Justice League of America #0

Justice League of America #0
When I read this last week, my initial reaction was mystification. I couldn't figure out what the point of the entire exercise had been, other than to showcase some very good art along with some that was particularly horrendous. (Seriously, hadn't you ever noticed? Superman isn't wearing briefs over his tights, he's wearing swim trunks!) So I waited to see what other people would say about it. (What does that say about my willingness to expose myself through my reviews, my willingness to be original, or my talent as a blogger? Nothing good, I imagine.) And it took a while for them to post on it as well, probably indicating that - for the most part - they couldn't figure out what to make of it either. The "tomorrow" segments are NOT the future, they are possible futures. The "yesterday" segments are all-too-brief glimpses of isolated incidents in JLA history, which for the most part will be unintelligible, or at least unappreciateable (there I go again, making up new words!) to new readers who are unfamiliar with the long history of the JLA and the minutiae thereof. It wasn't particularly bad...it was just pointless. I'd say EH, but really, a comic this bewildering actually deserves its own, unique rating...let's call it HUH? Art was not a factor at all. As it was a non-effort, rather than a collaborative effort, it just gave me the impression that many of these artists, instead of drawing the traditional Big 3, instead tried to show us what their versions of the Big 3 look like. Some succeed, and some, frankly, don't. I actually appreciate the variant cover more than the standard one. Even though it's a bit stylized for my tastes, the feeling of it is right. Whereas on the standard cover, the feeling seems to be one of condescension. Basically, it says that the Big 3 look down their noses at us, and especially in the case of Superman, who has spent his life trying to be human (a la Pinocchio - but I suppose that that's merely one interpretation of the character), I completely disagree.
(There was one panel that I particularly enjoyed - the one where the Big 3 are poring over photographs tring to decide who they should invite into the new JLA - because it was reminiscent of the cover of All-Star Squadron #1.)
And it seems that one of the upcoming plots in Brad Meltzer's book is going to be bringing back Earth-2. (And then he'll decide to have every woman raped...or better yet, he'll destroy every single one of their relationships, including Clark and Lois'!) [Edit: Again, I am an asshole. Winick does the relationship ruining, not Meltzer.] At least that's how I viewed the scene with Earth-2 that everybody else seems to be wondering about.
Of the critics who I read most often, The Savage Blog approximates my feeling regarding this issue the best. I really don't understand how The Fourth Rail was able to give it such a high rating. (With all my edits, this post has turned out much longer than it was initially.) What did the rest of you think?
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