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Doing Justice Justice

Note: This article dates from January 1999, around the time of Avengers volume 3 #13. when Justice was having serious problems fitting in as a rookie Avenger.

Assembling a team to write about is one of the key tasks a writer of a group book faces. I guess most of us who were Avengers fans as children spent hours making up stories for them. In mine there was an awful lot about characters coming and going, about who was on the team. But a grown-up writer needs to be a bit more thoughtful about why each character is there in the line up.

Presumably Kurt Busiek thought that Justice would add an interesting dynamic to the book, or else he wouldn't have selected him. Actually I agree with his choice even if I'm still reserving judgement on the execution. Justice and Firestar's romance adds a little texture to the book, Justice's enthusiasm for Avengering is infectious, his knowledge of past Avengers history (and Firestar's lack of knowledge) allow for necessary plot exposition, and we see great characters anew through Vance's eyes.

If Justice simply joined and added a slightly different set of powers to the fight scenes he would serve no useful purpose. Likewise, if Justice settled down like an old pro into a comfortable relationship with the whole team, then why bother using him at all instead of bringing back an old favourite like, say, Quazar? The whole point about the Justice strand in the Avengers is to find out if he really does have the stuff to make it in the big league.

That said, I share some correspondents' discomfort at Vance's apparent dorkiness. The hero I remember from New Warriors was the one who endured personal torture at the hands of Gideon but crumpled when Firestar was threatened with the same; who survived repeated beatings from his abusive father until he snapped and killed him; who served time in the Vault for his actions and who spoke up for prisoners' rights whilst he was there; who chose not to have a quick farewell roll in the hay with Angel before he was imprisoned, but to wait until the time was right, "on our wedding day." New Warriors chronicled Vance Astrovik's rites of passage from Marvel Boy into Justice, a character with a special perspective on justice for having endured the worst and encapsulated the best of the criminal justice system. Of all the Avengers, only Hank Pym can be said to have anything like the experience Vance has had, and no other member should have such a strong feel for upholding the best and challenging the worst of Western legal traditions. I have yet to see that in the current Avengers' incarnation of Justice.

Actually, the closest I've seen to the real Justice in the Avengers is in the Avengers/Thunderbolts book, where Vance actually contradicts Iron Man's technical assessment, gets pulled up gently by Cap, sticks to his guns anyway, and IS RIGHT!

Sure, Vance started as a Cap wanabee, but he's gone beyond that. He's been dirtied up in a way that Captain America will never be, he's faced his failures and he's gutted through them, and now he has his chance at his life's dream and he's scared because it's all slipping through his fingers. I want to see that story, and I want to root for Justice to finally get there and prove himself.