I Can't Believe DC Is Finally Letting Justice League's Most Powerful Hero Achieve His Full Potential: "He Wanted To Be a God. Let Him Do It"
Warning: Spoilers for Jenny Sparks #7!I'm surprised to see DC Comics let one Justice League hero live up to his full potential. Justice Leaguers reaching their full potential is usually a normal occurrence for the bigger heroes. Heck, the Justice League coming back to prominence even helps the Titans unlock their full potential. I'm just surprised, because this particular hero is more of a supporting player, traditionally, and because he's been a villain lately.
The Justice League hero Captain Atom reaches his full potential in Jenny Sparks #7 by Tom King, Jeff Spokes, and Clayton Cowles. The series has framed the DC Universe's other Superman-level hero as a villain who thinks what's best for the universe is for him to become a god. The heroes struggle to defeat him, until Jenny Sparks comes up with a new solution: let him.
Upon becoming a god, Captain Atom reaches his greatest potential, but also his greatest defeat. In turn, Jenny Sparks manages what few heroes are capable of doing: convincing a villain to reform.
How Captain Atom Reaches His God Potential After Killing the Justice League
And How Jenny Sparks Is the One to Defeat Him
Prior to the events of the series, the former Justice League staple had checked himself into a mental hospital. At some point in being alone with his thoughts, he convinced himself that he was a god, if not the big honcho Himself. As such, Captain Atom convinced himself that he, and only he, can shape the world into a better place. That he decides to do so by force establishes the Justice Leaguer as a villain, since doing so abuses his powers over life and death.
To stop him, the League recruits Jenny Sparks, a former Authority member who joins the Justice League to specifically police the superheroes. She becomes a one-woman army after Captain Atom kills the Justice League. He soon kills Jenny, but not before she tries to talk some sense into him. She reminds him that just because heroes can do something doesn't mean that they should. That piece of advice, along with a story about Virginia Woolf, seems to get through to Captain Atom, who, with a snap of his fingers, restores the world to its former glory, then checks himself into a hospital once more.
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When the Justice League questions Jenny Sparks, she answers simply: "He wanted to be God, right? The solution was to let him do it." Her narration reveals that Captain Atom's misadventures constantly saw him rebooting the universe, killing and rebuilding in hopes of changing the world to his liking. It wasn't until Jenny's final conversation with him that "he discovered the only thing he can change is himself." At that point, Captain Atom's only options were to keep repeating the same offenses or to learn from them. He chose the latter in the end.
Captain Atom's Decision Prolongs His Stay with the Justice League
The Themes of Jenny Sparks as a Series
I really love how utterly mature of an ending this is for Captain Atom, especially when it confirms that he can still maintain his position in the Justice League. Sure, killing his teammates and the rest of the world is a pretty big offense that demands a bigger internal conversation than just returning to the Watchtower all hunky-dory like nothing happened. Then again, let's not forget the League's cruel reaction to Hal Jordan's death after the Green Lantern went bad, but Hal was forgiven pretty easily upon resurrection. It'll be nothing for Captain Atom to be forgiven.
Forgiving Captain Atom, to me, is especially important knowing his role in the current Justice League: The Atom Projectseries. As a series, Jenny Sparks' place in continuity is questionable at best - which is disappointing for someone like myself who loved this miniseries. But canonical or not, Captain Atom redeems himself in a way that aligns his understanding of morality back in line with the Justice League's. The themes of the series focus on how people with the power to make change don't necessarily have to enforce it when it deprives people of their free will.
Jenny Sparks Solidifies Herself as a Prime Justice League Member
She Gets a Villain to Reform, a Rarity
That kind of understanding of free will is meant to stop superheroes - particularly the Justice League, DC's premier superheroes - from going too far or too power-hungry, like Atom does. Captain Atom coming to his senses is all thanks to Jenny Sparks, who, by enforcing the importance of free will, does what few heroes have been able to do in any comic: get villains to change. Maybe Jenny's successful attempt at getting a villain to reform is easier when the villain is a former hero, but when the hero is abusing world-ending powers, Jenny's attempts to reform Atom could've easily gone sideways.
To see Jenny Sparks' beginnings as a hero, read DC's Stormwatch series from the 1990s.
Jenny singlehandedly saves the world, not by beating or even killing the bad guy, but by convincing him to change. Reform is something plenty of heroes try and often fail to do for their villains. It works for Jenny, achieved largely by just letting things play out. This success solidifies her as someone who I hope remains a mainstay for the Justice League roster. All she had to do was let an enemy of the Justice League be the god he thought he could be in order for him to see the error of his ways.
Jenny Sparks #7 is available now from DC Comics.
