information), Steel and Impulse are temporarily dead, and the Atlanteans have mysteriously disappeared.

And the JLA are not faring any better than DC's continuity! Superman, Green Lantern, and the Flash very quickly get their clocks cleaned by the White Martians. Wonder Woman tries to help out some drowning kids who turn out to be a single shapeshifted Martian, and Plastic Man locates Green Lantern -- uhh, make that four Green Lanterns. While Plas is trying to figure out which one's the real Kyle, it turns out that none of them are the real Kyle, and they almost cut him in half with their "Martian Vision". Luckily, before they can melt Plas into a dead plastic puddle, the real Green Lantern shows up, saves him with a shield, and takes on the Martians. And Superman shows up in time to lay some smackdown on the Martian trying to drown Wonder Woman. Meanwhile, the Martian Manhunter makes his escape from captivity, and Batman is getting a fix on the Martian towers fatally altering the planet's atmosphere. It doesn't look like anyone's going to be able to get free to get rid of the towers (and the Martians have just broken Green Lantern's arm), but J'onn is able to knock 'em all out and get Kyle and Plas free of the Martians (Good old Martian superspeed, ya know).

J'onn is able to telepathically fool the White Martians into thinking the JLA are elsewhere, at least temporarily. While Superman retrieves Batman and the Flash, Martian Manhunter uses Wonder Woman's magic lasso to stitch Plastic Man back together. The Martian towers are gone, but Earth's atmosphere hasn't had time to recover yet, so the Leaguers can't use fire to battle the fire-phobic aliens. The heroes fly to Superman's Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic, the Martians snapping at their heels all the way. Superman's dog Krypto is able to delay the Martians a bit, then Supes, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Plastic Man start blowing 'em away with big-ass ray guns. But it can't last forever, and the Martians soon subdue the Leaguers and interrupt Batman and Martian Manhunter from their work on Superman's Phantom Zone projector. The White Martians' leader, Protex, reveals that they've been dissecting the brains of human telepaths because they can make their mental abilities much more powerful by eating the brains. They plan to psionically take over the galaxy while staying safe on a planet where the atmosphere cannot support flame. Then the Martians turn the Phantom Zone projector on the JLA, ready to zap them to an interdimensional prison, where the Leaguers will be able to watch the Martians wipe out Earth's population, but won't be able to do anything about it...

And then, more muddle. I absolutely cannot tell what happens in the last two pages. When the Martians turn on the projector, do the White Martians disappear? Do the Leaguers disappear? On one hand, the White Martians seem to fade from view, but on the other, the JLA are apparently standing in a wasteland with a bizarre swirling background. Whatever happened, the JLA seems to be happy with the results. Wish I could say the same. This'll wrap up next issue. 

Cool Moments!
Plastic Man getting sliced in half by the White Martians seems brutally cool, and the idea of stitching him back together with the magic lasso is fairly inspired.

Cool Quotes!
Green Lantern, while watching Superman's superdog Krypto in action: "He has a dog."
Plastic Man: "With heat vision."
Flash: "Cool."

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