seriousfic

You guys, it turns out Dwayne McDuffie can write a pretty good JLA story when editorial isn't constantly telling him things like "this story is nice, but we need Batman to have a raging boner throughout the issue. Also, can Wonder Woman be a cat?" Simple premise: On a world where the good guys are bad and the bad guys are good, good guy Lex Luthor escapes to the more familiar world to ask the Justice League for help. Smallville fans, know that this involves him being stripped naked and Superman staring at him quite intently.

Batman points out that it's an alternate universe, and what, are they gonna police every single sucky universe, but them staying home and building a space station isn't much of a movie, so they go out to beat up the ~~Justice Lords~~ Crime Syndicate. Like I said, no great shakes, and the movie is pretty much just fan service for the sake of fan service, but it's pulled off with enough wit and cleverness to make it worth sitting through. Plus, there's some interesting contrast between the low-key hopefulness of our Batman and the James Woods-y nihilism of ~~Nite-Owl~~ Owlman.

There's also a kind of half-assed love story between the Martian Manhunter and Rose Wilson, who in the Crimeverse is the President's daughter. She kisses him and he's all surprised that that's what Earthpeople do to show affection, because what Martians do to show affection is to telepathically experience each others' entire live stories, including deep personal trauma. I think I'll stick with kissing.

Anyway, it's streaming on Netflix, so you might wanna check it out. How can you say no to the starpower of Chris Noth and Mark Harmon?