Comic review: Justice League #36- Superman and Batman battle the Ebola virus

Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Jason Fabok
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 19th November 2014


I don’t read too many mainstream comic books these days. I used to read a whole lot of them, but a wilful ignorance of contemporary societal concerns by the mainstream comic book writers has gradually worn me down, and now I only pick up a couple of titles per month.

In Justice League the civilians are either criminals or victims

Marvel has completely disappeared from my pull-list and Geoff John’s Justice League is one of the few remaining DC books that I still bother to read. I read it to stay in touch with my old heroes, but I have to be honest here. Most of the times it’s not particularly good. I get the occasional chuckle out of it, some of the characters are interesting, but the huge assumptions that it makes about the helplessness of ordinary people always bothers me. At the moment it’s narrative is centred on something called the ‘Amazo virus,’ a story that has obvious parallels to the real world Ebola crisis.

I use these occasional reviews of mainstream comic books as a measuring stick of how conscious or wilfully ignorant the comic book landscape currently is. The popular stories of our times act as a window into our collective consciousness. It’s a good exercise for me, letting me know if humanity is progressing, or falling deeper into the Orwellian war is peace, ignorance is strength totalitarianism that is currently being drilled into us by the collective might of the mainstream media mind programmers. So is Geoff John’s going with the corporate flow, or is he bravely speaking out and telling the unpopular truth that needs to be told?

First off, the narrative in JL#36 is very simple and a bit thrown together. A virus has broken out (it’s a bit interesting because it gives normal people temporary super powers) and the heroes need to find ‘Patient Zero’ in order to come up with a cure. Superman and Wonderwoman haven’t succumbed to the virus because they are not human, Batman is in a special suit (as you might expect) and the lesser members of the JL are laid up in bed, suffering from the effects of the virus, but comically enough still wearing their silly superhero costumes and capes. The origin of the virus has something to do with the intrigues and machinations of good old Lex Luthor, but that’s pretty much a given really. All of the JL problems usually involve Luthor. That’s his narrative role. He causes problems, the JL sort them out.

Geoff Johns usually throws in a few jokes, a kind of wink and nod to the reader that we probably shouldn’t be taking any of this silliness seriously. The underlying assumptions of his narratives however are very corporate, statist and backing up the mainstream socio-economic norms and accepted ideologies and mutually accepted lies of our times. He doesn’t question the nature or legitimacy of authority figures or government at all. Experts and government officials are there to protect the helpless civilians who would surely fall into anarchy (meaning violence, not freedom) if it weren’t for the government special agents known as the Justice League.

Here come the authority figures

In issue #36 the government has set up interment camps for those affected by the virus. The Justice League act as cops in capes, rounding up the sick and lawless people who predictably fall into anarchy without their guidance. The experts discuss what to do, then act. Individual civilians have no voice, no power, and no role in their own lives other than victim or law-breaker.

In that way it’s a very corporate American comic. Advocating learnt helplessness, dependency on government and heroes (that would be the Police and military) and living life as a bystander, a face in the crowd, a spectator at a football match. Drink the GM beer, eat from the Susan G. Komen cancer bucket, support the troops and salute the flag. It’s America baby, you are free because we tell you that you are free. Keep voting, and keep sitting on the sidelines.

The art is good, as you might expect from a big mainstream comic, but the story is not particularly exciting this month. It reads like a rush job, capitalising on the Ebola scare that the mainstream media are currently pushing. I couldn’t get that much out of it. The Amazo virus was unleashed due to a mystery villain’s attempts at killing Lex Luthor. That story will continue when this brief interlude into the Ebola/Amazo territory is concluded. This issue doesn’t appear to be particularly essential to the bigger story, and it isn’t that much fun to read either.  It offers a very funny panel of costumed superheroes lying in hospital beds (was it intentionally funny, or not?) but apart from that, and apart from the usual authority and statism worship, there’s nothing else to say about the book. The staid and insular comic book websites will give it their usual eight out of ten as they always do, but in reality Justice League #36 is just another blah mainstream comic book. There’s nothing in it to get too excited about, and there’s nothing in it that will offend anybody. I guess that’s the whole point, right? Another month, another unit sold.

Rating: 4/10