Justice League of America: Exterminators by Christopher Golden

(Book Review)

Once again I return to my favorite guilty pleasure: novels based on comic book characters.

This time the book is actually decently well written (probably owing in part to the fact that Christopher Golden is actually a legitimate author in his own right rather than a comic book writer who is trying his hand on a novel). The plot is a bit ridiculous, but what do you expect from a book like this?

The story takes a couple twists along the way, but the basic premise is that 10 years ago there was a mysterious rainfall in the U.K. which caused several people to first develop super powers, and later mutate into giant monsters.

Since American comic books tend to be rather American centric, it is a nice change of pace to have a bunch of British characters popping up in the story. (When you think about it, it is kind of strange that in the world of comics almost all the beings with super powers tend to be located in the U.S of A.) Although it would be interesting to run this book by one of my British friends to see what they think of it. At times I wondered if the colloquial Britishisms used in this book weren't a bit forced. The literary equivalent of Hollywood's bad fake accents perhaps.

("Look mate, give it up already. You tried the bloody shotgun, you silly git. You think a blade's gonna do any more damage than that?"
Graff spat, and then laughed, more than a little lunacy in his voice. "Which one are you? Where's your costume?"
Bryan shrugged. "Don't need one. Not a soddin' superhero, am I?")

The character of Ian Partington, ordinary Brit who develops super powers, and then quickly becomes best friends with everyone in the Justice League, makes me wonder if this book would be classified under what the fans call a "Mary-Sue" story. But it never quite reaches the level of obnoxious.

For the most part this book focuses on the main Justice League characters. (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Flash). In the 3rd act some of the lesser known superheros of the DC Universe make a brief appearance (the Justice Society, the Justice league Reserves, the Titans) but 90% of this book is just the standard JLA.

I enjoy these comic book novels as a light guilty pleasure, but I think if they are going to succeed as an industry, DC is going to have to cater more to the hard core fan base, and publish books about the more minor characters in the DC universe, or explore themes that haven't been done to death a million times before. To be fair I think they have been moving more in that direction recently. (This book is already a couple years old.) But too many parts of this book was based on comic book cliches for my taste. I mean, how often do we have to be told that Batman is a moody guy who slips in and out of shadows, or that Wonder Woman is a dazzling amazon beauty?

Link of the Day
This link is a few weeks late, but Media Mouse has posted a video of Ray McGovern speaking in Grand Rapids at the Bush protest last month. (Ray McGovern, you'll recall, is the former CIA analyst exposed Donald Rumsfeld last spring at the question and answer session after one of Rumsfeld's speeches).

I watched this the first time because I knew the people at Media Mouse who put it together. I watched it the second time because I thought it was actually a really good speech that deserved to be heard. Definitely worth taking 5 minutes out of your day to watch.

Justice League of America: Exterminators by Christopher Golden: Book Review (Scripted)