Justice League International Year Eight, Part II: Judgment Day (JLA #89-92 / JLI #65-68 / JLTF #13-16)

Finally, at last, we come to the end of the Justice League's pre-Zero Hour run... and thus the end of my continuous reading; from here I'll be jumping ahead a bit. Here we have the final issues of Justice League International and Justice League Quarterly, as both series were cancelled with Zero Hour. (The JLI lettercol indicates more issues of JLQ were planned, though; it mentions an all–Tasmanian Devil issue by David De Vries and Kiki Chansamone which never happened.)

The Justice League did continue from this point, with JLI-era characters in its roster still like Booster Gold and Fire... but nothing I've seen or read of this era is even remotely appealing. As far as I can tell, Justice League America continued to lean  further into the "extreme" 1990s aesthetic, and of course, it was paired with Extreme Justice, which was surely even moreso. I could barely stomach the last year or so of JLA; I don't need more of this.

(Christopher Priest did take over on Justice League Task Force, which seems interesting, but I'll save reading that for another time.) 

Reading this era in order is pretty straightforward. Mostly the three series rotate between each other, one issue leading into the next. The only time there's not a direct continuation is between JLA #91 and JLI #15, so that's where I recommend reading the last two issues of JLQ.

from Justice League Task Force #14

Judgment Day / "Heroes Passage", from Justice League America #89-90, Justice League Task Force #13-14, & Justice League International vol. 2 #65-66 (June-July 1994) and Justice League America #91 (Aug. 1994), reprinted in Wonder Woman and Justice League America, Volume 2 (2017)
written by Dan Vado, Mark Waid, and Gerard Jones; pencils by Marc Campos, Sal Velluto, and Chuck Wojtkiewicz; inks by Ken Branch, Jeff Albrecht, and Bob Dvorak (with Robert Jones & Rich Rankin); letters by Clem Robins, Bob Pinaha, and Kevin Cunningham; colors by Gene D'Angelo and Glenn Whitmore

Judgment Day was a six-part story that rotated through all three Justice League monthlies: the American branch, international branch, and Task Force all teamed up to deal with a world-threatening menace. This is the Overmaster. Unsurprisingly, this story has all the negatives of all the recent stories from all three titles: bad art, especially by Marc Campos, over-the-top melodrama, incoherent plotting. Much of the story is never really explained. What is the connection between this Overmaster and the one that threatened the Detroit-era League? How did he cause all the disasters around the Earth before he even got there? Why was he going around empowering random people? Why doesn't he just destroy the Earth right away instead of imposing this countdown?

There are some nuggets of a good concept here. I liked the idea that Booster encountered a situation where he knew things were going to turn out fine in the future... but then the events of Zero Hour meant that his future knowledge actually wasn't right. But all the stuff about Booster being dead and not dead was painted with way too broad a brush. I did like the stuff between Booster and Beetle, though; I feel like their friendship was largely not utilized during Dan Vado's run so it was good to see it in play here. The idea no one was being born or dying is creepy.

On the other hand, we once again get an ineffectual Wonder Woman up against a rash Captain Atom when it comes to command of the League. I don't know why we needed to see this play out three stories in a row; it's insulting to both characters. (And when and how did Atom even become a League member again?) This time we get the added layer of a UN-threatened League shutdown from Maxwell Lord. I'm not sure why Max was kept on as a lead character after Breakdowns when he has done so very little of interest except occasionally be the face of UN interference.

The big aspect of this story is the death of Ice. It comes across as a bit of a Chewbacca moment: "kill the family dog." That is to say, kill the nicest character because it will garner the most sympathy. In execution, it doesn't work very well. Ice had been absent from the League for a long time, and since her return, hasn't even really felt like Ice in any meaningful sense. She spends most of Judgment Day under the Overmaster's mind control, which is not really an interesting way for a character to spend their final appearance. Surely an effective character death should remind you of why you liked someone before they get killed off, but there's none of that here.

The one thing I did like about the death of Ice was the actual issue in which it happened, JLTF #14, certainly the best issue of the whole crossover. As the League acts to stop the Overmaster, we keep cutting to T. O. Morrow and a couple other villains; every time the League does something, we see Morrow cross it off of a list of things he knows are going to happen. The culminates in him crossing Ice's death off the list. It's a surprisingly effective mechanic from writer Mark Waid, giving the death of Ice some impact.

Lastly, Dan Vado and Marc Campos's run finishes out with a coda issue about how the death of Ice affected the team. The characters snarl and posture a lot; the potential drama of Fire dealing with this is of course squandered by bad writing and worse art.

from Justice League Quarterly #16

"Visions of Glory" / "The Heart of Darkness" / "The Sleeper Awakens" / "Guardian Angel", from Justice League Quarterly #16-17 (Fall-Winter 1994)
written by Paul Kupperberg, Charlie Bracey, and Andy Mangels; pencilled by Vince Giarrano, Rick Stasi, Curt Swan, Khato, Danny Rodriguez, Carlos Franco, and Phil Jimenez; inked by Vince Giarrano, Dick Ayers, Jose Marzan, Khato, Andrew Pepoy, Richard Space, Rich Rankin, and John Stokes; lettered by Albert De Guzman, Gaspar, Agnes Pinaha, Chris Eliopoulos, Bob Pinaha, and Clem Robins; colored by Patricia Mulvihill, Jerry Nicholas, Phil Allen, Greg Rosewall, Robbie Busch, Scott Ballman, and Greg Wright

The first of the last two issues of Justice League Quarterly seems pretty random: it's an all–General Glory issue. In the monthlies, General Glory last did something other than appear in a crowd shot back during Breakdowns, so around three years ago. I'm not sure why editorial decided he needed a whole book devoted to him!

But I'm not going to complain because this is pretty good stuff. There's a frame story set after Judgment Day; after its events, General Glory reverted to his Joe Jones form—and had a heart attack. He's been hospitalized alongside a paralyzed hero cop, and Jones spend their time together telling the cop stories from the General Glory comic books published after the General disappeared. This provides a frame story for four "flashback" stories—though we know none of them happened. The first is a Kirby monster comic pastiche, with pitch-perfect art from Rick Stasi and Dick Ayers; the second a bit of a Batman pastiche. These were both really good pastiche... but I didn't really see the point. Writer Paul Kupperberg did something similar in an earlier issue of JLQ (see item #9 in the list below), but there to comedic effect.

There is good comedy in the other two stories. The Dark Knight Returns parody is hilarious: "The rest of the world merely visits, never getting deeper into my heart and soul than the foyer of my life. Me, I live down in the cellar, alone, the dry-rot of my discontent eating away at the timbers of my emotional support." Amazing! The Image parody isn't quite as funny, but it has its moments still. (It is a bit grating that here in JLQ, Kupperberg is making fun of the Image aesthetic while over in JLA, they're just ripping it off. Either it's good or it's not, folks, pick a lane!) The frame story is surprisingly good, too, aided by some strong art from Vince Giarrino. It ends with the debut of a new General Glory. Unfortunately, I think this guy never appeared again for two decades until Geoff Johns (of course, it's always Geoff Johns) brutally killed him to prove a situation was serious.

The very last issue of JLQ has a Global Guardians lead feature; I thought we'd finally gotten past these guys but I guess not. Like too many of them, it's more about setting up a new status quo than actually telling an interesting story. Plus this one is a lot about something happening in some kind of series called... "Primal Force"? What even is that? Did the Global Guardians ever get an ongoing feature? I doubt it, and I'm not sure why JLQ spent so much time trying to position them for one. The other two stories here focus on Captain Atom and Maxima. The Captain Atom one is fine; it's nice to see a post-resurrection story where he's not a dumb jarhead but though the idea here is decent the execution didn't grab me. The Maxima one is surprisingly good, as Maxima struggles to help a young teenage runaway forced to work as a prostitute. It's a bit on-the-nose but I liked it a lot. It's too bad we didn't spend more of Maxima's time in the League delving into her complexities like this. Some great art by the great Phil Jimenez.

from Justice League International vol. 2 #67

"Silver Ages" / "Family Troubles", from Justice League Task Force #15 and Justice League International vol. 2 #67 (Aug. 1994)
stories by Mark Waid and Gerard Jones, pencils by Sal Velluto and Anthony Williams, inks by Jeff Albrecht and Luke McDonnell, letters by Bob Pinaha and Clem Robins, colors by Phil Allen and Gene D'Angelo 

This linked pair of issues has the League continuing to deal with the fallout of Ice's death. A tabloid outfit tries to get details on her; the League agrees to not speak to the press, but Blue Beetle breaks the silence, both to get the truth out there, and to use the money to pay Booster's medical bills. It has its moments, but there's too much melodramatic posing and snarling. Clearly a lot of these issues are devoted to shuffling off the board the characters who won't play a role in the post-Zero Hour League, like Doctor Light and Power Girl. (Did the Power Girl pregnancy storyline ever get resolved anywhere? Honestly, I kind of hope not.)

from Justice League Task Force #16

Return of the Hero!, from Justice League America #92, Justice League Task Force #16, and Justice League International vol. 2 #68 (Sept. 1994)
written by Christopher Priest; pencilled by Luke Ross, Greg LaRocque, and Phil Jimenez; inked by Cramer, Banning, Faucher, & Marzan Jr., Rich Rankin, and John Stokes; colored by Gene D'Angelo and Dave Grafe; letters by Clem Robins, Bob Pinaha, and Kevin Cunningham

Lastly, we finish out with a three-part story called Return of the Hero! The premise of this one is interesting: it turns out the Justice League had a sixth founding member we didn't know about, Triumph, who accidentally eliminated himself and the enemy the League was fighting from time. Triumph is brought back amid the timeline fluctuations of Zero Hour, along with the aliens he was fighting. But how can he get the League to help him when 1) they're in mourning for Ice, and 2) they don't remember he ever existed? This is by Priest, so it has a lot of good moments: Triumph's original story, the League needing to take a taxi to defeat the aliens in D.C., Ralph's self-realization about his role in the League, the Tasmanian Devil finally revealing his origin, L-RON in Despero's body. 

But it is brought down a bit by the repetitive over-the-top arguments and fights. I get that the League is under strain here but it feels like everyone says the same thing five times. And Triumph's own emotional throughline seems a bit muddled. I'm not totally sure what point is being made with him here.

This ends with the League in tatters... yet again. But like I said, that's enough for me for now! On to the returns of the original JLI team. 

This is the fifteenth in a series of posts about Justice League International. The next covers Formerly Known as the Justice League and I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League. 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)
6. Justice League America #38-50 / Justice League Europe #22 (May 1990–May 1991)
7. Justice League America #51-52 / Justice League Europe #23-28 (Feb. 1991–July 1991) 
8. Justice League America #53-60 / Justice League Europe #29-36 (Aug. 1991–Mar. 1992) 
9. Justice League America #61-65 / Justice League Europe #37-42 (Apr. 1992–Sept. 1992)
10. Justice League America #66-69 / Justice League Europe #43-50 (Sept. 1992–May 1993) 
11. Justice League America #70-77 / Justice League Task Force #1-3 (Jan. 1993–Aug. 1993) 
12. Justice League America #78-83 / Justice League International #51-52 / Justice League Task Force #4-8 (June 1993–Jan. 1994)
13. Justice League America #84-85 / Justice League International #53-57 / Justice League Task Force #9 (Aug. 1993–Feb. 1994) 
14. Justice League America #86-88 / Justice League International #58-64 / Justice League Task Force #10-12 (Nov. 1993–May 1994) 

Justice League International Year Seven, Part III: Bloodlines (JLA #84-85 / JLI #53-57 / JLTF #9)

We have just eight regular issues in this set, but that's counterbalanced by there being two annuals and a whopping four issues of Justice League Quarterly. Note that chronological order and publication order are very out of sync between JLA and JLE during this stretch, thanks to the Bloodlines event. In JLA, Bloodlines follows issue #85, cover dated Feb. 1994 (due to the status of Booster Gold and Ice), while for JLE, it must precede issue #53, cover dated Aug. 1993 (due to the status of Elongated Man). This puts the two titles a whole six months off of each other!

from Justice League America #85

"Absolute Power" / "They Might Be Giants", from Justice League America #84-85 (Jan.-Feb. 1994), reprinted in Wonder Woman and Justice League America, Volume 1 (2017)
written by Dan Vado, pencilled by Kevin West, inked by Ken Branch, letters by Tim Harkins, colors by Gene D'Angelo

Ice was written out during Dan Jurgens's JLA run; following the death of Superman, she left the team. During Dan Vado's run, he began periodically checking in on her as she returned to her people... only to discover that her brother had gone mad with power and was deposing her father and imposing a dictatorship. She sent her mother for help, and her mother arrived during the "evil Guy" story arc, so following its conclusion, the JLA finally goes to help Ice in this two-part story.

Let's say you were a fan of Ice. Unfortunately, nothing that makes Ice a fun character can be found in this story that supposedly focuses on her, which is all ridiculous posturing and snarling and big fights. And while it's not the fault of Dan Vado and artists Kevin West and Ken Branch, the trade paperback reprints the pages of issue #85 almost entirely out of order. With a more interesting story, I'd be willing to put in the work to figure out how to read it... but this story just isn't worth it. (I can't find anyone else on the Internet complaining about this, so I don't know if my copy has a unique issue, or if no one else has ever bothered to read their copy of Wonder Woman and Justice League America, Volume 1!)

from Justice League Quarterly #12

"Negative Feedback" / "On the Road" / "A Man of Parts" / "Love Is War" / "Grandpas and Other Strangers" / "The Unkindest Cut" / "Havoc Unleashed!" / "Scent of Fear" / "Flight" / "Ascent into the Abyss" / "A Hole in the World!" / "Galway Girls" / "The Devil You Know!", from Justice League Quarterly #12-15 (Autumn 1993–Summer 1994)
written by Mark Waid, Kim Fryer, Michael Jan Friedman, Kevin Dooley, Paul Kupperberg, Pat McGreal, Steven T. Seagle, and David De Vries; pencilled by Dan Rodriguez & Antonio Daniel, Mike Wieringo, Mike Mayhew, Greg LaRocque, Michael Collins, Mike Vosburg, Frank Squillace, Mark Tenney, and Eddy Spurlock; inked by Ken Branch, Frank Percy, Mike Christian, Dan Davis, Aaron McClellan, Terry Beatty, Eduardo Barreto, Mike Vosburg, Bam, Bob Smith, Ray Kryssing, and Don Hillsman; colored by Buzz Setzer, Tom McCraw, Glenn Whitmore, Matt Webb, David Grape, Gene D'Angelo, Phil Allen, and Mia Wolf; lettered by Willie Schubert & John Workman, Albert De Guzman, Bob Pinaha, Clem Robins, Ken Bruzenak, and Agnes Pinaha

These four issues of Justice League Quarterly all seem to fit in this general time period: in JLA-centric stories, Captain Atom is back, for example, while in JLI-centric stories, Crimson Fox, Elongated Man, and Hal Jordan are all still around. They also feature parts two through five of the ongoing Praxis story, "The Damnation Agenda." I'll go issue by issue here, except I'll save my comments on the Praxis story for the end.

Issue #12 launches with a Conglomerate lead story. This is, if I'm counting correctly, the third Conglomerate story from JLQ, and the third version of the team. Like the first (see item #6 below), it's about the tension between corporate interests and altruism; like the first, the team is a mix of returning characters (I recognized the JSA's Jesse Quick and Infinity, Inc.'s Nuklon) and new ones (I think so, anyway; I didn't recognize them). The art is all 1990s in what I would say is the worst possible way (except I've read Marc Campos's JLA run, so I know even worse is possible) and the new characters are pretty ridiculous. Worst of all, though, is that even though this is by Mark Waid and thus has some nice moments... we've read it all before, because this is just the original Conglomerate story over again! I'm guessing this was an attempt to set the team up for future adventures, but I'm not aware of any. This issue's non-Praxis backup is a flashback story about Ice and Doctor Light going on a road trip together; you've read better but you've read worse. A couple cute moments, but it doesn't always ring true.

from Justice League Quarterly #13

Issue #13's lead story focuses on Maxima and Captain Atom. Maxima's old consort, Ultraa, comes to Earth to take on Superman and resume his relationship with Maxima; however, at the same time, Maxima has decided to pursue Captain Atom instead. Captain Atom is dealing with his own issues, though, and doesn't think he can love again. There's probably a good story to be told with these ingredients, and this isn't the worst, but it wasn't very great either. I don't think Greg LaRocque has the character chops to pull this off, but he does draw a pretty Maxima.

One of the recurring features of JLQ has been getting Paul Kupperberg, who wrote the 1980s miniseries that reestablished Power Girl as an Atlantean, to write stories focused on Kara, continuing threads begun in that mini. Issue #13 contains the last of those, but it also seems to be dealing with threads for Kupperberg's Arion ongoing. I've read neither of these series, and I very much struggled to care about all this. Kupperberg also performs cleanup duties on issue #14's lead story, which seems to be focused on loose threads from the cancelled Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt ongoing, as Thunderbolt, along with Captain Atom, Nightshade, and Blue Beetle work together to take down a Thunderbolt villain. Again, it gets too much into the weeds with concepts from a series I haven't actually read, so not even some solid Mike Collins art can save it. The last page made me realize why this seemingly random collection of characters: they were all originally published by Quality Comics. Cute gag, I guess, but why build a story around it? The JL connection here seems slight. (Of the four, only Beetle is currently a member.)

#14 has two backups, one about the Crimson Fox, one about a new new Jack O'Lantern. The Fox one is by the usually dependable Pat McGreal, but like too many Crimson Fox stories, focuses on a man manipulating her sexuality. The Jack O'Lantern one is, surprisingly, a pro-choice story where he has to defend a woman fleeing her Irish Catholic community for England so she can get an abortion; the anti-abortion activists go to ridiculous lengths to stop her. O'Lantern spends the whole story going on about how he doesn't think abortion is moral but the girl has a right to do it anyway, which feels like a very 1990s take on the debate. Super heavy handed, and I'm kind of surprised it was even published.

There's another Jack O'Lantern backup in #15, which was so boring I never figured out what was going on. The fun story here is the Tasmanian Devil one, who joined the JLI in issue #50, but never got a lot of focus. Despite some confusing art, I enjoyed this one. Similarly, there's a Ray backup with ugly art but some good jokes. (I did not know Ray was a Star Trek fan.)

from Justice League Quarterly #15

So parts two through four of the Praxis story, "The Damnation Agenda," are backups in issues #12-14; then the longer concluding installment is the lead story in issue #15. It's fine. I think there are occasional flashes of something interesting, pulled down by the need to conform to a lot of clichés of the genre, like the fact that Praxis's female partner has to fall in love with him but he has to angst about it. Also, Praxis's power is to manipulate electricity, but this gets broadened to manipulating anything with electrons in it. 1) This is not the same thing at all, and 2) leads to a lot of dumb moments where people say things like, "I forget air was matter too!" In the last installment, some random members of the JLI show up (I guess to justify why this whole story appeared in a JLI-focused ongoing) but the story needs to make sure they're not essential to the resolution. I honestly got pretty lost in the thaumababble of the climax. On the whole, I would say the whole Praxis story wasn't as bad as I feared but probably not worth devoting five issues of JLQ to either.

Back when I wrote up issues #8-10 of JLQ (see #10 below) I said this series was probably my favorite of the then-three Justice League ongoings. Unfortunately, it seems to have plummetted off a cliff fairly quickly; we've gone from cute fleshing out of the characters of the JLI to desperate chasing of the worst trends of 1990s comics.

from Justice League International Annual vol. 2 #4

"Bloody London", from Justice League International Annual vol. 2 #4 (1993)
written by Gerard Jones, pencilled by Mike Parobeck, inked by Luke McDonnell, lettered by Clem Robins, colored by Gene D'Angelo

Bloodlines was the big crossover through DC's 1993 annuals; alien parasites fell to Earth, taking over people and turning them into monsters, but also creating the "New Bloods," heroes with powers to counter the parasites. To be honest, I'm a bit murky on the details; while I've systematically collected some of the themed annuals of the 1980s and '90s, what I have read of Bloodlines has demonstrated it to be everything that made the early 1990s a bad time for comics.

This isn't the worst. Gerard Jones's story focuses on Elongated Man, Tasmanian Devil, and Metamorpho hunting a serial killer in London, which is a good concept; Jones always does great by Ralph, and the premise is well-suited to him. Unfortunately, we also get a lot about Lionheart, the kind of angsty 1990s superhero who's torn between a government master and doing the right thing, with a dollop of English working-class resentment thrown in. I do in general think that Mike Parobeck is a really good artist, but a story about disgusting alien superkillers is not really a match for his cartoony sensibilities (though I do always like seeing him draw Elongated Man).

"Only the Lucky Ones Die", from Justice League America Annual #7 (1993), reprinted in Wonder Woman and Justice League America, Volume 1 (2017)
written by Bill Loebs, pencilled by Greg LaRocque, inked by Robert Jones, Mark Stegbauer, & Bob Downs, letters by Ken Bruzenak, colors by Gene D'Angelo

Now this one is bad. It's written by William Messner-Loebs, not Dan Vado, but unfortunately Loebs does a good job of imitating the Vado style on JLA, where everyone snarls and argues all the time. Lots of gratuitous darkness and violence. Somehow this run on JLA keeps sinking to new lows.

from Justice League International vol. 2 #54

"Deadly Liasions" / "Impostors" / "Lest Darkness Fall" / "Ambush" / "Inferno!", from Justice League International vol. 2 #53-57 (Aug.-Late Oct. 1993)
written by Gerard Jones & Will Jacobs; pencilled by Ron Randall and Mike Collins; inked by Randy Elliott, Aaron McClellan, Roy Richardson, and Romeo Tanghal; letters by Willie Schubert and Clem Robins; colors by Gene D'Angelo

Gerard Jones's run from JLE #37 to JLI #52 or so wasn't Great Art, but it was very much Solid Superhero Team Comics. Interesting characters, fun interactions, interesting villains, clever resolutions. Suddenly that goes away here. The first issue here is okayish, about Metamorpho following Crimson Fox to Paris. Fox's old boyfriend who she thought was dead turns out to be alive; he convinces her to fake her death to be with him. And she does. But why? I thought this was going somewhere, but it never does, she's just gone. What a weird way to write her out. But it's fun seeing Metamorpho kick up a storm in Paris; I love it when Jones makes up doofy European superheroes.

After this, though, things get very bad very quick. Lots of ideas that feel underbaked or dropped. Like, issue #54 is about everyone acting weirdly: Doctor Light puts on sexy lingerie to seduce Taz, for example. It turns out everyone has been replaced by robots, and they guy who did this is messing with their programming, and then he takes them to the future to fight in a war for him? Why? There's some attempt to make the conflict in the future philosophically interesting but the JLI just picks a side and fights people and none of the philosophy matters to that. Then the characters are back in the present day punching cultists?? And then it's over??? Kind of, anyway, all of these concepts will come back in future issues even thought they weren't worth devoting much time to to begin with.

Ralph and Sue (and, randomly, the ghost of Duke Donald) are written out at the end of issue #57. On the one hand, I'm grumpy because Ralph is literally my favorite; on the other hand, I'm glad my favorite character isn't around for the even worse issues to come. 

What was the problem? Was Gerard Jones losing steam? Or was editorial jerking him around? Probably both.

from Justice League Task Force #9

"Saturday Night's All Right for Fightin'!", from Justice League Task Force #9 (Feb. 1994), reprinted in Justice League Task Force, Volume 1: The Purification Plague (2018)
written by Jeph Loeb, pencilled by Greg LaRocque, inked by Kevin Conrad, lettered by Bob Pinaha, colored by Glenn Whitmore

This one-off JLTF issue is a followup to Bloodlines; Martian Manhunter is trying to enjoy an evening alone in the League's New York embassy (I think this is the first indication we get that he still resides there now that he leads the JLTF, actually) when some "New Bloods" turning up wanting training. He ends up working with them to defeat some parasites, and shenanigans ensue. It's mildly funny, but writer Jeph Loeb dedicating the issue to Keith Giffen was probably just dooming himself to being an also-ran when it comes to funny League stories. You can never make me care about the New Bloods, sorry guys.

This is the thirteenth in a series of posts about Justice League International. The next covers issues #86-88 of JLA, #58-64 of JLI, and #10-12 of JLTF. 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)
6. Justice League America #38-50 / Justice League Europe #22 (May 1990–May 1991)
7. Justice League America #51-52 / Justice League Europe #23-28 (Feb. 1991–July 1991) 
8. Justice League America #53-60 / Justice League Europe #29-36 (Aug. 1991–Mar. 1992) 
9. Justice League America #61-65 / Justice League Europe #37-42 (Apr. 1992–Sept. 1992)
10. Justice League America #66-69 / Justice League Europe #43-50 (Sept. 1992–May 1993) 
11. Justice League America #70-77 / Justice League Task Force #1-3 (Jan. 1993–Aug. 1993) 
12. Justice League America #78-83 / Justice League International #51-52 / Justice League Task Force #4-8 (June 1993–Jan. 1994)

DC Darkstars Reading Order

Here's an appendix to yesterday's essay:

Of all the ongoing series I've read over the past couple years, The Darkstars has been the hardest to follow, thanks to an incessant series of crossovers throughout its run. And since there's not much out there on the Internet about it, I didn't have a lot to go off when buying it, and I inevitably ended up missing stuff, and would only realize when I read an issue and it made a footnote referring to an issue of another series. So, for anyone who comes after me (?), here's a complete reading order including major and minor crossovers.

• Prequels / Side Stories
• Showcase '95 #10
• Martian Manhunter Special #1
• Darkstars #1-6
• Green Lantern (vol. 3) #40
• Darkstars #7-10
• Trinity
• DC Universe: Trinity #1
• Green Lantern (vol. 3) #44
• L.E.G.I.O.N. '93 #57
• Darkstars #11
• Green Lantern (vol. 3) #45
• L.E.G.I.O.N. '93 #58
• Darkstars #12
• DC Universe: Trinity #2
• Darkstars #13-20
• Guy Gardner: Warrior #20-21
• Darkstars #21-24
• Darkstars #0
• Darkstars #25-29
• Green Lantern (vol. 3) #61
• Darkstars #30-31
• The Crimelord-Syndicate War
• Deathstroke (vol. 1) #48
• New Titans #122
• Darkstars #32
• Deathstroke (vol. 1) #49
• Darkstars #33
• The Siege of the Zi Charam
• New Titans #124
• Green Lantern (vol. 3) #65
• Darkstars #34
• Damage #16
• New Titans #125
• Darkstars #35-36
• Green Lantern (vol. 3) #69
• Darkstars #37
• Guy Gardner: Warrior #37
• Darkstars #38
• Green Lantern (vol. 3) #70
• Green Lantern (vol. 3) #74-75

The Darkstars: A Forgotten DC Space Heroes Comic

Over the past year or so I've been reading uncollected DC Comics superhero comics that take place in space; thus far, I've read The Omega Men (1983-86) and L.E.G.I.O.N. (1989-94). None of these have exactly been well-known to contemporary comics readers, but they have their dedicated fans. But most recently I read The Darkstars (1992-96), which pushed obscurity to a whole new level. Both Omega Men and L.E.G.I.O.N. have had multiple, subsequent revivals; Darkstars is lucky if anyone even remembers characters were in it.

SENSATIONAL, you say?
Darkstars #1 (Oct. 1992, cover by Travis Charest, Larry Stroman, and Scott Hanna)

Darkstars was the brainchild of Michael Jan Friedman, best known as the author of numerous Star Trek stories in both prose and comics; at the time, he was the writer of DC's Star Trek: The Next Generation comics (a position he held from 1989 to 1996). Pretty impressively, Friedman wrote all 39 issues of Darkstars himself, without a single fill-in. But exactly what Darkstars was supposed to be is unclear from the beginning. The premise is that the Darkstars are a space law-enforcement organization, part of an organization called NEMO (the Network for the Establishment and Maintenance of Order), created by the Controllers, an offshoot of the same alien race as the Guardians of Oa, the power behind the Green Lantern Corps. They fly around the galaxy fighting crime with the aid of their exo-mantles, suits with built-in masers and force fields.

The problem with this is that it's never really clear what makes Darkstars distinct from Green Lantern. They're both about lone members of big space organizations working on Earth. The Darkstar of Darkstars is Ferrin Colos, recently off a failure to save the planet of Genuwyne, which he angsts over occasionally; he sets up in Dallas, Texas when he finds out that the alien Syndicate he's been pursuing has set up on operation there on Earth. Darkstars is a little distinguished from Green Lantern in that Darkstars deputize locals with their own exo-mantles: in Colos's case, John Flint, a local cop with an "attitude" problem, and Mo Douglas, a homeless man.

This cover shows off both the original main characters (Colos, Mo, Carla, Flint) and the weird faces.
Darkstars #7 (Apr. 1993, cover by Travis Charest)

"Green Lantern with attitude" is how the notes of the writer and editor describe the series on occasion... but with all due respect, Michael Jan Friedman is the exact wrong man to hire to write such a series. I grew up with his Star Trek work, and the only attitude Friedman possesses is "nice," and the same usually goes for his characters. Which makes him a great fit for Star Trek: The Next Generation and spin-offs thereof (I was a fan of his Stargazer prequel novels), but I would never on my life hire him for anything described as "[x] with attitude" (which is maybe the most 1990s description I can imagine).

Phase I: Ferrin Colos on Earth (Issues #1-22)

Darkstars divides neatly into two distinct phases. The first concerns Colos and his two human deputies on Earth. At first these are Flint and Mo, as I said above; later, Colos fires Flint because he's reckless and replaces him with Carla White, a black lawyer who quit her job because she realized she was defending the wrong people. (Flint is later kidnapped by aliens and mutated into a killing machine.) This part of the comic is pretty fun, if you put aside the hints of "attitude," it's mostly a light-hearted superhero adventure comic. The best issue is clearly #8, "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys!", where Carla takes Colos to a local dive bar for fun, and Colos ends up arguing with locals, riding the mechanical bull, and fighting an alien bounty hunter. I don't know if this is what Friedman was aiming for, but it felt like the platonic ideal of the comic to me.

The cover is sort of amazingly terrible, whereas the story is terribly amazing.
Darkstars #8 (May 1993, cover by Travis Charest)

The characters are mostly pretty fun, too. Colos is your typical sort of alien straight-man, except for his occasional angst about the deaths he didn't stop on Genuwyne, which was always difficult for me to take seriously, because "Genuwyne" seems like what Peter David would name a planet as a set-up for a terrible pun on "genuine." I liked both Mo and Carla, though I felt the characters never got to live up to their potential because most of the plots in the early issues are generic punch-ups, usually against original, undistinguished villains, henchmen of the alien Syndicate. (The leader of the Syndicate himself, Sla Daniiki, was fun, but he rarely directly meets our heroes.)

The extent to which they're minimized as characters is perhaps most driven home in Trinity, an eight-part crossover with L.E.G.I.O.N. and Green Lantern (issues #11-12 of Darkstars) where the two of them just stand around and nothing at all is done with them being humans on an alien planet for the first time. They both have interesting backstories that rarely are dealt with: like, what was the effect of homelessness and then the lack thereof on Mo? Who knows. I also really liked Annie, the non-superhero who they hire to be their secretary. She never had enough to do, but was always fun when she was there with her matter-of-fact attitude toward the odd job she'd been hired for.

What the hell is this?
Darkstars #11 (Aug. 1993, cover by Travis Charest)

The thing that really hurts the early issues is the series's inability to maintain a consistent art team, which is comically embarrassing. No one lasts more than one or two issues, even though the editor is constantly trumpeting each new penciller/inker combo as the new team. Here's how they fare:

• #1-3: Larry Stroman and Scott Hanna (3 issues)
• #4-7: Travis Charest and Scott Hanna (4 issues)
• #8-9: Patrick Zircher and John Lowe (2 issues)
• #11-12 & 14: Mitch Byrd and Ken Branch (3 issues)
• #15 & 17: Christopher Taylor and Ken Branch (2 issues)
• #19-38 & 0: Michael Collins and Ken Branch (21 issues)

This obviously doesn't count one-issue fill-ins (on issues #10, 13, 16, & 18) or art assists (on issues #7-8 & 14). Thankfully, once Michael Collins turns up, he never misses an issue and never requires an assist, but more on him later. The inconsistent art is also a problem because most of the early artists are terrible, working in the 1990s Rob Liefield idiom of warped waists and squashed faces.

I like this cover artist in a general sense, but he felt like a tonal mismatch for Darkstars.
Darkstars #18 (Mar. 1994, cover by Randy DuBurke)

Despite its issues, the early issues of Darkstars show potential for enjoyable light comic, even if it seems slightly purposeless.

Phase II: Donna Troy in Space (Issues #23-24, 0, 25-38)

Then, suddenly everything changes. I don't know if Darkstars was in a steep sales decline (figures on The Comics Chronicles begin with issue #29, alas), but Colos is implicated (unjustly) in a conspiracy and suddenly ends up exiled to another universe. Just as suddenly, Donna Troy (formerly Wonder Girl and then Troia of the Teen Titans/New Teen Titans/New Titans, but now powerless) is recruited as the new Darkstar of Earth, and John Stewart (formerly a Green Lantern, but since the cancellation of Green Lantern: Mosaic and the destruction of the Green Lantern Corps in Emerald Twilight, without a book or purpose) is recruited as the new head of NEMO by the Controllers.

I also looked for a John Stewart cover, but apparently the guy never got one, despite essentially being co-lead with Donna.
Darkstars #23 (Aug. 1994, cover by Mike Deodata, Jr.)

The book goes from being its own little corner of the DC universe (with occasional, but largely self-contained crossovers with Hawkman, Green Lantern, and The Flash) to being a home for left-over characters from other books and being constantly involved in crossovers, especially with New Titans (as Donna is also a member there) and Green Lantern (as Donna is dating new Green Lantern Kyle Rayner). It makes the book a pretty difficult read, as you have to follow three or four other books to get the full story of crossovers like The Crimelord-Syndicate War (which finishes off some key plot points from Darkstars) and The Siege of the Zi Charam (which is terrible). Plus Darkstars is not Donna's primary book, so most of the important things that happen to the main character of this book are going on over in New Titans, which just leaves Darkstars as a repository for emotionally empty fight scenes. Darkstars is constantly reacting to the agenda of other books, never setting its own. [Tomorrow, I'll be posting a full reading order for Darkstars that shows the ridic number of crossovers it was involved in.]

So much crossover!
Darkstars #34 (Sept. 1995, cover by Michael Collins and Ken Branch)

Sadly, Mo Douglas and Carla White are written out pretty perfunctorily in issue #29, with Mo joining a Battlestar Galactica-esque refugee space fleet and Carla returning to legal work. Mo puts in the occasional two-page appearance throughout the rest of the run, but Carla gets a one-page cameo on the last page of #38 and that's it. Annie pops up here and there occasionally (she even moves into the New Titans HQ at one point), but vanishes too. One gets the feeling the Friedman never got to write these characters (or the other recurring characters, like Prigatz, the immediate supervisor of Colos and Donna, or the nun who was friends with Mo) the way he really wanted to.

Interestingly, interior artist Michael Collins would later homage this cover with his cover for Star Trek: Early Voyages #12
Darkstars #29 (Mar. 1995, cover by Mike Deodata, Jr.)

This did improve sales figures:

data courtesy The Comics Chronicles

I don't know what figures were like prior to #29 (Jan. 1995), but you'll see that the crossovers The Crimelord-Syndicate War in #32 (Jul. 1995) and The Siege of the Zi Charam in #34 (Sept. 1995) both pull the series from an average sales rank in the 240s up to one in the 170s. But it must have been too little or too late, as the series was cancelled with #38 (Nov. 1995).

The one bright spot in this era is the consistent artwork of Michael Collins. Collins has a bold, traditional superhero style that really suits Friedman's writing; I know Collins's later work on titles like Star Trek: Early Voyages and a huge number of stories for Doctor Who Magazine, so I was pleased to see him here.

I really like the visual callback to the cover of issue #1, with the background now including all of the series's significant guest stars.
Darkstars #38 (Jan. 1996, cover by Michael Collins and Ken Branch)

I will admit that the last issue made me a little misty-eyed, as Colos finally reunites with Carla White (apparently they're in love, but I was never really sure why). Despite this series's myriad problems, it had potential, and I like its protagonists.

Afterlife

Donna Troy and John Stewart are still Darkstars when the series ends, and they pop up occasionally in that capacity for a little bit, until a two-part story in Green Lantern (vol. 3) #74-75, where Kyle Rayner fights the illegitimate son of Darkseid. Basically the Darkstars turn up to be gunned down to prove the situation is serious. When the story begins, all but a dozen are already dead, and all but four are dead by the end of the series. Given Mo Douglas was still a Darkstar in Darkstars #38 but doesn't appear here, that means one of our main characters got killed offscreen without even a mention. Some of the surviving Darkstars, which include Colos, do put in occasional appearances in other DC space stories, but Carla White is never seen again, apparently, so who knows what happened to her.

Um, none of these characters, actually.
Green Lantern (vol. 3) #74 (June 1996, cover by Darryl Banks and Romeo Tanghal)

Donna and John retire at the end of this story, and Darkstars really only continues to remembered as a footnote in their convoluted histories, like in this installment of Comics, Everybody! about Donna.

Poor Darkstars. You could have been something great.

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part XIV: Zero Hour: Crisis in Time

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 1994
Borrowed from the library
Read August 2013

Zero Hour: Crisis in Time

Writer: Dan Jurgens
Artists: Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Frank Fosco, Ken Branch
Letterers: Gaspar Saladino, Richard Starkings 
Colorists: Gregory Wright, Stuart Chaifetz

This comic is a blatant attempt to replicate the winning formula of Crisis on Infinite Earths, without any understanding of what made that work. I mean, really: the last Crisis gave us a wall of white light destroying alternative dimension after alternative dimensions, slowly approaching our heroes' dimensions. This Crisis gives us a wall of white light destroying future time after future time, slowly approaching our heroes' time. Dan Jurgens isn't even trying here.

But it's a rip-off to no effect, which is the worst kind of rip-off.  CoIE worked because these were places with real history, real meaning being wiped out. Even if you'd never read a story of the multiverse before (as was true for me when I first read CoIE) you can tell that Earth-Two, Earth-Three, Earth-Prime, and all the rest have deep backgrounds-- which is what makes their destructions effective. Heck, CoIE even tricks you into thinking that places like Earth-Four and Earth-Six have been around for a while. In Zero Hour, though, the times are just numbers. It's utterly meaningless-- what's the 64th century to me, or me to the 64th century? Why should I care? I don't.

Which is more the shame because there's a built-in hook here. This story, famously, sees Hal Jordan embrace the role of Parallax and attempt to remake the universe into a better place. He'd had a bum deal in comics over the past several years, including the destruction of his home, Coast City, and Kyle Rayner had already replaced him as the Green Lantern of Earth. Unfortunately, the story isn't actually about this potentially interesting idea, as not just the identity, but even the existence of Parallax, is kept a secret for most of the book. Instead we have to watch Monarch a lot, Monarch being the ill-conceived villain behind the ill-conceived Armageddon 2001 crossover. Seriously, couldn't we just forget that ever happened? Waverider's here too, which isn't helping on that score.

The time mechanics of the story don't make any sense, either. At one point, Monarch-- now "Extant" for some reason-- tells Waverider he's stolen the other's power. "But that's impossible!" he gasps, since he still has his power. But then a past version of Extant shows up and steals Waverider's power. Oh, that's kinda clever if not terribly so. But then the past-Extant merges with present-Extant. So where did present-Extant come from? Argh.

Also: at the end of the prologue, Waverider intones to Rip Hunter (the most '90s "Time Master" of them all, presumably), "we stand on the verge-- of a true crisis!" Oh, the melodrama! But then later Rip Hunter tells Waverider, "A crisis! Check the chronoscopes-- a crisis-- aieee!" Now Waverider has to go look up what a "crisis" is!  Geeze!

So, a lot of people run back and forth, there's some shouting, and like CoIE, Zero Hour struggles to give its heroes something plot-relevant to do, though it's even less successful on that score than CoIE. Why what Hal Jordan is doing is evil is never really clear, either, as it seems like mostly he wants to make our universe the same, but without Barbara Gordon getting shot and Coast City being nuked. Which sounds okay to me. I do like the role of Green Arrow in the climax... but then I would.

Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway do a good job on art, at least. I especially liked how they drew the pre-injury Barbara Gordon Batgirl. It's a shame Jurgens also feels the need to overstuff the book with word balloons and captions; everything is told to the reader at least twice, if not three times. Maybe Jurgens was just on autopilot after the prologue, though, where the captions are always telling you things you can't see, things as basic as that the characters are jumping between time periods. One wonders if Frank Fosco and Ken Branch weren't drawing what they were supposed to, or what.

K. C. Carlson's afterword celebrates that now, anything can happen. "This is just the beginning!" Wasn't that true just nine years ago? Do we really need to do this over again, not as good?