Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1994-09-01 00:07:10 |
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Justice #1-2
Issue(s): Justice #1, Justice #2
Cover Date: Sep-Oct 94
Title: Four Balance: "Rock crushes scissors" / "Mother may I--?"
Credits:
Fabian Nicieza - Writer
E. Craig Brasfield - Penciler
Frank Turner - Inker
Rob Tokar - Editor
Review/plot:
This miniseries is technically called Justice: Four Balance, which may somehow be related to the first Night Thrasher series, Four Control. But i never bothered to figure out what Four Control means and i'm not sure about Four Balance either. Maybe it's wordplay about these being four issue miniseries. Night Thrasher was fighting *for control* of his company; Justice is, uh, searching for balance? It's too bad Nova went straight to an ongoing because we never got Four Uncle Fudge.
Justice is contacted by Father Michael Janes, a member of the Taylor Foundation's board. Janes brings Kelly Hitchuck from the Childwatch Organization. She wants help looking into a situation where the Yancy Street Gang has been accused of killing a runaway girl, Alison. Alison was the daughter of a millionaire named Anderson Gaulthing. Justice was chosen because of his own (public) family problems.
Justice agrees to help. He locates the Yancy Street Gang at Kirby's Soda Shop. They're the Tom Defalco Little Rascals version, definitely not the sort who would commit murder.
The Thing also arrives on the scene.
Justice convinces the Yancy Street Gang to go to the police to answer questions. In the meantime, he goes to interview Anderson Gaulthing. Gaulthing admits to having had problems in his relationship with his daughter, but doesn't give Justice any useful information and Justice gets the impression that he's dirty in some way (and says so to Gaulthing). After Justice leaves, Gaulthing calls a minion and asks about the status of Project: 90210.
The Yancy Street Gang are later released without being charged.
Justice then goes to Kelly Hitchuck and agrees to join the Childwatch Organization.
With regard to the Gaulthing case, Hitchuck suggests investigating Gaulthing's assistant, Janice Ian.
That's where the first issue ends, and it couldn't be any more boring. I didn't read this in realtime, but i don't think even the prospect of Justice fighting Luke Perry and Shannen Doherty could have kept me going.
On the other hand, opening issue #2 with the wedding of Justice and Firestar might have kept me interested.
Unfortunately, it's just a dream. It continues to shown a middle-aged Vance and Angel with a kid. Vance has become abusive like his father and grandfather. It turns out to be the work of the Hate-Monger.
...zzzzzzzzzz *snort* What?! No, i'm here. I'm awake. But we're done here. This isn't a self-contained mini like Night Thrasher's. Justice and friends appear in the New Warriors book before next issue. Quite a compelling opening for the series though, huh?
Quality Rating: D
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: Three days pass between issues #1-2 but i wanted to keep as much of the miniseries together as possible, and the characters don't appear elsewhere between these issues. The MCP place these two issues between New Warriors #51-52. Next issue goes between New Warriors #52-53. The Thing was really done wearing his helmet at this point, but that isn't to say he couldn't have decided to put it back here (to keep the Yancy Street Gang from laughing at his scars?).
References:
- Justice joined the New Warriors after the Avengers rejected him in New Warriors #1.
- Justice killed his father in New Warriors #19-20.
- The New Warriors met this Hate-Monger in Avengers #341-342.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
Wait, I thought that some nimrod recently "revealed" that the Yancy Street Gang was Johnny Storm all along? He's got some explaining to do for setting these kids up for murder...
That was Waid- it wasn't recent- it was back in 2002. Waid had Johnny explain that he sent all the packages, which doesn't explain the Yancy Street Gang playing pranks on him in person. Every writer since Waid has assumed there's a real Yancy Street Gang- the common fan assumption is Johnny just sent a few of the packages.
Fnord, I believe the "Balance" in the title refers to the metaphorical scales of justice.
I really hate the idea of the Yancy Street Gang having names and faces. They should be like Norm's wife on CHEERS.
Real Yancy Streeters can be seen, and can be seen to not be the Torch, at least as far back as Fantastic Four #29 (1964). You never saw their faces that I can recall, at least during the Lee & Kirby run, IIRC.
In #29 they are mostly hidden by the panel borders, buildings, etc., but you can see the hands of one of them who dumps a pail of water on the Torch, and of one who sprays the Invisible Girl with sneezing powder. Johnny might have pulled a few pranks on his own, but he saw the Yancy Streeters in #29 with his own eyes, and would not fail to remember getting doused with water -- unless of course the Johnny that was published in 2002 was from a whole different alternate universe than the Johnny that was published in 1964 -- which he most likely was, but that's a whole different topic.
