Line #46 ComicBook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cry_for_justice.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''Cry for Justice'', in stores '''now'''!\
3	([[WolverinePublicity Assorted classic villains not included]].)]]
4
5	->'''Ray Palmer:''' Have you ''ever'' had a sinus headache? So torturous you thought your head would ''explode?'' What if I shrank to ''microscopic'' size, entered your skull, ''then'' began to grow. [[ToThePain Imagine how that would feel]].\
6	'''Killer Moth:''' You're heroes, you ''don't'' act that way.\
7	'''Ray Palmer:''' ''(points to the other Atom) He's'' a hero. I'm Ray Palmer. [[PreAsskickingOneLiner Welcome to]] ''[[PreAsskickingOneLiner pain]].''
8	-->-- An exchange between a hero seeking "[[ColdBloodedTorture justice]]" and a villain.
9
10	[[DrinkingGame Take a drink every time you see the word "justice"]].
11
12	''Justice League: Cry for Justice'' (2009-2010) is a seven-issue limited series written by James Robinson with one purpose in mind: to make a team that actively seeks justice [[VillainsActHeroesReact rather than merely responding to the need for it]]. However, this only creates a thin line between [[ForGreatJustice Justice]] and {{Revenge}}.
13
14	The story takes place after ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', where Franchise/GreenLantern Hal Jordan begins to lose belief in what the team is fighting for, particularly justice. He and ComicBook/GreenArrow quit the Justice League and begin to hunt down villains and ensure that people like Libra would never take flight again.
15
16	Meanwhile, numerous superheroes mourning the deaths of their friends all begin to think the same and wish for the same thing: [[ArcWords justice]]. They join one another and decide to, as a group, attempt to bring justice to the world. Little do they know that this is going according to the plan of one villain: Prometheus.
17
18	The series was originally planned to be an ongoing series and reinterpretation of the ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' series and team, [[ExecutiveMeddling but DC executives eventually shortened it to seven issues]], with the various characters and plot lines followed up in other series.
19
20	----
21	!!Provides examples of:
22
23	* ActuallyADoombot: Prometheus's galloping VillainDecay since Creator/GrantMorrison created him is explained as some other guy wearing the costume.
24	* AdvertisedExtra: You see how that pic up there features Batwoman? Yeah, she's not in this series, really. She shows up every now and then, but never gets involved in the main plot.
25	* AesopAmnesia: [[http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2009/07/05/things-i-liked-this-week-and-things-i-didnt-7/ MightyGodKing]] noted two pretty glaring examples.
26	-->This is a comic where Green Lantern demands the heroes be more “proactive” and nobody bothers to point out that ''he already did that'', and in the process temporarily destroyed the universe, except whoops it was a giant yellow space bug controlling him or something. This is a comic where the Atom tortures a bad guy by stomping on his brain and nobody points out that his wife killed one of his closest friends by accident ''doing the exact same thing''.
27	* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler: Roy Harper loses an arm to Prometheus.]]
28	* ArcWords: "Justice" appears numerous times in every issue, [[ConceptsAreCheap often spoken as a complete sentence to explain means, motives and goals]].
29	* ArtisticLicenseSpace: Green Lantern and Green Arrow fly through an asteroid thicket, despite the fact that they traveled from Earth orbit to the surface, where logically there should be no asteroids.
30	* BackForTheDead: The book pulls ''a lot'' of characters who had not been seen or mentioned for years (sometimes decades) back for the sole purposes of killing them off. Maybe most egregiously, the ThreeStoogesShoutOut, Winky, Blinky and Noddy, who had gotten exactly one mention since 1947, and were [[BusCrash killed offscreen]].
31	* BashBrothers: Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi fight very well as a team, and spend the entire fight sequence complementing each other.
32	* BigBad: Prometheus
33	* BuryYourGays: Mikaal Thomas' lover was killed, and that killing is what set him on the path for justice in the first place.
34	** Likewise, D-list gay hero and former Global Guardians member Tasmanian Devil is killed and ''turned into a throw rug'' for Prometheus's manor, [[CListFodder just to show off how badass he is]]. However, it [[AuthorsSavingThrow turns out in a follow-up comic]] that the Devil's body was kept in stasis, he's tossed into a Lazarus Pit, and he comes back - with hints that he and Mikaal might get together.
35	* CListFodder: Prometheus stated that ([[OffScreenVillainy off panel, by the way]]) he killed several members of the ComicBook/GlobalGuardians.
36	** Also "Blood Pack", a "new" team made up of old Dark-and-Bronze-age characters.
37	** ''And'' Preston Payne, the [[LegacyCharacter third]] Clayface. Notable in that he serves as a SacrificialLamb for the B-list modern Clayface, as the character (last seen in a 1994 comic) is turned into an {{Expy}} of the more recent version as part of a trap, then [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness unceremoniously killed off]] to prove the villain's vileness (just in case the last half-dozen killings hadn't gotten it across).
38	* ColdBloodedTorture: The heroes, primarily Ray Palmer (The Atom), torture several villains in order to gain information.
39	* CollateralAngst: Numerous character, [[CListFodder including several minor heroes]], are killed to motivate and harm the primary characters. This includes, in the series final issues, [[spoiler:Lian Harper, Roy Harper's daughter, who was killed during the destruction of Star City]].
40	* ConceptsAreCheap: The main characters begin seeking justice without defining what it means, how it is different from the ideals and actions of the Justice League, or how it is different from [[{{Revenge}} a different concept]] all together.
41	* ContinuityNod: Miss Martian notes that one of the gods of Mars is L'Zoril. This is the Martian name for [[ComicBook/TheSandman1989 Dream of the Endless]], as we discovered early in his series.
42	* ContrivedCoincidence: The story starts with various heroes all over the world shouting that they want justice at the exact same time, completely at random.
43	* CoversAlwaysLie: See ComicBook/LexLuthor, ComicBook/TheJoker, Sinestro, Poison Ivy, and Grodd on the cover image up top? None of them show up. At all.
44	* DarkerAndEdgier: The series was an attempt to make the Justice League proactive and, well, edgier. This has been done before (''Justice League Detroit'', ''Justice League Task Force'', ''Extreme Justice''), and has ''certainly'' been done better (''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueElite'').
45	* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: Lian Harper dies in the destruction of Star City.]]
46	* DeusExMachina: In the end, Green Arrow [[spoiler:enters Prometheus' personal pocket dimension and kills him with a single arrow to the head]] with absolutely no explanation how he can do that.
47	* DownerEnding: Not only do the heroes not get what they want, but [[TheBadGuyWins Prometheus succeeds in his plans]] and [[spoiler:although he's killed by Green Arrow, that just leads to Green Arrow getting negative consequences]]. In short, all the pain and torture everyone committed in the name of justice was AllForNothing.
48	* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Deaths occur without buildup, meaning or any real plot relevance. And a quite a few of them happens off-panel to boot.
49	* FailureHero: [[spoiler:Ollie and Hal's desire to "do more" ends with them doing nothing that makes a difference, with the irony being Red Arrow probably wouldn't have lost his arm if they hadn't unwittingly given Prometheus access to the Hall of Justice.]]
50	* GambitRoulette: Much of Prometheus's plan relied on heroes being in the ''exact'' right place, at the ''exact'' right time, for the ''exact'' right reasons.
51	* HollywoodLaw: Apparently, if you have a criminal record a costumed vigilante doesn't need to catch you committing a crime or have any evidence that you have done or were planning to do so to be well within his rights to beat you senseless and arrest you. Any sane judge would overturn virtually every "arrest" Hal and Ollie make in this series, if it got to court at all. However, what they don't make clear is whether or not these criminals are out legally or not. If they are out legally, then preemptively hunting them down is not justice because they haven't done anything wrong, at least as far as you can prove. If they are out illegally, then why ''aren't'' they being tracked down and put in jail, and why would the heroes complain about having to wait until they commit a crime, when they are already committing a crime just by being outside of jail?
52	* IdiotBall:
53	** Once the heroes have captured Prometheus, they tie him up... and put his helmet, the source of all his powers, back on his head. And if Donna Troy destroying it wasn't an artist mistake, they ''[[TooDumbToLive repaired it first]]''.
54	** The page with Prometheus curb stomping the Justice League after [[spoiler:cutting off Roy's arm]] has the team use next to no actual strategy, e.g [[SquishyWizard Zatanna]] rushing into a fight head first.
55	* LampshadeHanging: Green Lantern points out that it is practically Gotham law that all conversations should be on the roofs of buildings.
56	* MoodWhiplash: The art skips from the gruesome, ignoble deaths of beloved characters to cheap {{Fanservice}} in a matter of panels
57	* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Captain Marvel's lightning usually just changes him from his civilian form to superhero, and can be used offensively against people with a vulnerability to magic, e.g. Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}, and then suddenly he can use it to make a shield, protecting people (including Supergirl) from an explosion. Justified since [[spoiler: he's Prometheus and it's not the same magic.]]
58	** A strange case of Supergirl getting a new weakness. Apparently, her being close to magic pretty much has the same effect as Kryptonite, if not worse. This is never brought up again.
59	*** Magic is a fairly standard established weakness for Kryptonians on Earth. Because of the general lack of Kryptonite around the planet, it's pretty much regarded as one of the few things that can give Superman real trouble, and is part of the classic Superman/Captain Marvel rivalry. However, this is usually portrayed as Kryptonians being as vunerable to magic as a human would be, not adversely affected by magical energy in and of itself. But that's how she figures out [[spoiler: "Captain Marvel" isn't using real magic lightning]].
60	* [[OffscreenVillainy Offscreen Heroism]]: After spending most of the issue chasing Prometheus's various gambits and running about in circles (after boasting they would be a proactive, preventive force for good), Ollie and Hal reflect on a number of crime lords and evil-doers they'd stopped and put away in prison. It's unclear when exactly they had time to do this given the flow of events, but we never see this adventures first-hand, only their mentions of them.
61	* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: The Atom had no problem performing an autopsy on Endless Winter, even though he's a physicist.
62	%%* PapaWolf: Green Arrow.
63	* PayEvilUntoEvil: [[spoiler:Green Arrow killing Prometheus]]. The latter's actions are the final example of the characters of the story confusing "justice" for "revenge".
64	* PhantomLimbPain: Roy Harper has his arm cut off by the villain Prometheus. Although he gets a cybernetic arm in Rise of Arsenal, he still suffers phantom pain. This combined with his daughter's death results in him relapsing into drug addiction.
65	* PlotHole: Donna Troy is [[https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/13/135612/2872502-donna_troy.jpg clearly shown]] tearing Prometheus's helmet into several pieces, yet barely a page later it's fully repaired and ''back on his head.'' Either bad writing or [[LazyArtist the artist forgot what he drew.]]
66	* PoorCommunicationKills: ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} began to suspect that [[spoiler:[[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] was actually Prometheus]] after they survived the bombing, but refrained from mentioning her suspicions to any of the other characters for three issues.
67	* RaceLift: Vixen and (the current) Firestorm, both black super-heroes, appear white in this story. Likely a coloring error and not a conscious editing choice.
68	* {{Revenge}}: Much of the "justice" that the group asks for is simple, and personal, revenge. Their actions do not support or heal those who have been injured, do not rehabilitate or judge those responsible, and are not in accordance with established laws or customs. They are instead the simple act of hurting people that have hurt them.
69	* ShaggyDogStory: Green Arrow and Green Lantern make a big deal about how heroes need to be doing more, and eventually split off from the Justice League to form their own group able to do things the main team can't, or won't, do. [[spoiler:Their team accomplishes nothing in the end, and only served to give Prometheus the opening he needed into the Hall of Justice by having his villains overwhelm the splinter group before convincing them as "Shazam" that they needed help from the main Justice League. It's even pointed out how Hal and Ollie made such a big deal about doing their own thing, then came back to the Hall asking for help when their methods weren't working.]]
70	* ShoutOut: Prometheus explains why he is telling the heroes his master plan and why they can't stop him (along with, presumably, illustrating what comic the writers tried to emulate):
71	--> '''Prometheus:''' But for Star City that destruction [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} began five minutes ago.]]
72	* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: Sometimes Prometheus can curb stomp the entire JLA in a few panels, including Franchise/WonderWoman, later he's beaten to a pulp by Donna Troy, who has Wonder Woman's exact power set and power level, and later he can barely hold his own against BadassNormal Roy Harper.
73	* StupidityInducingAttack: Technically invoked with Prometheus; recognising that it would be impossible to contain him in conventional prisons, Batman and J'onn J'onzz arrange to trap Prometheus by reducing him to a mentally disabled state, which he only escapes after ''Final Crisis'' when J'onzz is killed.
74	* TakeThat: The run, likely by coincidence, has a few unseemly remarks on characters written by Creator/GailSimone. One notable example being an implication that Hal Jordan had a drunken threesome with Huntress and Lady Blackhawk of the ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey''. Gail later shot down the implication in issue #6 of the new Birds ongoing, with the revelation that [[spoiler:Hal just got drunk and passed out]].
75	* TraumaCongaLine: Poor Red Arrow. [[spoiler:First he gets his arm chopped off and then his daughter gets killed.]]
76	* UnexplainedRecovery: Congorilla uses this excuse to justify how he was healed from his injury.
77	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Green Arrow and Hal Jordan's desire to stop waiting for villains to act and be more "proactive" only ends horribly for them and those involved with their crusade. All it does is [[spoiler:grant Prometheus an opening to get to the Hall of Justice by impersonating Freddy Freeman and convincing the group they need to reconvene with the main Justice League in order to better figure out the villains' goals. Which then leads to Red Arrow losing an arm and his life spiraling down the drain from there as Prometheus makes fools of everyone]].
78	* VillainsActHeroesReact: The theme of the series is its protagonists' refusal to accept this doctrine, as Hal Jordan and Green Arrow initially leave the League because they are tired of simply waiting around for a villain to commit a crime and then cleaning up the aftermath. [[ConceptsAreCheap At no point do they propose a course of action that might somehow prevent crime from being committed in the first place]].
79	* VillainDecay: {{Deconstructed}}. Prometheus, a supposed Justice League-level villain that originally challenged ''the entire League'', has been easily defeated in almost all subsequent appearances and despite retaining the same power and skills. This series explains that all those appearances were an impostor posing as Prometheus and follows the original's efforts to regain his reputation and exact revenge. This RetCon happened in a one shot before this mini came out.
80	----
81	'''''Justice!'''''
82
83	'''(32 Drinks)'''

Context ComicBook / JusticeLeagueCryForJustice