Justice League International Year Three, Part II: The Teasdale Imperative (JLA #31-36 / JLE #7-12)

This post covers the second half of the third year of Justice League International, taking us up to JLA's thirty-sixth issue and JLE's twelfth. This sequence begins with a four-part crossover, The Teasdale Imperative, that alternates between the two titles, then each series finishes out the year with four issues of its own.

Unlike in volume 1 of Justice League International Omnibus, where there was some attempt to put the stories in a reading order, the ones in volume 2 seem to just be interwoven in publication order. I don't think it works terribly well to be jumping back and forth between JLA and JLE when they are each running multipart stories that don't intersect, so I did my best to read the book in an order that made more sense. 

from Justice League Europe #7

So, to that end, I recommend following Teasdale Imperative with issues #33-36 of JLA and then doubling back to read issues #9-12 of JLE. Justice League International Special #1 is placed later in the book, but I recommend reading it between issues #10 and 11 of JLE, since Metamorpho's comments about wanting to see his kid indicate he hasn't yet gone looking for him. (Obviously at some point I will need to do a "reading order" post for the series.)

The Teasdale Imperative / "Nitwits, Knuckleheads & Poozers!" / "Club JLI" / "Lifeboat" / "Gnort by Gnortwest" / "Under the Skin" / "After the Fox!" / "The Show Must Go On...and On...and On...and On..." / "Family Ties" / "Bringing Up Baby", from Justice League America #31-32 & Justice League Europe #7-8 (Oct.-Nov. 1989), Justice League America #33-36 (Dec. 1989–Mar. 1990), Justice League Europe #9-10 (Dec. 1989–Jan. 1990), Justice League International Special #1 (1990), and Justice League Europe #11-12 (Feb.-Mar. 1990); reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 2 (2020)
plot and layouts by Keith Giffen; scripts by J. M. DeMatteis, Bill Loebs, and Len Wein; pencils by Adam Hughes, Bart Sears, Tom Artis, Art Nichols, and Joe Phillips; inks by Joe Rubinstein, Pablo Marcos, Art Nichols, Bob Smith, Jose Marzon,* Bruce D. Patterson, and Bart Sears; letters by Albert De Guzman, Bob Lappan, and John Costanza; colors by Gene D'Angelo

This run begins with The Teasdale Imperative, a crossover between the two ongoings; the JLA is summoned to a village that the JLE has gone into... and hasn't come out of. I don't think this series is incapable of doing serious, and Giffen in particular has done a great job in portentous mode in other stories (notably his "Five Year Later" run on Legion of Super-Heroes, which was amazingly coming out the same time as this; the man was on fire in 1989!), but I felt like Teasdale Imperative—a somewhat grim story where the team faces down vampires—didn't quite hit the mark. I think maybe, fundamentally, I just don't care about the Gray Man or the Lords of Chaos and Order; I also never really got into the Gray Man story in volume 1 (see entry #1 in the list below).

from Justice League America #33

After this, we shift gears into a run of very comic JLA stories. First, Guy Gardner reunites with fellow Green Lantern Corps member Kilowog, who's at loose ends following the dismantling of the Green Lantern Corps. (I feel like the GLC was being disbanded or destroyed every couple weeks in the 1980s and '90s.) It's a fun story; the two have a knockdown fight... but it's all in good spirits! 

This leads right into the notorious "Club JLI" story, where Blue Beetle and Booster Gold try to make some money by opening a casino on the tropical island of Kooeykooeykooey, which is technically a JLI embassy (following the events of JLI Annual #3; see item #3 below). I found this hilarious: the overly chill but well-educated islanders are always a good gag, Major Disaster and Big Sur of the Injustice League clean out the club financially thanks to card-counting, the island turns out to be alive, Maxwell Lord and a group of JLA members float around the Pacific on a shrinking iceberg. If you don't love this stuff, you don't like life. (Well, maybe you just have different tastes in superhero comics... but surely not very good ones.) Lastly, we get another Gnort story, where he faces down his archenemesis the Scarlet Skier, who he once defeated by accident. Again, hilarity ensues. (The Scarlet Skier is a Silver Surfer parody; instead of working for a massive cosmic force that eats planets, he works for one that redecorates them, but has terrible taste.)

from Justice League Europe #10

Jumping over to JLE, we follow up The Teasdale Imperative by a story where Power Girl, who was injured during the crossover, needs to undergo emergency surgery... only her invulnerability makes it impossible. Sue Dibny has the bright idea to summon Superman, who does it with his heat vision. This issue mostly seems to be there to set up a reduction in Power Girl's powers; I've read enough comics to know an editorial edict when I see one, but it's still a story with some neat moments. Then we get a story where Crimson Fox, a Parisian superhero, joins the team while foiling a group of robbers so incompetent they accidentally try to hide in the JLE embassy.

In the middle of this is the first JLI Special, a one-shot focused on Mister Miracle, setting up some changes for his ongoing series. I actually read this many years ago, but found it much more comprehensible in context... but I didn't really like it. Particularly, I don't think Scott's decision to replace himself with an android duplicate and not tell anyone, even his wife, really makes any sense at all. Like, I get it's there to set up some comedy, but there has to be a basic level of character plausibility for the comedy to work. (Note that the issue is scripted by Len Wein, as opposed to regular JLI scripter J. M. DeMatteis.)

from Justice League Europe #12

The last two issues here focus on Metamorpho tracking down his son. (The son was born while Metamorpho was dead, so he's never met him.) In the first, he faces down Guy Gardner, in the second, the Metal Men. I always like Metamorpho (at least, as he's characterized in JLE, as a Three Stooges–loving bruiser), and he's particularly well served by Bart Sears's exaggerated art style. To be honest, the whole story seems like an excuse for Sears to go all out with wackiness... and is all the better for it.

This is the fourth in a series of posts about Justice League International. The next covers issues #37 of JLA and #13-21 of JLE. Previous installments are listed below:

1. Justice League #1-6 / Justice League International #7-12 (May 1987–Apr. 1988)
2. Justice League International #13-21 (May 1988–Dec. 1988)
3. Justice League International #22-25 / Justice League America #26-30 / Justice League Europe #1-6 (Jan. 1989–Sept. 1989) 

* I assume this is a misspelling of José Marzán, Jr.