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Collecting Justice League #1-6 and Justice League International #7, plotted by Keith Giffen and scripted by J. M. DeMatteis with art by Kevin Maguire.
In Justice League #1, terrorists take the United Nations General Assembly hostage and the new Doctor Light calls on the newly-formed Justice League to help.
This incarnation of the Justice League is another title that spun-off from the Legends crossover event. The previous Justice League (the Detroit Justice League) disbanded during the event and this team was formed in its place. Most of the core Justice League heroes were unavailable at the time. Superman was limited to John Byrne's reboot, Wonder Woman was being relaunched by George Perez and Mike Baron was launching the Wally West Flash in his own series. Batman editor Denny O'Neil took pity on the new creative team and let them use Batman though. Thankfully, the decision was made to use Guy Gardner as Green Lantern instead of boring old Hal Jordan.
In Justice League #2, the Justice League gets involved when other-dimensional heroes called the Champions of Angor start dismantling the world's nuclear weapons.
I always find most of J. M. DeMatteis' writing to be ever so dry, so God knows where this book's comedic tone comes from. Seriously, most of DeMatteis' work is so far up its own ass that it isn't unreasonable to think that the comedy comes from Keith Giffen. I love Kevin Maguire's art though. His faces are just so wonderfully expressive. I haven't read many Green Lantern comics, so I don't know if Guy Gardner has always been this much of an asshole or if the writers decided to make him that way. I'm not complaining, I like Guy precisely because he is such an asshole. he certainly has more personality than Hal Jordan. (Can you tell I don't like Hal?)
In Justice League #3, the actions of the Champions of Angor have caused a Russian nuclear reactor to go into meltdown. The Justice League try to help, but they are kept busy by the Rocket Red Brigade.
The Champions of Angor are determined to rid the world of nuclear weapons because the people of their own world were wiped out by a nuclear disaster and they were the only survivors. They are parodies of the Avengers and were originally introduced round about the same time Marvel introduced their own parody of the Justice League with the Squadron Supreme. I haven't seen enough of the Champions of Angor to grow to hate them as much as I hate the Squadron Supreme.
In Justice League #4, Booster Gold wants to join the Justice League. First he must prove himself by stopping the Royal Flush Gang.
There has been a subplot going on in the last few issues where shady businessman Maxwell Lord that has been working behind the scenes to establish the new Justice League. His latest plan is to have Booster Gold join. Booster Gold will of course become best friends with Blue Beetle and their friendship will become one of the highlights of this incarnation of the Justice League.
In Justice League #5, the Gray Man impersonates Dr. Fate while Batman and Guy Gardner come to blows. One punch! One punch!
As you can tell, this issue is where the infamous 'one punch' scene comes from. Guy Gardner challenges Batman to a fight and it goes exactly as you would expect. Black Canary is out of the room and misses the entire thing. Oh, there is also something about some guy called the Gray Man pretending to be Dr. Fate and harvesting dream matter from the people of a town in Vermont. Apparently the Lords of Order made him immortal and gave him the ability to tap into dream energy from people on the edge of death. He is upset because he considers his duty a curse because now he can only experience all sensations as shades of grey. You can tell that J. M. DeMatteis was involved in this character, can't you?
In Justice League #6, the Creeper tries to help Dr. Fate take down the Gray Man as the Martian Manhunter deals with a possessed Captain Marvel.
The Gray Man's plan is to start harvesting dream energy from living people and instead of giving it to the Lords of Order like he is suppose to, he is keeping it for himself. He has already captured Dr. Fate, then Captain Marvel when the Justice League sends him in to investigate. He possesses Captain Marvel when the rest of the Justice League arrive to investigate his disappearance and goes to fight them himself. The Creeper is there as well, just being generally annoying. Captain Marvel and Martian Manhunter are both as powerful as Superman, so it was cool to see them duke it out.
In Justice League International #7, the Gray Man's fate is revealed, Guy Gardner gets a bump on the head and the Justice League try to stop a deadly satellite.
Guy Gardner regains consciousness after Batman decked him and starts scrambling about to find his Lantern Ring (he gave it to Blue Beetle so he could beat Batman single-handedly). He finds it under one of the monitor stations, but ends up hitting his head and knocks himself out again. Now Guy is being all touchy-feely and... nice? In the mean time, we still have the Gray Man story to finish off. Dr. Fate transports everybody to the dimension of the Lords of Order and they strip him of his immortality, wiping him from existence. This title also gets a name change as Maxwell Lord arranges it so the Justice League gets United Nations funding and are given sponsorship in exchange for government regulation. The Justice League will now be operating out of embassies across the world.
These issues weren't quite as laugh-out loud funny as I had been led to believe, but they are a pleasant change from all the other grim-and-gritty comics that were being published at this time. Of course, the lightheartedness wouldn't last and most of the characters seen here would end up being killed off, turned evil or otherwise traumatised because we can never have nice things. It makes you wonder if some of the higher-ups at DC had it in for the characters. At least it is a long way off until that happens and I have several more volumes of this series to read through. I look forward to reading them again.
My rating: 3.5 stars.
Next time: Namor Visionaries by John Byrne Vol. 1
In Justice League #1, terrorists take the United Nations General Assembly hostage and the new Doctor Light calls on the newly-formed Justice League to help.
This incarnation of the Justice League is another title that spun-off from the Legends crossover event. The previous Justice League (the Detroit Justice League) disbanded during the event and this team was formed in its place. Most of the core Justice League heroes were unavailable at the time. Superman was limited to John Byrne's reboot, Wonder Woman was being relaunched by George Perez and Mike Baron was launching the Wally West Flash in his own series. Batman editor Denny O'Neil took pity on the new creative team and let them use Batman though. Thankfully, the decision was made to use Guy Gardner as Green Lantern instead of boring old Hal Jordan.
In Justice League #2, the Justice League gets involved when other-dimensional heroes called the Champions of Angor start dismantling the world's nuclear weapons.
I always find most of J. M. DeMatteis' writing to be ever so dry, so God knows where this book's comedic tone comes from. Seriously, most of DeMatteis' work is so far up its own ass that it isn't unreasonable to think that the comedy comes from Keith Giffen. I love Kevin Maguire's art though. His faces are just so wonderfully expressive. I haven't read many Green Lantern comics, so I don't know if Guy Gardner has always been this much of an asshole or if the writers decided to make him that way. I'm not complaining, I like Guy precisely because he is such an asshole. he certainly has more personality than Hal Jordan. (Can you tell I don't like Hal?)
In Justice League #3, the actions of the Champions of Angor have caused a Russian nuclear reactor to go into meltdown. The Justice League try to help, but they are kept busy by the Rocket Red Brigade.
The Champions of Angor are determined to rid the world of nuclear weapons because the people of their own world were wiped out by a nuclear disaster and they were the only survivors. They are parodies of the Avengers and were originally introduced round about the same time Marvel introduced their own parody of the Justice League with the Squadron Supreme. I haven't seen enough of the Champions of Angor to grow to hate them as much as I hate the Squadron Supreme.
In Justice League #4, Booster Gold wants to join the Justice League. First he must prove himself by stopping the Royal Flush Gang.
There has been a subplot going on in the last few issues where shady businessman Maxwell Lord that has been working behind the scenes to establish the new Justice League. His latest plan is to have Booster Gold join. Booster Gold will of course become best friends with Blue Beetle and their friendship will become one of the highlights of this incarnation of the Justice League.
In Justice League #5, the Gray Man impersonates Dr. Fate while Batman and Guy Gardner come to blows. One punch! One punch!
As you can tell, this issue is where the infamous 'one punch' scene comes from. Guy Gardner challenges Batman to a fight and it goes exactly as you would expect. Black Canary is out of the room and misses the entire thing. Oh, there is also something about some guy called the Gray Man pretending to be Dr. Fate and harvesting dream matter from the people of a town in Vermont. Apparently the Lords of Order made him immortal and gave him the ability to tap into dream energy from people on the edge of death. He is upset because he considers his duty a curse because now he can only experience all sensations as shades of grey. You can tell that J. M. DeMatteis was involved in this character, can't you?
In Justice League #6, the Creeper tries to help Dr. Fate take down the Gray Man as the Martian Manhunter deals with a possessed Captain Marvel.
The Gray Man's plan is to start harvesting dream energy from living people and instead of giving it to the Lords of Order like he is suppose to, he is keeping it for himself. He has already captured Dr. Fate, then Captain Marvel when the Justice League sends him in to investigate. He possesses Captain Marvel when the rest of the Justice League arrive to investigate his disappearance and goes to fight them himself. The Creeper is there as well, just being generally annoying. Captain Marvel and Martian Manhunter are both as powerful as Superman, so it was cool to see them duke it out.
In Justice League International #7, the Gray Man's fate is revealed, Guy Gardner gets a bump on the head and the Justice League try to stop a deadly satellite.
Guy Gardner regains consciousness after Batman decked him and starts scrambling about to find his Lantern Ring (he gave it to Blue Beetle so he could beat Batman single-handedly). He finds it under one of the monitor stations, but ends up hitting his head and knocks himself out again. Now Guy is being all touchy-feely and... nice? In the mean time, we still have the Gray Man story to finish off. Dr. Fate transports everybody to the dimension of the Lords of Order and they strip him of his immortality, wiping him from existence. This title also gets a name change as Maxwell Lord arranges it so the Justice League gets United Nations funding and are given sponsorship in exchange for government regulation. The Justice League will now be operating out of embassies across the world.
These issues weren't quite as laugh-out loud funny as I had been led to believe, but they are a pleasant change from all the other grim-and-gritty comics that were being published at this time. Of course, the lightheartedness wouldn't last and most of the characters seen here would end up being killed off, turned evil or otherwise traumatised because we can never have nice things. It makes you wonder if some of the higher-ups at DC had it in for the characters. At least it is a long way off until that happens and I have several more volumes of this series to read through. I look forward to reading them again.
My rating: 3.5 stars.
Next time: Namor Visionaries by John Byrne Vol. 1
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 78 x 120px
File Size 6.5 kB
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