Justice League of America: The Nail

AUTHOR: Davis, Alan

ARTIST: Alan Davis (illustrator); Mark Farmer (illustrator); Patricia Mulvihill (colorist); Patricia Prentice (letterer)

PUBLISHER: DC Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 1998

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1998

Publication History

Justice League of America: The Nail was written by Alan Davis and illustrated by Davis and Mark Farmer. Davis is a British comic book writer and artist who has worked on such DC Comics titles as Batman and the Outsiders, Detective Comics, and Aquaman; Marvel Comics titles such as X-Men, Captain Britain, and Fantastic Four; and a number of British publications, including 2000 AD and Warrior.

Justice League of America: The Nail was originally published by DC Comics as a limited-run series of three magazine-format comic books. Parts 1-3 were released in August, September, and November of 1998. The three parts were compiled into a trade paperback format in November, 1998.

The title was released under DC Comics’ Elseworlds imprint, a series of stories in which existing DC Comics characters were removed from their traditional continuity and reinterpreted in alternative settings, time periods, or characterizations. The Elseworlds imprint began in the late 1980’s and remained popular until the early 2000’s.

A sequel to The Nail was released in 2004. Once again written and illustrated by Davis, Justice League of America: Another Nail continues from the first story, detailing an unsure Superman’s efforts to adjust to public life as the Justice League faces foes from alternative realities and Batman is haunted by the ghosts of his past.

Plot

Justice League of America: The Nail explores the DC Comics Universe in the absence of its linchpin character, Superman. As a young Martha and Jonathan Kent are driving into town, a nail punctures their tire, forcing them to turn back. As they return home, a burning object streaks across the sky.

Twenty-four years later, the Justice League is facing a public-relations nightmare as antimetahuman sentiment begins to spread across the United States, fueled by Mayor Lex Luthor and Deputy Mayor Jimmy Olsen. The league enlists respected journalist Lois Lane to help rebuild its image.

In Gotham City, Batman faces the Joker, who is heavily armed with alien weapons. Batman is captured and forced to watch the gruesome executions of Robin and Batgirl. With the help of Catwoman, a grief-stricken Batman overpowers and kills the Joker in front of television news cameras, igniting public outrage.

Metahumans start disappearing around the world, and the Justice League uncovers a vast conspiracy against them. As the metahumans are systematically defeated and captured, Lois Lane uncovers a research lab funded by Lex Luthor, which is conducting experiments on metahumans near the town of Smallville. Armed with alien weapons, Batman and Catwoman storm the Smallville research facility to rescue their counterparts.

In Metropolis, Lois Lane discovers that Lex Luthor is nothing but a brainwashed pawn and that Jimmy Olsen is actually the mastermind behind the entire scheme. Having been grafted with Kryptonian DNA, he has become all-powerful and obsessed with turning Earth into a new Krypton.

Jimmy Olsen flies to Smallville for a final confrontation with the Justice League. Just as the heroes appear defeated, a young Amish farmer intervenes in the battle, revealing himself as the long-lost Kal-El. Kal-El proves too powerful for Olsen, whose body becomes unstable and disintegrates. At the close of the story, the Justice League finds a renewed sense of purpose as they attempt to win back the public’s trust. They will do so with the help of their newest member Kal-El, now known as Superman.

Justice League of America: The Nail does not feature a clear protagonist, as each member of the Justice League works to uncover a separate piece of a larger puzzle. The lack of a primary protagonist serves to further highlight the absence, until the very end, of Superman from this time line.

Characters

•Batman, a.k.a. Bruce Wayne, is a billionaire industrialist who has devoted his life to fighting crime after witnessing the murder of his parents as a child. He is the only member of the Justice League without superpowers. His character advances much of the narrative in the first and third acts.

•Lois Lane is an accomplished and respected journalist recruited by the Justice League to help rebuild its tarnished image. Through her investigation of the antimetahuman conspiracy, she advances much of the narrative in the second and third acts of the story.

•Jimmy Olsen, the antagonist, is the deputy mayor of Metropolis. He devoted much of his youth to the acquisition of superpowers in an attempt to join the Justice League. However, he was rejected and became immensely bitter. After volunteering for a graft of Kryptonian DNA, he gained the powers and knowledge of a mysterious alien race known as the Kryptonians and became obsessed with taking revenge on the Justice League and controlling Earth.

•Lex Luthor, a billionaire turned politician, is the mayor of Metropolis. He is a vocal opponent of metahuman crime fighters, electing instead to combat crime in his city by revoking the civil liberties of citizens. He serves as a “red-herring” antagonist to the Justice League, until the reader discovers that he too is under alien control.

•Green Lantern, a.k.a. Hal Jordan, is a test pilot recruited into an intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps. He functions as the voice of reason within the Justice League. Because he represents an alien organization, he is not trusted by the general public.

•The Flash, a.k.a. Barry Allen, is a forensic scientist who gained the power of superspeed after being exposed to a combination of lightning and chemicals. He functions as one of the more “human” elements of the Justice League.

•The Atom, a.k.a. Ray Palmer, is a research scientist who develops the technology to alter his body’s size and mass. He represents the “human” perspective of the Justice League as its members debate their place in the world.

•Wonder Woman, a.k.a. Diana, is an Amazonian warrior princess, endowed with magical powers and sent to the United States as an ambassador for peace. She is among those in the Justice League who represent the plight of the alien “other.”

•The Martian Manhunter, a.k.a. J’onn J’onzz, was brought to Earth from his home planet of Mars as a result of a scientific accident. He uses his shape-shifting and psychic abilities to solve crimes. As the most visibly “alien” member of the Justice League, he withstands the worst of the antimetahuman sentiment.

•Hawkwoman, a.k.a. Shayera Hol, came to Earth, along with her husband Hawkman, as part of an alien police investigation and elected to stay and fight crime. Following the death of her husband, she has become less certain about her role in the Justice League, and the antimetahuman sentiment almost causes her to leave Earth permanently.

•Aquaman, a.k.a. Arthur Curry or Orin, is the ruler of the lost kingdom of Atlantis. He has the ability to survive underwater and communicate with the creatures of the sea. Along with the Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, Hawkwoman, and Green Lantern, he is viewed with suspicion as an alien “other” by society at large.

•Oliver Queen, formerly Green Arrow, was once a member of the Justice League. He was mutilated and paralyzed while fighting the superpowered android known as Amazo. Now resentful of his former colleagues, he speaks out against the metahuman “menace.”

•Kal-El is an infant refugee of a dying world who was found and raised in seclusion by Amish farmers. Kal-El’s adopted parents discouraged him from seeking knowledge about the outside world and raised him to avoid violence. After the deaths of his parents, he joins the Justice League as Superman.

Artistic Style

Acting as both writer and penciller, Davis lists some of his artistic influences as Silver Age and Bronze Age artists Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, Jim Aparo, and later, Neal Adams. Justice League of America: The Nail was drawn and written to emulate the style of the Silver Age comics, which Davis grew up reading in the 1960’s. Accordingly, there are substantial visual differences between the characters of the out-of-continuity The Nail and the characters of the Justice League of America comics of the late 1990’s. This is common for titles in the Elseworlds imprint, as they take place outside of the mainstream continuity of the DC Comics Universe.

The color tone is somewhat muted, reflecting neither the bright, garish hues of the 1960’s nor the deeper, more somber shades of the 1990’s, instead evoking a nostalgic Technicolor sense of the Silver Age. The space between the panels, known as the “gutter,” is black, rather than the standard white of the Silver Age.

In his afterword, Davis notes that one of his primary goals in The Nail was to produce a story that could be enjoyed by readers of all ages and levels of comic book literacy. To this end, The Nail does not utilize standard comic book devices such as thought bubbles or narrative captions; any narrative exposition is done through characters’ dialogue or is presented visually through Davis’s attention to the finer details of characters’ postures, facial expressions, and bodily movement.

The layout of The Nail consists primarily of rectangular panels and intermittent splash pages. The splash pages function mainly as transitions between the individual vignettes of each character but sometimes are also used to highlight key scenes and events. The rectangular panels are not arranged in a uniform structure; instead they vary in size and orientation, at times overlapping each other on the page to represent the chronological passage of time.

Elements of one panel often extend into the following panel, serving as a navigational marker to guide the inexperienced reader’s eye to the flow of the story. This subliminal signage appears in a number of ways throughout the story. The most commonly used device is that of speech bubbles that transcend the panel borders, however Davis also uses visual elements such as the outstretched arm of a character in flight, the crackling motion lines of an energy burst, or a flying piece of debris from an exploding White House to guide the reader’s eye.

Themes

The central element of The Nail, and indeed of most Elseworlds titles, is the idea of what might have been. The Nail interrogates the role of the Superman character in the DC Comics Universe, and the effects that his absence would have on the characters with whom he regularly interacts. Superman is not only a “heavy hitter” for the Justice League but also a moral compass, a leader, and a source of inspiration.

Elseworlds titles often feature an element of transgression or “wish fulfillment” on the part of the writers and artists, as the departure from the constraints of mainstream continuity provides some measure of creative freedom. This allows for events such as the death of the Joker, Catwoman becoming Batwoman, or the maiming of Green Arrow.

Themes of prejudice and xenophobia are also central to the story, as a politician and a shock journalist exploit society’s underlying fear of outsiders to further a secret agenda. This growing public distrust causes a divide within the Justice League, as the nonhuman members begin to question their role in society and withdraw from public view.

The society represented in The Nail is one filled with fear and paranoia, where personal liberties are sacrificed in the name of security. The fearmongering and resulting public backlash against superheroes and metahumans in the story can be compared to the moral panic that erupted over comic book superheroes in the mid-1950’s. The anticomic crusade led by conservatives, politicians, and the media eventually led to the creation of the Comics Code, launching the more optimistic and morally conservative Silver Age of comic books.

Impact

Justice League of America: The Nail is part of the Elseworlds imprint that gained popularity in the late 1980’s and continued until the early 2000’s. After the eradication of thirty years of history during the events of the Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-1986) series, DC Comics implemented new continuity guidelines that eliminated the use of many hallmarks of the Silver Age, including parallel universes and superpets.

The Elseworlds imprint allowed the creative teams and the fans to stay in touch with the nostalgia of the Silver Age without encroaching on mainstream continuity. In The Nail, there are a number of Silver Age references, such as the characters of Krypto and Bat-Mite, Catwoman donning the Kathy Kane Batwoman costume, and Jimmy Olsen’s propensity for becoming mutated in scientific accidents.

The Nail differs from most other Elseworlds titles, as the setting and characters have not been dramatically altered, unlike titles such as Superman: Red Son (2003) or Gotham by Gaslight (2006). Although there are small variations and a distinct Silver Age twist, the absence of Superman in this universe has had little impact on the lineup of the Justice League or the appearance of its characters.

The DC Multiverse has been reestablished as a part of the mainstream DC Comics continuity, incorporating a number of Elseworlds titles into the resurrected Multiverse of fifty-two “Earths.” In 2007, the “Earth” of The Nail was revealed as part of this new Multiverse in Countdown: Arena, issue 1. Accordingly, it can be argued that The Nail has made an impact on the mainstream DC Comics Universe and may continue to do so in the future.

Further Reading

Cooke, Darwyn, and Dave Stewart. DC: The New Frontier Volume 1 (2004).

Davis, Mark, and Mark Farmer. Another Nail (2004).

Millar, Mark, et al. Superman: Red Son (2003).

Waid, Mark, and Alex Ross. Kingdom Come (1996).

Bibliography

Jenkins, Henry. “‘Just Men in Tights’: Rewriting Silver Age Comics in an Era of Multiplicity.” In The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero, edited by Angela Ndalianis. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Kukkonen, Karin. “Navigating Infinite Earths: Readers, Mental Models, and the Multiverse of Superhero Comics.” StoryWorlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies 2 (June, 2010): 39-58.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

Nolen-Weathington, Eric. Modern Masters, Volume One: Alan Davis. Raleigh, N.C.: TwoMorrows, 2003.

Pedlar, Martyn. “The Fastest Man Alive: Stasis and Speed in Contemporary Superhero Comics.” Animation 4, no. 3 (November, 2009): 249-263.

Witek, Joseph. “The Arrow and the Grid.” In A Comics Studies Reader, edited by Jeet Heer and Kent Worcester. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009.