nowhere_lad's Justice League International Annual #5 - No Rules to Follow review

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    No Rules and Not Very Original

    "No Rules To Follow" is one of two Justice League annuals done under the Elseworlds annual in 1994. The book itself features an idea which is presented fairly repeatedly in comics: a world where superhumans are feared for their abilities and shunned. One half wants to do right, the other wants to rule. It's the very basis of X-Men. 
     
    In this world, there is no Batman or Wonder Woman, but there is a... well, there might be. No one is sure. As mentioned above, the story focuses on a world where metahumans are feared and shunned as freaks, even when they do good. The story opens on Wally West, the Flash, saving a child from a burning building, but the mother tells him to get away from them. As the people outside the building stare at him, the Flash flees in anger. 
     
    The metahumans who take center stage in this annual are ten well-known (mostly well-known) characters from the regular DCU, but the line-up is original. We have Flash, Fire, Power Girl, Tasmanian Devil, the Shark, Poison Ivy, Changeling, Metamorpho, Doctor Polaris, and Doctor Light. They are the Ten. Their first attempt at a rescue, dealing with a nuclear meltdown, is met with failure, but the meltdown is averted by a mysterious presence which could not be properly identified. After that, the Ten split. One half, consisting of Flash, Poison Ivy, Doctor Polaris, Metamorpho, and Changeling, are leading raids against military stations, rallying against the world that fears it. The others, Power Girl, Fire, Shark, Tasmanian Devil, and Doctor Light, are in hiding together. Poison Ivy is most definitely the ringleader of her half of the Ten, goading them on into rebelling and claiming a world they should be "rightfully there's". However, there is dissension in this half, both in Doctor Polaris and Flash. However, Flash takes longer to turn around then Doctor Polaris. Polaris is ultimately victorious in making sure the negative aspect of his personality doesn't win over the positive. 
     
    During all of this, there is millionaire Bruce Wayne, who is funding military personnel and teams against the rogue metahumans, and author Ralph Dibny, who seems to know the most of these mysterious heroes, and villains. The two prove useful in the upcoming struggle between the benevolent and malevolent sides of the Ten. 
     
    In terms of the negative, it would have to be a cliched plot/idea, but it mostly comes from the art. Resembling, but not fully, of Rob Liefeld's art, the penciller, Kiki Chansamone, draws pointed fingers as if they were claws, and pointed noses. The necks in costumes are virtually invisible, and most of the female characters have horribly proportioned chests (not in terms of their breast sizes, but unflatteringly thick chests). The eyes drawn here are also pupil-less at times, and legs are bent at weird angles. The art is the heaviest detractor here. This includes the costume designs on some, such as Flash, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, who resemble corny action figure heroes. Flash, however, adopts the more regularly seen costume later in the story.
     
    Using Changeling, Metamorpho, the Shark, and Tasmanian Devil in the line-up is a more original prospect, as it would be more fitting to use them in a story about humanity shunning superheroes, as they are the more obviously less human. Heck, the Shark is simply an animal mutated into a more human form. Changeling and Metamorpho being bad, and Doctor Polaris and the Shark being good, are interesting detractions.
     
    Poison Ivy has never been associated with the Justice League save for the Secret Society, but here she has no plant-based abilities. It's all in pheromones, as she lacks any greenish-white skin and leaf bikinis. She has no aggression just against men, but against all of non-powered humanity, and can be considered the main villain of this story. 
     
    All in all, this is an adequate story to be held. Not horrible, but not amazing either.

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