the geekocracy

Don’t Laugh: Best Geo Force Story Ever

So if you’re still reading after the title of this post, let me begin by saying I’ve never really cared for or about Geo Force. He’s a c-list hero who has never appeared with any regularity in any comics I’ve read consistently. So if you really love Geo Force, I’m not one of you, but don’t stop reading because I’m actually going to say something nice about him. But let’s back up.

The issue I’m talking about here is DC Universe Last Will and Testament written by Brad Meltzer with art by Adam Kubert, Joe Kubert, and John Dell. I love Brad Meltzer. I loved Identity Crisis and one day I’ll actually finish reading the last Stephen King Dark Tower book so I can start reading Meltzer’s novels. Basically this issue is presented as the last night on Earth and what the heroes choose to do that night. And it kind of is, but at the heart it’s actually a Geo Force revenge story. But I’ll get to that in a bit, first I want to talk about some of the other moments in this issue.

We get a look at what some of the heroes do with their “final night”, which is actually the title of another DC story from years ago. We see Donna Troy and Wonder Woman having a nice little sister warriors moment. Not much of any real consequence here. A more telling story is Starfire waiting at Dick Grayson’s parents’ tombstones waiting for her former boyfriend/lover to show up. Which makes sense since Dick is really the closest relationship she’s ever formed here on Earth. But he never shows because why? He decides to join his real family, Batman and Robin. The three heroes are gonna spend their final night on this planet doing what they do best, swinging through the night. But what I find most interesting is what Tim says in their last panel. “The first born is still the firstborn. And that’s where I see it…the first hint of his conversion.” Is Tim saying here that Dick if finally starting to accept his role as the successor to Batman? With Batman RIP taking place right now, this might point towards that conclusion. Then again maybe I’m completely misinterpreting this. If I am, someone please let me know.

There are some other interesting parts to this issue such as Captain Cold being a hero for once, and Superman having a conversation with Pa Kent to show us that even Superman is worried that the world is coming to an end.

But as nice as these moments are, they’re all second fiddle to the story of Brion Markov. As some of you may remember, Geo Force is the brother of the former Teen Titan Terra. Terra was used by Deathstroke to betray the Titans and later he killed her. And even though many writers seemed to think he’d forgotten, Brad Meltzer had the chops to bring us a story that makes perfect sense. Yes Brion should want to kill Deathstroke for what he’s done. Sure he’s a hero, but he’s still human. Now of course this is going to bring up the point about comics being too violent, too dark, too gritty, what have you. And part of would have to agree that the average comic is not something you can give to a twelve year old these days.

But then there’s the part of me that read the fight with Deathstroke and said damn this was a great issue. It was really cool to see all the strategy and planning on both sides, and then it all going to crap. But the thing that I find really fascinating is that the only way for Geo Force to win this fight is for him to give up and take what many consider the coward’s way out. I think it’s a great way for a c-list hero to defeat a top level assassin, by not really being the hero at all. There’s so much more to this story, but I could spend hours and lots of inches here before I could touch upon every point of interest here.

But I will leave with this. Leave it to Brad Meltzer to take a story about the last night for the heroes of the DC Universe, have it star Geo Force as the main hero, and make me actually care.