I think this puts the period on why I am always thrilled and transported away at the climax of the Porter/Morrison JLA run. Spoilers if you haven't read it. https://twitter.com/GhosttGray/status/1335618973027581952
The final threat is Mageddon, described as a doomsday weapon that can vaporize half a galaxy, left over from the era of the Old Gods that the New Gods arose from the ashes of.

(JLA #36 by Porter and GMo)
By itself it's a terrible threat, but what it broadcasts is a constant self-destructive impulse. It makes its victims fight each other, or themselves... anything but the bomb.

The parallels to nukes are obvious.
This manifests in the most "it's the climax of the run" thing possible: the JLA are facing a gauntlet of returned foes, either directly or indirectly brought to conflict by the shadow of Mageddon. Just about every subplot comes back to kick everyone's ass.
On top of that, the world is beginning to drown under more conventional threats as well; hostilities breaking out worldwide. Every bad thing is happening at once. Who can't relate, in 2020?

(JLA #37 by Porter and Morrison)
It's hard to communicate how this comic just builds, and builds, and builds; a throw-down fight with the General. Batman's rematch with Prometheus. Luthor possessed by a giant eyeball. Steel and Plastic Man outwit the Queen Bee with the color red.

(JLA #37 by Porter and GMo)
Also, two wars are breaking out every five minutes, which means that every Goddamn superhero every has been tasked with round-the-world peacekeeping missions. This feels like one of the most important parts: the idea of the superhero, saving us from ourselves.

(JLA #39 and #40)
Also, two wars are breaking out every five minutes, which means that every Goddamn superhero every has been tasked with round-the-world peacekeeping missions. This feels like one of the most important parts: the idea of the superhero, saving us from ourselves. (JLA #39 and #40)
Also, two wars are breaking out every five minutes, which means that every Goddamn superhero every has been tasked with round-the-world peacekeeping missions. This feels like one of the most important parts: the idea of the superhero, saving us from ourselves. (JLA #39 and #40)
And in the darkest moment of all, Superman - the idea that is stronger than the Bomb - is swallowed by the endless despair of Mageddon. This is the "all is lost" moment. This is where things are at their bleakest.
But the dawn begins to climb over the horizon. Everyone fights back in their own way. Kyle Rayner overcomes the doubts that have defined him in this run, and pushes through the psychic block between him and his ring.

When people say they love Kyle: this is why. (JLA #41)
Zauriel, the angel who chose Earth, returns to find that Heaven itself has given up. But Zauriel has learned the Idea from his friends. And he gives the Idea to others, and Heaven itself arrives to fight for the concept of life.
Zauriel, the angel who chose Earth, returns to find that Heaven itself has given up. But Zauriel has learned the Idea from his friends. And he gives the Idea to others, and Heaven itself arrives to fight for the concept of life.
Zauriel, the angel who chose Earth, returns to find that Heaven itself has given up. But Zauriel has learned the Idea from his friends. And he gives the Idea to others, and Heaven itself arrives to fight for the concept of life.
Everyone on Earth, via Comic Book Science, is given temporary superpowers, and they hear that Superman is in trouble. They too, hear the Idea: that you need to be stronger than the worst thing imaginable.
Everyone on Earth, via Comic Book Science, is given temporary superpowers, and they hear that Superman is in trouble. They too, hear the Idea: that you need to be stronger than the worst thing imaginable.
Everyone on Earth, via Comic Book Science, is given temporary superpowers, and they hear that Superman is in trouble. They too, hear the Idea: that you need to be stronger than the worst thing imaginable.
And Batman, via Martin Manhunter, attempts desperately to get through to his friend, the man who embodies the Idea; that the Idea has touched all those that Superman has saved, and now, in his moment of need, has come back to save him.
(You probably heard a variant on this line in the Justice League trailer. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that the movie will not be a tenth as rad as this comic.)
Superman breaks free, races to the heart of the bomb, and finds an anti-sun, which is the most comic book bullshit possible and yet makes perfect sense. Suns bring life to planets; an anti-sun takes life.
This comic is rooted in the Kirby cosmology and Kirby held that the opposite of life was not death, but loss of freedom; if you weren't free, you weren't alive. And Mageddon, by shackling us to the idea of the Bomb, by BEING the idea of the bomb, is in its own way, anti-life.
Superman uses his solar abilities to absorb the anti-sunlight, and everyone fears that he's gone.

But he's not gone, because life is stronger than anti-life.

Because the Bomb is an Idea, and Superman is a better Idea.
And that's why I'll always love GMo's work in general, and their writing on Superman in particular, and the climax of their JLA run with Howard Porter specifically.

It is not the only reason I'll love these silly superhero comics forever, but it might be the biggest.
You can follow @CharlotteBeyond.
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