080100: A Post-Morrison JLA disection.
By JAn Napiorkowski.

Soon the conversation turned to comics, as is often the case when I spend any time with my friend www.consumerunitjones.com. Www and I were discussing the theory behind Grant Morrison basing his interpretation of the Justice League of America - or JLA as they're more commonly know - on the Ancient Greek pantheon.

"Well, drawing a link between The Flash and Mercury is both easy and obvious," began www "But what then?"

He paused to take a sip of bourbon, "Batman as the archetypal tinkerer, Hephaestus…"

"I think you'll find that Grant wanted him to be Hades." I interjected.

"Really? Okay then. Superman is Zeus, but without the lechery. It is here that we come to observe something curious. All of the archetypes are defined by the old gods, but the actual moral orientation of each adjusted to fit Judeo/Christian mores."

"What?" I nearly spilled my drink.

"It's true. This is the reason Aphrodite, being Poison Ivy, becomes a villain. She is the temptress, a trait associated by us with Lucifer." Www sat back with a satisfied smile.

Actually it was a pompus smirk.

I felt myself getting angry "But surely then they aren't based on the Gods of old, but some different and more relevant archety…"

I had to roll out of my chair to avoid the thrust from his epee. Grabbing my sabre, I spun to face him. At least we both agreed on this point: Only beginners use foils.

"En garde!" Www yelled.

We lined up with www leaving the point of his blade rather low, which was odd considering I'm somewhat taller than he is. It made it all too obvious that he was angry and not able to disguise his intent as well as he would have liked.

We stared into each other's eyes for only a moment when I decided to start things off with a quick l'appel followed by a strong and far reaching balestra. Unluckily for me www was ready and reacted by performing a quick balestra to the rear, following it up almost immediately with a fleche I barely got out of the way of.

Since www insisted on leaving his guard low, I decided to reward him with a French Coupe, www was ready and immediately parried sixte.

What followed was a wild blur of strikes, parries, ripostes and counter ripostes when I finally broke through with a croise and sent www's blade flying.

So certain of my ultimate victory I allowed www to pick up his weapon taunting him with the words attributed to French master Jean-Louis. "A foil should be held as one holds a bird; not so tightly as to crush it, but just enough to prevent it escaping the hand."

I think it was here that I made my mistake. The words made www truly enraged. He flew at me with a brilliant set of attacks, which I was only able to escape from, by executing a rather innovative sequence of successive parries: triece-quarte-tierce-tierce-counter-quarte. Without gloating, I am sure you can obviously note the inspired simplicity, which allowed me to escape unscathed.

He then made what I thought was a critical mistake, he lounged at me in what I though was a classic case of over stretching. As I moved around and closer, in order to put myself in a better striking position he felled me with a lightning quick and stone hard charp-choy to my throat.

The charp-choy being a strike made with the second knuckles of the hand, with the fingers curled into the palm so that the knuckles produce a rather sharp striking surface. It is common to most styles of kung fu, but particularly to Buck-Sing Choy-Li-Fut.

The reader may be wondering what a strike practiced by people versed in a somewhat esoteric Southern-Chinese martial art is doing in a fencing tournament.

Www and I had long ago agreed that fencing duels should incorporate the hand strikes form any Chinese martial art, Northern or Southern.

It may interest the reader to note that while kung fu in acceptable as a partner to fencing, the reverse does not hold true.

Kung fu battles may only be interrupted by attacks made with sticks using the Philippine, Escrima Arnis style of stick fighting. Which in turn is interrupted by holds and limb locks from Brazilian Ju-jitsu especially the form practiced by 5 times UFC champion Royce Gracie. Ju-jitsu can be linked with Savate, the French martial art, which is then coupled with - interestingly enough - fencing. The last being less counterpoint and more complement.

I lay on the floor massaging my throat with Www standing victorious over me.

"Agree" He tapped the point of his rapier against the floor.

"Never." I managed to croak out.

Www shrugged and drove the point of his epee into my left shoulder.

"Owww!" I screamed aggravating my bruised larynx even further. "Okay, Okay… Due to the current, post-modern interpretation of literature and indeed all the arts and mythology it is quite acceptable for the worlds premier superhero team to be represented by ancient archetypes cloaked in Judeo-Christian morality whether for reasons of sales or reader-character relation. Are you fucking happy?"

"No." Www smiled as he sipped a glass of cognac he'd picked up from, where? "The rest…?"

"Bastard!" I screamed both from pain as www leaned on his epee grinding it further into my shoulder bone, and the bruising my ego was taking from having to agree with these half-baked theories.

"Well?"

"Oh. In his brilliance Grant Morrison harnessed the power of two of the biggest sci-fi blockbusters of the nineties in order to make his take on the JLA the comic sci-fi block buster of the same era. Furthermore the two movies comprise the beginning and end of his run, thus providing a brilliant first impression and a lasting feeling of satisfaction. Choosing to begin his run by mimicking Independence Day he gives us a huge, overwhelming preview of what's to come. By choosing to end by paying homage to The Fifth Element - substituting a Superhero Gun for a Love Gun - leaves us with a deeply satisfying sensation that we have just witnessed art. Will that be all?"

And that is how I came to understand and love Grant Morrison's take on the JLA.

end.