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Saturday, December 04, 2010

JLA: Secret Origins - 2002

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"JLA: Secret Origins" by Paul Dini and Alex Ross.

JLA: Secret Origins was a sort of stop-gap book that came after the Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman/Shazam! quartet of books but before the JLA: Liberty and Justice extravaganza that capped off the Dini/Ross oversized collaborations.

It featured each hero getting a two-page origin sequence, each done in an (almost) monochromatic tone. Dini and Ross' love for the Silver Age iterations of these characters is front and center, evidenced as much as anywhere with Aquaman:
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Not only is this Aquaman the same one from the Silver Age, but in this quasi-Earth-Ross universe, Arthur is still married and a father. I'm hard-pressed to argue with that point of view.

The book also features some unpublished preliminary sketches by Ross, some advertising art, and brief interviews with both Dini and Ross. Both of them specifically mention Aquaman and their feelings toward the character:
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Even though it was never realistically going to happen, some part of my lizard brain is still sorry that Aquaman didn't get his own Dini/Ross oversized book. Not only would it have made up for the fact that Aquaman never got his own DC treasury comic, but Ross' obvious affection for the character probably would have guaranteed it would have been one of the single greatest Aquaman stories ever.

That said, it was great to finally have him show up here, and then in JLA: Liberty and Justice. And who knows? Maybe one day...
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2 comments:

Wings1295 said...

Maybe one day. I love this and the obvious affection Ross has for the character. Good to have a champion like him.

David J. Cutler said...

Funny, now that Bruce Wayne is a pretty firmly established father, I guess that's Batman's thing now.