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As I said before- sometimes a writer or creative team does work on a title that is just so memorable that putting their entire run up against anyone else who has ever worked on the title is entirely unfair. It is as true of the Justice League titles by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis as it was when I originally said it of Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men. And no, I'm not just saying that because J.M. DeMatteis reads every column I write that mentions his work (provided I remember to send it to him) which guarantees I get one reader. No, I'm saying it because our own editor in chief will actually bother to read my columns beyond the title page if I mention the works of Keith Giffen. Which guarantees me a whole two readers. That's triple the number of people who read the most recent run of Hawk and Dove.
- Designing Humans (Justice League Quarterly #2):Mr. Nebula is back... and this time he's up against the entire Justice League. Luckily for them, they have a secret weapon against the redesigner of worlds. Well- kinda. They have the guy who beat him and his herald the last time he showed up. Only this time Nebula is convinced mankind has heard him- and needs him. It takes logic and thought to convince him otherwise. If they had shown him Baltimore- the world would have been toast.
- Formerly The Justice League: Most of the time when a creative team returns to a title after nearly fifteen years- or even five years- too much has changed or no one cares anymore. The difference with the JLI characters was that a lot had changed and most of it were things fans try to pretend never happened. It doesn't ignore the stories per se but it restores a lot of the joy and pep to the characters. The story is funny. It's a spoof on everything from super hero comics, pop culture and cultural stereotypes. The story leaves only one question unanswered from Giffen and DeMatteis original run: "Does anyone want to see me wiggle my nose?"
- The Obligatory Space Arc (Justice League International #15-#21): Every run on every super hero title does some sort of deep space story at some point. Here, Manga Khan kidnaps Mister Miracle as part of one of his endless bargains. The Justice League comes to the rescue. Well at least some of them do. Be amazed as Nice Guy Gardener fights Lobo. Cheer at the results. (Okay- maybe cheer isn't the right word but close enough.) Meanwhile Batman and his half of the team deal with craziness in Bialya. Plus- a rip roaring climax involving Darkseid??
- G'nort by G'nortwest (Justice League International #36): Every super hero has an archenemy. Batman has Joker. Wonder Woman has Cheetah. G'nort has- ummm- G'nort has-? Wait, I know what you're thinking- G'nort has an arch enemy? That's right- he does. The Scarlet Skier. Yes, the Scarlet Skier, minion of Mr. Nebula. Here he escapes L.E.G.I.O.N. custody and comes gunning for revenge on G'nort. He's so eager to get to Earth he damages his equipment and is stuck here.. He and G'nort get into a fight and Scarlet Skier actually loses. Seeing himself as a total disgrace. he attempts suicide. Only to be rescued by G'nort no less. Which only makes Skier feel worse. So bad in fact that he basically resigns himself to a very reluctant friendship with G'nort. Though probably a little less reluctantly than everyone else that G'nort considers his friend.
- Mousebusters ( JLA Eighty Page Giant #1): The Justice League of America is known for battling threats like Starro, Despero and even the Royal Flush Gang. You wouldn't expect the most famous super hero team on the planet to have to deal with something like a rat infestation. Let alone have them be unable to actually do anything about it. Can they stop the rodents without giving their building a serious trashing? This is a team with Booster Gold, Blue Beetle and Guy Gardener. What do you think?
- My Dinner with G'nort (Justice League #51): Kilowog is bored. Really, really bored. Bored enough to actually spend time with G'nort. Somehow they manage to convince J'onn to come along with them on an aliens night out. You're thinking they can't get into that much trouble with J'onn with them, right? Shows what you know. They run into Black Hand across the room at the restaurant and the usual JLI mayhem ensues. It only gets crazier from there- ultimately ending on one of the best Blue and Gold moments of all time.
- Club JLI (Justice League International #33-#35): Booster Gold joined the Justice League for one reason: to make money. Ted Kord was an out of luck ex-billionaire. The two of them hatch a scheme to buy a tropical island and turn it into a super hero themed resort. They didn't count on it already having inhabitants. Or for it to be a living being. Still they didn't think the situation was completely unsalvageable. Not until the island started moving and they got into a huge fight with Aquaman anyway.
- Justice League Europe #6: Okay, the Justice League Europe was based in France. The problem was that only two members actually spoke French. So they sign up for French classes. The Injustice Gang wants to pull a job in France. Only they don't know the language either and also enroll in French class. There apparently aren't that many places in France that teach French to English speaking students so the two teams end up in the same class- with the inevitable results: absolute comedy gold.
- Justice League America (Volume 1) Annual #4: The Injustice Gang decides it be more profitable for them to reform so they decide to join the Justice League and somehow they make it past the admissions process. G'nort comes to visit. So does his kinda sorta archenemy- The Scarlet Skier. Max Lord can't deal with that much stupidity so does the most logical thing imaginable. He finds a place that has absolutely no need for a super hero team, sends them there and begins their provisional membership. These ex-villains and failed super heroes bind together to form The Justice League Antarctica. Right when you think things couldn't possibly get any sillier- in walk the giant killer penguins. And then . . . and then . . . bwa-haha!™.
And now the best of everyone else:
- JLA- Year One: Okay, Post Zero Hour Justice League continuity was kind of a mess. Mark Waid set out to tell a story that would clear up a lot of the errors and answer the question why would the Justice League come together in the first place. If they were so powerful on their own, why would Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman form a team? What if they weren't the founders? While using many of the old stories as building blocks- Waid built a story that was new and different. He showed the heroes as very uncertain characters. He even worked in references to things going on in the DC of its time. (There are references to another flashback story from James Robinson's Starman for instance.) This is retconning at its finest.
- Justice League Taskforce #7-8: A lost tribe of green skinned non-Wonder Woman connected Amazons steal a deadly virus. They will not deal with men. So J'onn Jonnz puts together and all female Justice League Taskforce. What's that you say? J'onn is male. Well- he is a shapeshifter so you can never be too sure. The queen of these Amazons is fooled. She falls madly in love with him. The team struggles to recover the virus. The way the story tackles homophobia is just the type of snide social commentary fans have come to expect from Peter David.
- Synchronicity/Out of Luck (JLA #18-#19): This story combines new age religious ideas like the interconnectedness of all things and marries it to advanced quantum physics ideas like particle entanglement. The result is- weird. Very weird. The Justice League ends up fighting the very concept of probability itself. It also features some of the weirdest villains and subplots in Justice League history.
- Klaarsh Reunion (Justice League Quarterly #7): One of the most dreaded experiences in ones life is their high school reunion. The idea of seeing most of the people I went to high school with is so horrible I didn't go to mine. However Ted Kord thinks he is the greatest success story from his school- the class's only super hero (even if you can't tell anyone.) Of course he decided to go- in spite of being the unpopular fat kid. What he discovers truly surprises him. The Kord family were the only ones in town who were not secretly extraterrestrial. Once he finds this out- he no longer feels special. Luckily- these aliens have enemies and the Justice League is soon needed. His secret is blown- but so is theirs and they all agree never to speak of this again.
- Justice League: World Without Adults: A teenage boy gets hold of a genie and wishes for a world without adult supervision. The result is disastrous. Luckily- a group of heroes forms to help set things right. Robin, Superboy and Impulse- who all knew each other independently- come together to try to fix things. They are joined by dozens of other young heroes. Meanwhile on another Earth- the real Justice League tries to figure out what happened to all the children. Todd DeZago's tale is gleeful and has a playful spirit. It is an almost perfect match for the younger heroes. Plus- the story features background appearances by a lot of DC's forgotten funny animal characters. No- I'm not kidding about that.
- Realworlds: Justice League: The Realworlds concept was to try to translate the superhero concept into the real world. This special tells the story of a group of friends who used to play Justice League together as children. It is a story that examines whether or not the friendships we have as children could ever really survive into adulthood. It also asks the question can real people really live up to the ideals of their childhood heroes? Unlike most Justice League stories- this one doesn't necessarily have a happy ending. You can't always go home again. You're not always who you want to be. You can't always live the life you want. However you can still live. Not what one generally expects from a Justice League story by J.M. DeMatteis.
- Identity Crisis: Okay- technically this was a DC Universe story but almost all the lead heroes have been members of the Justice League at some point. The driving actions were triggered by things the Justice League did. It reshaped the way the Justice League saw itself- as series of terrible secrets from their past come to light. (Pun not intended.) It opened up a door between vengeance and justice. How far can one go and still call themselves a hero? It is a good mystery. One that- I anyway- didn't see coming the first time I read it though upon reexamination made perfect sense.
- JLA: Tower of Babel (#43-#46): Who is the most dangerous villain the Justice League has ever faced? If you guessed Darkseid - you are wrong. That honor goes to Batman. Every maneuver Ra's Al Ghul makes in this saga- which basically brings the Justice League to its collective knees- was conceived by the Dark Knight. Kryptonite bullets. Using fear toxin to make Aquaman hydrophobic. Giving The Flash seizures at light speed. So they eventually found a way around the problems- once they found out the true source of their problems, things took a turn for the unexpected. The Justice League stood divided over the issue of Batman.
- JLA: World War III (JLA #36-40): Grant Morrison's run on Justice League was very well plotted. It was clear from the get go that aside from the changes made to the characters due things going on in their own books- he was really trying to tell one big story with this series. Little hints started popping up from almost his first issue. After three years of foreshadowing- Mageddon- the lost weapon from the Pre-Darkseid age on Apokalips has arrived. Some JLA members fall. Others fail to help the team at the moment they are needed most. The Injustice Gang returns. Batman beats Prometheus in the most Batman like way possible.
- Justice League- New Frontier: Darwyn Cooke's mutli-award winning masterpiece is the retelling of the Justice League's origin stretches from the fall of the Justice Society in the 1950s, through the original Suicide Squad and ends with Inauguration of John F. Kennedy. It is as much about the triumph of the human spirit as it is about super heroes fighting aliens, giant starfish and Lovecraftian monsters. It is both familiar but at the same time, refreshing. Cooke has a lot of love for the DC universe and it shows on every single page. From big names like Superman and Wonder Woman all the way to characters like The Doom Patrol or The Challengers of the Unknown- that love is clear as day.
Be here next time as we get caught a web of partial reprints with a certain spectacularly amazing, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
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