hi! sorry, different anon but i wanted to drop by and say that write-up was devastating! the way max is terrified of truly facing the kind of person he is/is capable of being but instead of forcing him to look into that mirror, j'onn is providing him with something else, more comforting to look at instead. max needs to be made uncomfortable; his biggest steps toward being a better man happen when he is confronted with that discomfort (#12, #24, #60 ofc) - and the only time we see j'onn really challenge him and provide that necessary discomfort it's when max hallucinates him doing it in his nightmare in #41, because a part of him is both scared of j'onn making him face himself while also knowing it's something he needs. they're making each other worse and better in equal measures! insane
hi, anon! i'm far too tired to type up a particularly coherent response rn, but i need everyone else to see this ask because it's just such a perfect summation of the ideas i was getting at with that write up.
"instead of forcing him to look into that mirror, j'onn is providing him with something else, more comforting to look at instead." yes! that's exactly it! as you pointed out, max's moments of true growth come when he is confronted with the consequences of his actions, but the validation he recieves from j'onn instead enables him to live in this comfortable fantasy where he's at the end of his redemptive journey, rather than the beginning. i suppose you could say that j'onn's killing him with kindness.
i also love the observation you made that the only time we truly see j'onn challenge him in any meaningful way post-JLI #12 is in a dream sequence. max's entire self-image as this changed man is built off of j'onn's unwavering support, so of course his nightmare would involve j'onn telling him the harsh truth, rather than the comfortable half-truth. the fact that the nightmare-scolding actually gets through to max suggests that this is what max, deep down, thinks j'onn should be saying to him. but, of course, the moment he gets on the phone with j'onn, there's none of that hostility. j'onn is instead showing concern for him. they're back to the fantasy that is their reality.
