Justice League Earth 2 page 44 by Frank Quitely

A great page from JLA Earth 2, the masterpiece GN that Frank Quitely drew under the expert and terrific writing of Grant Morrison in the 90s. To this day, this remains one of my favorite early Quitely works alongside Flex Mentallo & We3.

This is a quiet page featuring the near full roster of the Crime Syndicate.

I love the first panel as we often see speedsters depicted in several frames when they run. Here Quitely drew him being all over the place simply walking to great effect. This is a being whose powers are so much a part of him that he simply can’t turn them off.

The main incentive for me was the interaction between Sup…Ultraman and Batm…Owlman in panel 3 & 4. The contempt they show for each other, later further explained in the story, is absolutely delightful (with the help of balloons being present on the board itself, a lost art these days). I mean who gets to say shut up to (an evil) Superman and lives to tell the tale? Quitely’s usual attention to detail is fantastic such as Owlman’s upper lip being up in disdain for his teammate.

Also of note is Quitely’s incredible sense of staging. This really feels like a scene. His positioning of the characters makes them feel real as people, acting and walking throughout the scene.

The surroundings help giving great depth to the page/scene such as the incredible (Kirby SF) machinery.

Finally, this is clearly an artist who thinks/relies on colors as he leaves a lot of open space that may seem dull in b&w (albeit they do work for me as such) but he knows that the color will fill the void.

All this shows how careful and thoughtful a storyteller he is. Simply one of the best modern ones.

I am the first proud owner of this page as it’s one of the pages (yes, plural, GASP!) I bought directly from Mr Quitely. Meeting him with a quite vivid memory of the book helped pick the pages I really licked.