Comic Book Review: JSA All-Stars #4

Book Information

Written by Matthew Sturges

Art by Freddie Williams II

Plot

Both the JSA All-Stars and the Injustice Society fight against Johnny Sorrow’s band of villains and a creature known as the King of Tears.  Now all that stands in the way of the JSA and Johnny Sorrow is Star Girl.  All Sorrow wants is her, will she allow herself to be taken by the JSA’s faceless villain and save her friends, or will she stand her ground and continue the fight against the King of Tears?

My Thoughts

Freddie Williams shines with his explosive and chaotic scenes.  The one paged panel where the JSA and the Injustice Society joined forces to battle the King of Tears is an amazing piece of work, very detailed and complicated in its content.  Along with this, all of the scenes that contain a light show or fight scene (which is the majority of this issue) is pretty effective.  However, like always, it’s William’s artistic approach in how he draws humans that distracts me more than anything.

As with every issue, Williams makes every character over the top with their muscle definition and sexual appeal.  I’m not going to deny that many artists in this field draw their characters with this type of exaggeration, but there is a sense of realism and an appropriate proportional demeanor with other artists.  William’s seems to loose focus and gives his heroes a ridiculous body structure that focuses on the wrong aspects.  Granted, Power Girl has been given a major breast reduction and the males don’t seem to be so cock heavy, (which makes me think Williams might have paid attention to many reviewers comments on the over done characterizations) but still, that same distraction still exists.  I would hope Williams will attempt an even lesser approach to his heroes for future issues.

Another note on the artistic side, which I don’t believe is William’s fault at all, is some of the paneling decisions.  When you have a comic using the same panel over and over again right next to each other, it makes me wonder how rushed they were to get this issue out. Here we have Power Girl and Sand having a conversation, what seems the same to you?...

Keep in mind, this does not happen once, but three more times!  We have a wonderful scene with Stargirl seemingly giving birth to two skeletal dinosaurs…

Its gets better!  Here we have Stargirl trapped in a junk yard type of place where she is the only aspect in this trifecta paneling that changes…

And of course, earlier in the book we have Johnny Sorrow standing over a hole in the ground.  Sure, A few things are different in this section, but Johnny Sorrow is still standing there like a statue. ..

The story itself is actually quite good, it appeals to my twisted attraction to creepy and demonic tales.  I’m enjoying the new characteristic of pedophilia that Sorrow has now adopted.  That aspect of the storyline has helped to boost my ranking up a few points in addition to being engaged the whole way through with the story.  I do worry about how this will all end.  Sturges hasn’t revealed the real reason Sorrow is pursuing Stargirl.  But when he does, I wonder if it’s going to be worth the wait.

Overall

A somewhat below average issue.  I know Freddie Williams has more potential in his pinky finger as an artist than most others do in their whole body, but he just isn’t delivering like I would have hoped.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10 stars

Next Issue Coming April 7, 2010

The Injustice Society may have found the All-Stars' new headquarters, but Cyclone, of all people, has found a way to turn their own allies against them! Meanwhile, Stargirl shares an intimate moment with a teammate, which could be a BIG mistake!
And in the co-feature, the search for the mysterious Staff of Life leads to some strange partnerships when their objectives force Liberty Belle and Tigress to pair up in order to find Hourman and Icicle!