I love the redesigns but coming from a writer’s point of view… I see some problems with some of the character origins and powers in this incarnation. I hope Aaron doesn’t take this the wrong way, I love the origin and new powers of Diana and Cyborg (for example, he would make much more sense in fighting the authorities than Superman, with his mighty hacking skills)… it’s just very obvious to me what’s wrong with the threads and I thought it might be interesting to others as well.

Superman: too much power, no weakness to speak of. Morality can be challenged in the course of time, of course, but with long winding, often boring results. Adventurer has to have adventures, not just a nice cape and a good pare of boots, and by effectively removing his two  biggest weaknesses (red sunlight and green cryptonite), you effectively removed him from any potential direct danger from his enemies in the field of battle.

All of the above reasons were probably why they moved him away from his anti-authoritarian roots. It just wasn’t interesting enough going after men in suits and ties as it was fighting alien threats.

Martian Manhunter: again, someone with a better skill set than Superman to infiltrate the halls of power and make some real change in, I don’t know, Wall Street? I have more problems with the character himself than his new powers. I have no idea what he did on Earth before he lead one of the incarnations of Justice League (I suppose he was a real Manhunter back then), but Jon Jonzz to me was always a teacher character more than anything else. With that immense otherworldly knowledge and experience (as long as he knew who he was and where he was from, but I digress too much), how could he not instruct new generations of superheroes to do good?

Aaron’s incarnation leaves us just with a new, albeit alien, ninja.

Green Lantern: I love everything except - microscopic machines. Really? Generally, they would have to use some source of energy (be it the power of will or a physical green lantern), so why not just let mind control this energy instead of turning on and moving these machines that go where once she turns them off? Back into the lantern? On her chest? I don’t know, the image I have of her creating an interplanetary ship like that and then “turning it off”…

And a bit more praise at the end:

Power Girl: What I enjoyed most of all in the most recent episodes of this character (and why I hate DC for ending the title) was the identity issues she had and how she coped with it. Brilliant story telling, excellent art were always highlights of those Wednesdays when the comic shipped. I love how Aaron managed to keep, at least the potential of identity crisis even though she is not an alien anymore. In fact, this origin gives much more space of developing the character somewhere in between three worlds (army, the US establishment and the super-hero world) and fixing a lot of the mistakes that were done to Superboy (not Prime!) over the years.

The Flash: This character would be to Justice League as the Hulk is to the Avengers I guess, in the sense that they would never know when he might blow up. :D I love the added value and how nothing of the original characterization (of all three Flashes, excluding Kid Flash) doesn’t have to be lost. While, for example, Aaron’s Wonder Woman can hardly become a special agent or run a multimillion company without anyone knowing her true identity, Dr. Patil can assist the police while at the same inventing the time-tread-mill and finding a cure for his condition.

All in all, excellent ideas that I as an author took a lot from and big publishers definitely need to read and try to understand why they might work.

dresdencodak:

So, following the immense popularity of my 5 Essential Character Redesigns post, I decided to take a more thorough stab at revamping DC Comic’s Justice League. I’ve already mentioned before that I think their current “New 52” reboot, aimed at gaining new readers, is terribly ineffective,…