"Meet Jennifer Mays, New York's prettiest detective, and Gabriel Webb, amateur sleuth and true crime writer, in another fair-play whodunit -- challenging you to solve the mystery as it unfolds!": The Maze Agency #6–23

The first four or five issues of The Maze Agency have been collected two or three times, by my reckoning. However, the original series ran twenty-three issues plus an annual and a special, and aside from one story from the annual and one from the special, none of that material has ever been collected. But it is all available on the secondary market for pretty reasonable prices.

Interestingly, the series was cancelled by publisher Comico after June 1989's issue #7, but the series was picked up by Innovation Comics... even continuing the numbering with December 1989's issue #8! (Issue #8 credits Comico editor Michael Eury, so I'd guess the issue was originally prepared for them.) If you're trying to read it all in order, note that special #1 was published between issues #12 and 13, and annual #1 between issues #15 and 16. It is very clear that the comic struggled in the comics market of the 1980s and '90s; it had acclaim, but never a wide audience. (It probably doesn't help that once Adam Hughes gets snapped up to draw JLA, the series never really has a regular penciller again; Hughes draws #8, 9, and 12; the other fifteen issues of the regular series feature eleven different pencillers.)

If you've read the first five issues, how these ones unfold won't be a big surprise to you: every issue features a done-in-one murder mystery when Jen and Gabe solve the crime. Supposedly they are all "fair-play whodunits," meaning the reader can look at all the clues and solve the mystery too. I didn't really attempt to do this because, though I enjoy reading them, I am not "good" at murder mysteries. Only one time, with issue #11's "…Twas the Crime Before Christmas…" (pencils by Robb Phipps), did I even come close, thanks to a very obvious clue about color blindness. In some stories, the explanations can get pretty convoluted, but that's all part of the genre in my experience; you've just got to roll with it. (I found #9's "The English Channeler Mystery: A Problem In Deduction" particularly far-fetched; I must not have been the only one, because someone actually writes into the lettercol with a completely different solution, claiming it fits all the facts, though writer Mike Barr disagrees. I also thought the "clues" in the one about a group of authors being murdered, #16's "If Books Could Kill…", beggared belief, though all the book stuff was quite fun.)

But when it hits, it hits. These are almost never not pleasurable in the way that murder mysteries ought to be pleasurable: fun characters, including some engaging cops for our leads to interact with, enjoyable pulling together of threads and ideas. I particularly enjoyed the aforementioned Christmas story in #11; the one where Jen's police ally herself becomes a suspect, #15's "Too Much Bliss" (art by Mike Okamoto, Mike Witherby, and Rick Magyar); and the one about a homophobic serial killer, #21's "Valentine's Slay." Surely the best of all, though, was issue #14's "Before Midnight" (pencils by Robb Phipps), where a death-row inmate who Jen helped put away is murdered just before his execution. Really tense and clever and well put together.

And though, as I said, the series never regains a regular penciller, there's still some solid artwork across these issues. I particularly liked Mary Mitchell's pencils on issues #16 and 21. (Alas, it doesn't seem like she had much of a subsequent career; her last credited work on League of Comic Geeks is a ten-page story in Marvel Valentine Special #1 from 1997.) I was also pleased to see some early-career work from Rob Davis on #19, who went on to do some excellent art and writing for Doctor Who Magazine from 2007 to 2011. Rick Magyar does most of the inks from issue #8 to 14, which helps maintain consistency, and he's definitely good value.

I only have two real complaints about this run. The first is that it stretches credulity for me when people investigate murders professionally just happen to encounter a murder mystery. I get this is a feature of the genre, but it gets overused a bit: in #6, Jen and Gabe go on vacation and encounter a murder, then in #7, they go to visit Jen's parents and encounter a murder, and then in #8 there's a murder in Gabe's apartment building. Quite a run there! Similarly, issues #16, 17, and 19 all feature murders they just happen to bump into, rather than ones Jen is hired to solve. It's a device that needs to be used more sparingly.

The other is that I felt like in the earlier issues Barr was setting up some stuff about how the two of them met that never gets paid off. A lot of the early issues revolve around Gabe wanted more of a relationship while Jen is reluctant, and I really enjoyed seeming them slowly grow closer together. But it seemed like the early issues implied there was a bit of a story there, and we never get to hear it. Also there's a lot of focus on Jen's family... but what about Gabe's? (Maybe I just wanted a story set in Ohio.)

The special and the annual are also good stuff. Special #1 sees Jen and Gabe solve three murders in one day, each one drawn by a different artist. I particularly liked the one based around Jen's haircut, "Afternoon: Murder by a Hair," one of the only times Rick Magyar provides pencils. Annual #1 is mostly a Spirit tribute (art by Rick Magyar, Darick Robertson, & Wm. Messner-Loebs); I haven't read any Spirit, but the stylistic diversion is enjoyable. 

All that said... if you like well-constructed comics and fun characters, this is definitely a highlight of the medium and the genre. It's a shame no one has ever crowdfunded some kind of definitive omnibus collection, but they're worth tracking down for sure. 

This is the second in a series of posts about Mike W. Barr's The Maze Agency. The next covers volume 2 from Caliber. Previous installments are listed below:

1. The Maze Agency vol. 1 #1-5 (1988-90)

The Maze Agency, Volume 1 by Mike W. Barr, Adam Hughes, et al.

The Maze Agency was a comic book series that originally ran from 1988 to 1991, with brief revivals in 1997, 2005, and 2024. It was emphatically not a superhero series; it was about the owner of a private detective agency, Jennifer Mays, and her boyfriend, the freelance crime writer Gabriel Webb, as they solved crimes together. The series was the brainchild of Mike W. Barr, a comics writer known for his detective-focused take on Batman—and, if you're a Star Trek fan, his exemplary run on the movie-era comics. I first learned about it, I think, from an appreciation post on the late, lamented comics blog Comics Alliance, which was surely the high point of Internet comics journalism. (This might sound sarcastic, but it's absolutely not; my consumption of contemporary comics went way down when I no longer had CA to point me towards stuff aligned with my tastes.)

Since I just don't have enough comics series to work my way through around here, with this post I'm embarking on a journey through the history of The Maze Agency. Thankfully, though, there's a lot less of it than, say, Blackhawk! 

The Maze Agency, Volume 1

Collection published: 2005
Contents originally published: 1988-90
Acquired and read: March 2026

Writer/Creator: Mike W. Barr
Pencillers: Alan Davis, Adam Hughes
Inks: Alan Davis, Rick Magyar, Al Vey
Letterers: Todd Klein, Deborah Marks, Bob Pinaha
Colorist: Julia Lacquement

The only issues of The Maze Agency to ever have been reprinted are the first five; there was a black-and-white trade paperback of the first four in 1990 from Innovation,* but in 2005, IDW rereleased the first five (plus some other stuff, which I'll come to) in color, as a companion to their revival of the series. (No further trades were ever released, not even of IDW's own material, so it must not have been a big seller, even though some sleuthing leads me to think that ISBNs were assigned to future collections.)

This is one of those comic books that's kind of hard to review, in the sense that what The Maze Agency does isn't genius... but it is perfect, if you take my meaning. That is to say, this is a comic that has an objective and it fulfills that objective with precision and professionalism. Mike Barr is an underrated writer, in my opinion; he knows (knew? I don't think he's had any new comics work released since 2024's one-issue Maze Agency revival, but I could be wrong) exactly how to put a comic book together. These issues have to pack in a lot, because each one is a single story: they need to introduce a mystery and a cast of supporting characters to go along with it to serve as victim(s) and suspects and witnesses, and provide clues and red herrings, and they also need to give Jennifer and Gabe interesting things to do. That's a lot to pack into twenty pages, but Barr manages it every time with an economy of storytelling that really impressed me. It's just pleasurable to read on a panel-to-panel basis. There is nothing flashy here, but it's efficient in the way that only a solid comics pro of the 1980s could be, in my opinion.

Aw, poor Gabe.
from The Maze Agency vol. 1 #1 (art by Adam Hughes & Rick Magyar)

The steady, experienced hand of Barr as writer is aided by the then new, upcoming hand (that's a weird metaphor, isn't it?) of Adam Hughes as artist. Hughes would go on to become a superstar of the comics industry, but this was among his first comics work if not, I think, the first. Hughes's skill rests in his ability to both draw attractive people and communicate character with facial expressions; it's little wonder he was later poached from this series to illustrate Justice League America, a series equally suited to his talents. (Fun fact: Hughes drew the Maze Agency characters in a cameo in JLA #34, and when Barr found out, he got DC to let him write some dialogue for their appearance!)

Or maybe, Poor Jen!
from The Maze Agency vol. 1 #3 (art by Adam Hughes & Rick Magyar)

Like I said, this volume collects five regular issues of the series. In these five, Jen and Gabe deal with murders in the contexts of an art gallery heist, the discovery of lost sitcom episodes, a facility for testing experimental cars, a group of Jack the Ripper enthusiasts, and an Alcor-like cryonics facility. I found them all enjoyable, solid, well-constructed mysteries. Like any mystery series, though, it's not just about the murders, but also the detectives. The other pleasure of the series is the developing relationship between the leads, as well as their interaction with the supporting cast. We're not told exactly how Jen and Gabe met or got involved with each other, but their relationship is clearly quite recently established when the series begins, and Gabe is eager while Jen is hesitant. They're fun characters, and using Adam Hughes as artist is key to the series's success here: just as a solid mystery tv show is elevated by the chemistry of its cast, so is this comic elevated by Hughes's ability to depict character through his art.

Awwwww...
from The Maze Agency vol. 1 #4 (art by Adam Hughes & Rick Magyar)

When trying to figure out what issues of this series I needed to buy in addition to the TPB, I was stymied by finding contradictory information about this collected edition. Some references said it contained the first five issues plus Maze Agency Annual #1, others said it contained the first five issues plus Maze Agency Special #1. I had to wait for my copy to arrive to solve this mystery. So which was it? Well, it was both and neither. The IDW trade paperback contains one story from annual #1 and one story from special #1... but both of those issues contained other stories as well, so if you want the complete Maze Agency, you'll have to buy both of those issues even if you already own this collection.

In a text piece in the full Maze Agency Special, Mike Barr says it was Alan Davis who gave Jen her little forelock, and he was initially opposed to it but came to like it in the end.
from The Maze Agency Special #1 (art by Alan Davis)

The story from 1990's special #1 is "The Mile-High Corpse!" (here listed as being from Maze Agency #0, which isn't quite accurate). This story was written by Barr with illustrations by comics legend Alan Davis, and though it wasn't printed until much later, it was completed first—Barr used it to try to convince potential publishers to try to get on board with publishing the series. It's just six pages long, so the mystery can't be very complicated, but it gives you a very brief understanding of the premise, and of course it's always a pleasure to see some Alan Davis art.

This actually goes on to be a significant recurring gag in the comic.
from The Maze Agency Annual #1 (art by Adam T. Hughes & Rick Magyar)

The story from annual #1 is even shorter, just three pages. "Murder in Mint Condition" is about Jen and Gabe very quickly solving a mystery at a comics convention... because the first two pages were given away for free at a comics convention in 1988. You could submit your solution; the last page, with the actual solution, was later printed in the Comics Buyer's Guide. The complete story was eventually reprinted in both the annual for 1990 and the original trade paperback. Not really a satisfying mystery but a nice curio.

This is the first in a series of posts about Mike W. Barr's The Maze Agency. The next covers issues #6-23 of volume 1.

* According to Mike Barr's text page in The Maze Agency vol. 2 #1, Caliber also put out a trade of the first four issues in 1997, but I can't find any evidence this actually happened: it's not on the GCD, it's not listed for sale anywhere, or ever having been for sale.

Power Girl Uncovered

Over the last three years, DC Comics has released a number of "Uncovered" one-shots, where they collect a selection of covers featuring a certain character (or group of characters) along with some kind of frame story: Catwoman Uncovered, Birds of Prey Uncovered, Wonder Woman Uncovered, and so on. I was intrigued by these; though I'm not a big "collect covers" guy, I can occasionally be enticed by a really solid cover. Looking through the collected covers on League of Comic Geeks, however, turned me off some of them, because most of these collections primarily seem to consist of covers from the last five years or so, when these characters have massive histories. Like, there have been lots of great Birds of Prey covers, but most of the covers in their one-shot seemed to come from the most recent incarnation of the team.

But one of the exceptions to this was the Power Girl Uncovered, which, though definitely tilted toward the most recent incarnation of the character, contained covers going back to her original solo feature in Showcase (see item #6 in the list below), some covers from Amanda Conner's run (see #47 below), and even a cover from Justice League Europe. So I went ahead and picked it up.

The conceit here is that Power Girl has "recently become aware of a bunch of unauthorized 'photos' that have been released to the public." She suggests to the reader that we "check them out together to see if any of them are worth signing"; there are five pages of frame, mostly featuring Power Girl talking to the reader, but also her cat pops up for a few pages and her roommate Omen (see #50 below). I'm guessing this was a contractual necessity or something, but mostly it served to remind me of how lame her current set-up is ("Paige" sucks, and you know it will get undone someday), though I did like Meghan Hetrick's art.

As you might imagine, there are some great covers and some mediocre ones; I particularly liked Otto Schmidt's Power Girl vol. 3 #1 (which shows off many if not all of her costumes over the years), Jae Lee's Batman/Superman #8 (even if Power Girl isn't very central to the composition), David Nakayama's Power Girl Special #1 (featuring Fire and Ice! I don't know why but I won't complain), Alex Ross's Justice Society of America vol. 3 #9, Amanda Conner's Power Girl vol. 2 #1, Sami Basri's Power Girl vol. 2 #13, Warren Louw's Power Girl vol. 2 #27, Will Jack's Action Comics vol. 1 #1053, Guillem March's Power Girl vol. 3 #3, Babs Tarr's Power Girl vol. 3 #3, and Dani Bonvillain's Power Girl vol. 3 #5. For all that the collection has a bit of recency bias, a lot of the recent covers are very good! Power Girl is one of my favorite superheroes (going back to my early days as a comics fan reading JLE), and these covers capture what makes female superheroes work: beauty and strength in equal measure.

I could have done without the comment over the Justice League Europe #49 cover by Ron Randall and Rick Burchett, which I think is legitimately great; I do like Power Girl's early 1990s outfit even if it is very of its time. (Maybe I'm biased because, again, JLE was one of the first comics I ever read.) There are some covers I legit didn't like, but I accept this is a matter of taste, and some of them are fairly iconic and/or well-regarded despite my personal preferences: Jim Lee and Sandra Hope's Infinite Crisis #2, Adam Hughes's JSA Classified #1, and George Pérez's Worlds' Finest #1 (alas, not even Pérez can make Power Girl's terrible New 52 costume work... and I think he even designed it himself?). And in terms of exclusions, surely it's a crime that we only get two Amanda Conner covers! I'm guessing this was on purpose (I think she's the only artist to even have multiple covers), but Conner and Power Girl are inseparable.

As for the issue's own cover, it had six variants; I liked the Dan Mora one a lot but ended up going for the Pete Woods one, which you can see above. 

Power Girl Uncovered originally appeared in one issue (Mar. 2024). It had dialogue by Brittany Holzherr, editing by Jillian Grant, art by Meghan Hetrick, and lettering & design by Darran Robinson.

This post is the fifty-fourth in an improbably long series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Wesley Dodds: The Sandman. Previous installments are listed below:

Justice League International Year Four, Part II: Glory Bound (JLA #38-50 / JLE #22)

As mentioned in my previous post (see item #5 in the list below), during the fourth year of Justice League International, the two titles were largely independent of each other. My first post for year four covered a bunch of JLE issues with one JLA; here, I do the opposite. JLE #22 is best read shortly after JLA #44 because it picks up on a small plot element that had been running through JLA, but at that point jumps over to the other series.

from Justice League America #40

"Spy" / "Blow Up" / "Hell on Earth" / "Maximum Force" / "Solicitations" / "If You Play Your Cards Right..." / "Pastiche" / "Corporate Maneuvers (and leveraged buyouts)" / "Catnap", from Justice League America #38-44 (May-Nov. 1990), Justice League Quarterly #1 (Winter 1990), and Justice League Europe #22 (Jan. 1991); reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 2 (2020)
plot & breakdowns by Keith Giffen; scripts by J. M. DeMatteis and Gerard Jones; pencils by Adam Hughes, Mike McKone, Chris Sprouse, and Marshall Rogers; inks by Joe Rubinstein, José Marzan, Jr., and B. D. Patterson; letters by Bob Lappan and Bob Pinaha; colors by Gene D'Angelo

Other than the fact that Booster Gold had left the team by this point, this might be the peak of JLA. Almost every issue is firing on all cylinders, we get hit after hit after hit. First comes a story where old-school Justice League villain Despero comes back to Earth, out for revenge after his defeat at the hands of the Detroit-era JLA. (I own the omnibus of that, but have never read it. Should I have read it before this? Oh well too late.) This means he attacks former JLA member Gypsy, murdering her entire family before the Martian Manhunter finally gets involved.

At the same time this was running in JLA, The Extremist Vector was running in JLE (indeed, I think the reason the JLA is temporarily out of contact during the early stages of that story is because that's when they're battling Despero), which just like this, was a very serious turn for an often comedic title. This story even starts with a bunch of jokes about the tabloid press getting hold of the JLA's trash! But while the turn into darkness in Extremist Vector didn't work for me, the one here did. I think the difference is that this turn into darkness feels earned, in that just like the comedy does, it springs from the characters. Specifically, the story—written as always by Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis, and beautifully pencilled by Adam Hughes and—focuses on the Martian Manhunter, the alien man who found his home and his family on Earth in the Justice League, and thus responds particularly strongly to an enemy who threatens that family. The battle with Despero is brutal, but the core of the story is the way it pushes J'onn to his limits in order to protect those near and dear to him.

I was even surprised by how effective the death of Mister Miracle was. He's not really dead; this is the android double Scott for some reason deployed to cover for him back during JLI Special #1, but all of his teammates think he's really dead, and it's genuinely sad. In particular, the way that Beetle lashes out at Booster is really well done. So while I do think this subplot is one of the series's rare misfires, I did really enjoy what was done with it here.

from Justice League America #44

After this, we move back into more comedic territory, notably with a story about the JLA trying to recruit more members... and failing... except that out of respect for their fallen comrade, the JLA is joined by Orion and Lightray of the New Gods! This is, of course, hilarious. Orion and Lightray don't stay on the team for long, but Orion in particular is comedy gold. From this we go into a story about a tabloid journalist who ends up fleecing a bunch of down-on-their-luck supervillains in a poker game and ends up with all their equipment. Farce ensues, of course; these issues had a lot of fun stuff going on in them, especially the mediocre supervillains all chilling in a bar.

Two more stories complete this set. This first is the first issue of Justice League Quarterly. I assume the Justice League titles were doing really well sales-wise at this point, because now not only do we have two monthly ongoings, but also a new quarterly ongoing... but as its issues were all eighty pages long, it was like getting a whole extra monthly comic. This gives Giffen, DeMatteis, and their collaborators a broader canvas; here, they use that to tell a story about what Booster Gold has been up to since quitting the JLA. He becomes the leader of a new, corporate-backed superhero team. I found it surprisingly cute, as this group of B- and C-level players tries to navigate doing what's right in a world where that's difficult, and the end up rising above their origins. Also, we get to meet one of Maxwell Lord's ex-wives!

Finally, there's a JLE story where Power Girl's cat is kidnapped by a couple dumb young louts hoping for a payday who end in over their heads because, 1) that cat is awful (at one point it chews through a wall!), and 2) a evil consortium is attempting to kidnap the cat for their own purposes. This is the perfect set-up for comedy, and of course I loved it. 

from Justice League Quarterly #2

"Designing Humans!" / "Running Hot and Cold!", from Justice League Quarterly #2 (Spring 1991), reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 3 (2024)
plot & breakdowns by Keith Giffen, scripts by J. M. DeMatteis, pencils by Tom Artis and Aldrin Aw, inks by Randy Elliott (with Bruce Patterson) and Macolm Jones III, letters by Bob Pinaha, colors by Gene D'Angelo

This issue of JLQ is collected in volume 3 of the JLI Omnibus, but must take place during volume 2, before issue #45 of JLA, because Oberon hasn't yet quit. Mister Nebula (a Galactus parody) comes to Earth to seek the wayward Scarlet Skier (a Silver Surfer parody). I was a bit worried this would be taking a good joke and spreading it too thin, but I needn't have worried; anything featuring the neurotic Scarlet Skier is always good stuff... especially if you toss in G'nort. It was great. I also really enjoyed the back-up, where Fire and Ice go shopping together and run into some old enemies of the Silver Age Flash, Heatwave and Captain Cold, who complain that superheroes just aren't as good as they used to be.

from Justice League America #47

"A Date with Density, Part Two: Hell on Ice!" / Glory Bound / "Ktrrogarrx!", from Justice League America #45-50 (Dec. 1990–May 1991), reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 2 (2020)
plot & breakdowns by Keith Giffen; scripts by J. M. DeMatteis and Kyle Baker; pencils by Russell Braun, Linda Medley (with Paris Cullins), and Kyle Baker; inks by John Beatty, Jose Marzan (with Dave Elliott), and Kyle Baker; letters by Bob Lappan; colors by Gene D'Angelo

Finally, we get a one-off story about Guy Gardner and Ice going on another date, while Blue Beetle is up to some hijinks. The panel where Guy sees what's in his bed is comedy gold, perfectly timed. Beautiful stuff. This leads into a five-part storyline about Guy discovering that a WWII-era comic book character he used to read about when he was a kid, a thinly veiled Captain America pastiche named General Glory, was actually a real person. I could see that the jokes underlying General Glory could probably grow thin fast, but they are the exact kinds of jokes I love, and I really enjoyed the storyline. (The whole thing finishes out with a weird backup story about Guy Gardner visiting the DC offices to complain. I didn't really get it but sure, why not.)

This is the sixth in a series of posts about Justice League International. The next covers issues #51-52 of JLA and #23-28 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) 
4. Justice League America #31-36 / Justice League Europe #7-12 (Oct. 1989–Mar. 1990)
5. Justice League America #37 / Justice League Europe #13-21 (Apr. 1990–Dec. 1990)

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.