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Ragnarok (JSA) door Paul Kupperberg
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Ragnarok (JSA) (editie 2020)

door Paul Kupperberg (Auteur)

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Lid:Stevil2001
Titel:Ragnarok (JSA)
Auteurs:Paul Kupperberg (Auteur)
Info:N.p.: Crazy 8, 2020. Trade paperback, 265 pages.
Verzamelingen:Jouw bibliotheek, Last Year
Waardering:
Trefwoorden:superhero, dc, justice society

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JSA: Ragnarok door Paul Kupperberg

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Ragnarok is a prose novel originally intended for publication in early 2006, supposed to be the first part of a JSA trilogy from iBooks. However, the owner of iBooks died in a car crash and his company limped on for a bit before going into bankruptcy. The manuscript was due to go to the printers when everything came to a halt. Fourteen years later, the author, Paul Kupperberg (writer of many DC comics, but most relevant to this project, a couple issues of All-Star Squadron) was able to finally get the book released through indie publisher Crazy 8 Press.

It is actually set during Geoff Johns’s JSA, a bit before the events of Infinite Crisis (more on that later, though), and it features the JSA line-up of that time: Green Lantern, the Flash, Mr. Terrific, Power Girl, Jakeem Thunder, Sand, Wildcat, Stargirl, and so on. The book chronicles an encounter between the Justice Society and the Injustice Society, here led by the Wizard. The Injustice Society is trying to hunt down the Spear of Destiny and release a Norse god; the Spear of Destiny is of course the artifact Hitler used to keep American superheroes out of Nazi-occupied Europe according to All-Star Squadron, and there's an extended flashback in the middle of the book chronicling what happened to the Spear after the end of the war. It also ties into Last Days of the Justice Society of America, as part of the Wizard's plan is to send the JSA back into Ragnarok.

Kupperberg is primarily, I believe, a comics writer, and overall a solid one, the kind of comics writer who is not distinctive enough to be a favorite, but who typically turns in work that, well, works. I do have fond memories of his Starfleet Corps of Engineers novella Sargasso Sector, which would have been written around this same time, but I didn't find this book very gripping.

Superheroes in prose is a very tricky thing, and I've found that few have managed it well (just Elliot S. Maggin and Marv Wolfman, to be honest). Overall, basically, the book is fine. Many of the characters have little moments of development, but they are pretty generic and don't really feel like they arise out of the plot and themes of the novel, nor does it feel like much is ever at stake for them. The story is a bit slow considering how long it is, and the action doesn't jump off the page. This isn't to say it's terrible or anything; I found it a diverting way to spend a couple days. But it did feel to me like the promise of a JSA novel is a bit more than what we got here: these are characters with more depth and history than your average DC superhero, and I would have liked to have seen that explored in a more novelistic way, while what we have here feels more like a comic on the page, not really playing to the strengths of the medium.

I did enjoy, though perhaps it was a bit too long, a flashback to the JSA after V-E Day, drawing a lot on retcons established in All-Star Squadron and other post-Crisis stories. (For example, the Hippolyta Wonder Woman turns up, and her affair with Ted Grant is mentioned.) That period stuff is always a win for me. There's another flashback that didn't work for me, though, which is to the events of Last Days. Near the end of the novel, the Wizard tries to send the JSA back into Ragnarok, so we get a flashback showing us the original events of that story. Specifically, the flashback tries to emphasize why Alan Scott would really really not want to go into this. But a flashback only a couple chapters before the climax of your novel really disrupts the pacing, and the groundwork it lays would have been better laid earlier, in more detail. A good idea, but needed more to support it.

The book as a book is clearly small press, and could have used some better typesetting and proofreading: some em-dashes are left as two hyphens, for example, and sometimes the book shifts into the present tense for a single paragraph.

I do, of course, have some continuity issues. The book has to take place after JSA #50, because Power Girl knows that her Atlantean backstory is false, which is something she learns in that issue. It has to take place before JSA #59, because that's the issue where Captain Marvel leaves the team. However, from issue #50 to #64, Sand isn't present in the JSA because he's been turned into actual sand—so there's no actual time where the line-up present in this book all exists.

The Justice Society and Earth-Two: « Previous in sequence | Next in sequence »
  Stevil2001 | Apr 8, 2023 |
Paul Kupperberg’s JSA: Ragnarok reprints a story he intended for DC’s iBooks line in 2005 featuring the Justice Society of America. Kupperberg begins in the modern day, where various JSA members find themselves under attack by their enemies, though the attacks lack the determination they would expect. This leads the JSA to realize that these attacks served as feints while their enemies, led by the Wizard, worked to collect the pieces of the Spear of Destiny along with other magical artifacts that the JSA last encountered after World War II. Kupperberg then flashes back to the days after V-E Day, where the Injustice Society steals these magical artifacts from a Nazi agent who planned to use them in Operation Ragnarok, Hitler’s plan to destroy Europe following his defeat. The Injustice Society betrays the Nazi because, “while [they] may be criminals, [they’re] American criminals and [they] don’t do business with Nazis” (pg. 116). In this, Kupperberg evokes the Joker’s betrayal of the Red Skull in John Byrne’s Batman/Captain America. After describing how the JSA defeated the Injustice Society in 1945, Kupperberg flashes forward to the present, where the Wizard once again gathers the artifacts in order to seize power. The story itself is fun and will entertain JSA fans young and old, while Kupperberg’s decision to keep the cultural and technological references from 2005 as any attempt to update them would only grant a temporary reprieve from becoming dated makes this something of a time capsule, reflecting the major comic book publishers’ paperback novel releases from the early 2000s as part of their attempts to reach a wider readership. ( )
  DarthDeverell | Aug 17, 2021 |
JSA: Ragnarok
By Paul Kupperberg
Crasy8 Press 2020

JSA: Ragnarok is a prose sequel to the comic book one shot Last Days of the Justice Society. In the Last Days . . . DC comics retired the Justice Society of America making room for the modern heroes. Since JSA: Ragnarok gives a recap of this story, I will just say that sometime before JSA: Ragnarok the ending of Last Days. . . was reconciled and the Justice Society of America was back in the play in the DC Universe.
JSA: Ragnarok was originally scheduled to be published in 2005 by iBooks but with the sudden demise of iBooks, the story was never published. After detangling the rights issues and getting an ok from DC comics Crazy8 Press was able to publish the story at the end of 2020.
The story bounces between the end of World War II and the modern DC world of 2005 focusing on new and old members of the Justice Society. It has a nice tie in with Roy Thomas work on the comic All Star Squadron which explained why the super-heroes back in the day did not go into Germany to take out Hitler to end WWII. You don’t have to know the comics to enjoy the story but it wouldn’t hurt since there are a lot of Easter Eggs for the comic reader. Enough background is given to understand the characters although the heaviest focus is on Mr. Terrific. Since this was a proposed trilogy, I speculate that Power Girl and others might have gotten more of the spotlight in the other novels.
This is a little departure for me to review/reflect on since it is rare that I read prose novels about comic book characters. The JSA was a favorite of mine since the trip from Earth Two to hang out with the main heroes of DC’s Earth One in the 1960s. As things got grim and gritty at DC, the JSA seemed to be a little lighter. Some of their stories were dark but not in a nihilistic way that some stories were going. Kupperberg definitely kept the lighter tone although some dark things happen in the story. Enough information is given for the non-comic reader to understand the conflict between the Justice Society and the Injustice Society but the real enjoyment is to be had by a fan of the JSA.
With the deconstruction of Earth 2 JSA in recent years and the changes in the DC comic universe, JSA; Ragnarok is a nice return to the classic Justice Society in its more modern form. Highly recommended to old DC fans and fans of the JSA. JSA: Ragnarok is a rare treat since I am sure there won’t be any stories like this in the future. ( )
  twolfe360 | Apr 18, 2021 |
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