JL8 #7 - Creator Commentary

JL8 #7 by Yale Stewart

Originally published on December 28th, 2011

First off, I apologize for the delayed post. I've been working hard to get all the JL8 Strip Prints sent out and the Commentary completely slipped my mind. Terribly sorry! Now, onto the commentary.

J'onn gets introduced to (half of) the rest of the class. Pretty straightforward, but I think there are some decent things here, like Clark immediately introducing himself without being prompted. We follow up on Hal's enthusiasm from the previous strip with him eagerly telling J'onn that the two of them are going to be friends. If I'm being completely honest, I'm not 100% sure if I had Hal tokenizing J'onn in mind right out of the gate, but in retrospect you could read this interaction as Hal essentially claiming a new toy, which I think is reasonable given how dominant he is in the interaction, not even asking J'onn if he'd LIKE to be friends.

Lastly, we get a suspicious Bruce, which kind of reads as xenophobic. Not entirely thrilled about that, but it is what it is. To clarify, Bruce is just very wary of anyone entering his world or the world of people he cares about. In truth, he's really just being protective in his over-the-top way, but I think I could've written it in a way that more clearly conveyed that.

This is also the first real clash between Bruce and Hal, which becomes something of an on-going motif throughout the series. From the get, I knew Bruce would be the odd man out in class, only really getting along with Clark, and to a lesser degree Diana, but I think there's something particular about the relationship between Bruce and Hal, in that truthfully they're the two classmates who actually have no superpowers, but Hal's "gadget" is SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful than a utility belt full of batarangs. Hal's ring is so powerful and allows him to do so much that he kind of buys into the idea that he, too, is a super-powered individual same as Barry or Diana or anyone else, but he's not, and Bruce knows it. It's that lack of self-awareness--alongside the possession of such a more powerful tool--that Bruce resents Hal for, while Hal kind of resents Bruce in a way not unlike New Money. On one hand, Hal now has all this power that he believes it makes him superior, but on the other, he subconsciously knows that without the ring he's actually less capable than Bruce.

Boy, I hope all that made even a lick of sense.

That's all I've got for this one, so until next time, take care!

-Yale