This issue was basically the history of Libra. To tell you the truth . . . I actually thought the story was kind of boring. He comes from very modest beginnings. Justin Ballantine was his given name. Not that that really means anything. His mother dies when he was young which turned his father into a drunk. A mean drunk. One thing led to another, and as always a questionable situation arose and by pure happenstance . . . his father ends up falling off the top of a building. By that time he had become obsessed with the stars. He buckled down with his books and ended up going to Opal University. There he met, and became infatuated with Ted Knight. You know, he used to be Starman at one time . . about 30 years ago. Anyways he became obsessed with finding out about his cosmic rod. With his blueprints he constructed a device he called the energy-transmortifier . . " . . a mechanism designed to absorb half the energy in the entire galaxy . . and transfer it into me!" That's about the time that he started wearing the costume, started calling himself Libra, and . . was approached by a gentleman that offered him . . the Injustice Gang. He couldn't resist and immediately started recruiting villains. One thing led to another . . he captured the Justice League at one point, but then in his quest for power . . . he gathered to much and his essence became scattered across the galaxy. Until, somehow . . he ended up on Apokolips. It turns out that the man that recruited him was Glorious Godfrey. Darkseid himself had taken an interest in Libra and had been watching him for quite some time. Libra pledges his allegiance to Darkseid. Basically, Darkseid's plans to take over the Earth required that he have some to go there early . . . to kind of soften things up. That's when Libra shows up and we see his involvement in the Final Crisis. Len Wein writes it, which I assume was arranged because he and Dick Dillon had originally created the character. I'm not sure when, but he crossed paths with the Justice League sometime in the old series. I'm guessing the story didn't last longer than an issue or 2 either. Actually . . . sorry, I multi-task while I'm doing my blog . . I just looked it up and it was Justice League issues #111 and #112 back in 1974. That's a heck of a long way to go to get a character to be the lead villain in this series. He must've made a heck of an impression on somebody. Tony Shasteen does the art. There's really nothing special about that. But, Grant Morrison and JG Jones do make an appearance in this book . . . sort of. Following the story there's a page from the Crime Bible. Then there's a page with a synopsis about the Anti-Life Equation by Grant. And then 4 sketchbook pages showing some of the characters that Grant and JG Jones had in mind for using on this series. It was interesting . . . if not a bit boring. Sorry, but compared to the rest of the Final Crisis series . . . this one was nothin'! We do however get a picture of Wonder Woman on one cover. It's by Jim Lee. And then this cover of Libra was done by Frank Quitely. Now . . following our brief commercial interruption . . can we get back to the story at hand?
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Final Crisis: Secret Files #1 - DC
This issue was basically the history of Libra. To tell you the truth . . . I actually thought the story was kind of boring. He comes from very modest beginnings. Justin Ballantine was his given name. Not that that really means anything. His mother dies when he was young which turned his father into a drunk. A mean drunk. One thing led to another, and as always a questionable situation arose and by pure happenstance . . . his father ends up falling off the top of a building. By that time he had become obsessed with the stars. He buckled down with his books and ended up going to Opal University. There he met, and became infatuated with Ted Knight. You know, he used to be Starman at one time . . about 30 years ago. Anyways he became obsessed with finding out about his cosmic rod. With his blueprints he constructed a device he called the energy-transmortifier . . " . . a mechanism designed to absorb half the energy in the entire galaxy . . and transfer it into me!" That's about the time that he started wearing the costume, started calling himself Libra, and . . was approached by a gentleman that offered him . . the Injustice Gang. He couldn't resist and immediately started recruiting villains. One thing led to another . . he captured the Justice League at one point, but then in his quest for power . . . he gathered to much and his essence became scattered across the galaxy. Until, somehow . . he ended up on Apokolips. It turns out that the man that recruited him was Glorious Godfrey. Darkseid himself had taken an interest in Libra and had been watching him for quite some time. Libra pledges his allegiance to Darkseid. Basically, Darkseid's plans to take over the Earth required that he have some to go there early . . . to kind of soften things up. That's when Libra shows up and we see his involvement in the Final Crisis. Len Wein writes it, which I assume was arranged because he and Dick Dillon had originally created the character. I'm not sure when, but he crossed paths with the Justice League sometime in the old series. I'm guessing the story didn't last longer than an issue or 2 either. Actually . . . sorry, I multi-task while I'm doing my blog . . I just looked it up and it was Justice League issues #111 and #112 back in 1974. That's a heck of a long way to go to get a character to be the lead villain in this series. He must've made a heck of an impression on somebody. Tony Shasteen does the art. There's really nothing special about that. But, Grant Morrison and JG Jones do make an appearance in this book . . . sort of. Following the story there's a page from the Crime Bible. Then there's a page with a synopsis about the Anti-Life Equation by Grant. And then 4 sketchbook pages showing some of the characters that Grant and JG Jones had in mind for using on this series. It was interesting . . . if not a bit boring. Sorry, but compared to the rest of the Final Crisis series . . . this one was nothin'! We do however get a picture of Wonder Woman on one cover. It's by Jim Lee. And then this cover of Libra was done by Frank Quitely. Now . . following our brief commercial interruption . . can we get back to the story at hand?
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Yeah, I was pretty disappointed by this issue as well... An issue focusing primarily on Libra wasn't exactly something I was interested in reading about.
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