Justice League International: The Later Years, Part II: Blue and Gold / Fire & Ice

(I find the use of different forms of "and" in this post title very aesthetically displeasing!)

My feeling is that comics kind of suffer from cyclical nostalgia. It works like this: You have some people who create a character or concept, let's say Potato-Salad Man. Later, Potato-Salad Man gets reinvented for a new era. Still later, the people nostalgic for the original incarnation of Potato-Salad Man become the employees of the comic book company and bring him back to his original version. But then even more later, the people who grew up on the reinvented Potato-Salad Man become adults and they bring that version back.

I think we're hitting that point with Justice League International. In the 2000s we saw the rise of the Geoff Johnses and Grant Morrisons and Mark Waids of comic bookdom, who brought back the classic seven-member JLA they grew up on, and the JLI characters of the 1980s and '90s were shunted off-stage for the most part. But now people like me, who read the JLI version when they were young and impressionable, have become the creators and purchasers of comic books. We haven't hit the point yet where there's a proper JLI title again (though apparently the main Justice League comic these days takes its cues from a different League incarnation people of my generation are nostalgic for, the Justice League Unlimited cartoon), but the last five years have seen three different miniseries bringing back classic duos from the JLI era: a Blue Beetle and Booster Gold reunion comic, and two Fire and Ice reunion comics. I'll be closing out my reading of JLI comics (for now, anyway!) with these series.

from Blue and Gold #1

"Application Denied" / "Pink Slip" / "Omnizon" / "Splittin' Image" / "Fist of the Empire" / "Timely Solution" / "Beetles Abound!"/ "UnMasked At Last", from Blue and Gold #1-8 (Sept. 2021–June 2022)
written by Dan Jurgens; art by Ryan Sook, Cully Hamner, Kevin Maguire, Dan Jurgens, Phil Hester, Eric Gapstur, Paul Pelletier, Norm Rapmund, and Wade Von Grawbadger; colors by Chris Sotomayor, Ryan Sook, and Steve Buccellato; letters by Rob Leigh

This books reunites Blue Beetle and Booster Gold... in the hands of Booster Gold's original creator, Dan Jurgens! I was a bit trepidatious about this going in because it seemed to me that Jurgens treated Booster more seriously during his JLA run (see items #9-11 on the list below) than Giffen and DeMatteis did in their run that created the duo. Could he recreate their dynamic when he hadn't been particularly interested in the original version of it to begin with?

Well, I need not have worried. He very much leans into the goofier version of the characters—but in a good way. Here, they have decided to form a superhero team accessible to "regular" people, unlike the Justice League up in space (very much like in a previous JLI reunion book, see item #16 below). But with Ted no longer in command of the Kord Industries money (he loses it here; I didn't know he had ever got it back, though, because last time I heard he had lost them... though admittedly that was the late 1980s!), they need to find crowdfunding!

It's a fun way to reinvent the fame- and money-obsessed Booster Gold for the twenty-first century. The book is peppered with comments from people watching the livestream of the duo, and I enjoyed this a lot; there's a lot of good interaction and cute hijinks. Some hope they do well, some think it's all faked, some are women stanning for one character or the other, some hope they die... and one is Guy Gardner just there to say mean things about them! But the book is not as cynical as some takes on Booster and Beetle have been, even ones penned by Giffen and DeMatteis. The two bicker, but they fundamentally get along; they seek fame, but it doesn't make them craven or obsessed with money. At their root, they're people trying to do good, and the book leans into that.

Maybe a little too much; I didn't want the book to put them through the wringer per se but it seemed to me it didn't quite challenge them to the extent it might have. But that's clearly not what Jurgens is up to here. The book is obviously meant to just be a light and charming return of some classic characters, and it succeeds perfectly at that.

from Blue and Gold #4

Overall, I enjoyed the art by Ryan Sook and various others. Sook has a light, expressive style that communicates character very well, which is perfectly suited to Jurgens's writing. But why did Ted suddenly acquire black hair? This is redhead erasure! (Also on my collected edition, Kevin Maguire gets cover credit for drawing one-third of one issue. Nice work if you can get it, I guess.)

The first five issues weave in and out of one big story, about Ted and Michael fighting an alien warlord who has an ancient claim on the Earth. There's lots of room for side stuff, though, like a fun issue where Ted and Michael retell the story of how they first worked together, and they have very different memories of it. And it turns out that Guy Gardner of all people knows how things actually went down! (This is the story Maguire helps draw; he does the Beetle-narrated flashbacks while Jurgens himself does the Booster ones. Perfection. They've both still got it of course.)

After this, we get a shorter story about them going up against "Black Beetle." One thing that annoyed me was that throughout the series, there would be explanatory footnotes pointing you to issues you'd literally just read (e.g., "see Blue and Gold #2!" when reading issue #3) but when Black Beetle turns up, the characters talk about encountering him before... but I'd never encountered this guy before. I looked him up later, and he previously appeared in Booster's late 2000s ongoing... a comic from fifteen years prior. Why didn't that get a footnote?

(My other continuity question: How did Blue Beetle come back to life? Based on my research, it seems like the answer is he kind of didn't. Ted was of course killed in "Countdown to Infinite Crisis." Later, when Flashpoint simplified the history of the DC universe, Ted had never been killed because the events of Infinite Crisis just hadn't happened in the "New 52" history. Still later, I guess, much of the post-Crisis pre-Flashpoint history was reinstated... but things like the death of Blue Beetle just weren't, so somehow the post-Crisis history all happened, but Blue Beetle is alive! I think, anyway; I'm not very au fait with continuity changes since 2015's Convergence, when I largely stopped keeping up with DC comics. I did note that though in publication time, Booster and Beetle served in the Justice League from 1987 up to at least 1994, and though in my post-Crisis DC universe timeline that's from "Year Twelve" to "Year Fourteen," here we're told they were only in the League for "months." It must have been some very busy few months!)

Unfortunately there hasn't been a second mini about these characters, nor even (as far as I can tell) any further substantive appearances by them. C'mon, DC, give me that full-fledged JLI nostalgia book!

from Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #1

"Hot Water" / Welcome to Smallville, from Power Girl Special #1 (July 2023) and Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #1-6 (Nov. 2023–Apr. 2024), reprinted in Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville (2024)
written by Joanne Starer, art by Natacha Bustos, colors by Tamra Bonvillain, letters by Ariana Maher

This story brings back the JLI's other well-loved duo, Fire and Ice a.k.a. Bea and Tora, the boisterous Brazilian swimsuit model and the demure Scandinavian ice princess. Here, Bea's impetuousness causes problems, so Superman basically exiles them to Smallville to get their lives under control. This, to be honest, seemed a bit contrived to me.

It's basically fine, but the whole book is brought down by Bea feeling somewhat off. She continuously has zany schemes... but when did she ever have zany schemes before? Bea's thing was a temper and the fact that she saw herself as more of a model than a superhero... but she wasn't fame-obsessed to the extent of say, inviting supervillains to participate in a reality show set in a Smallville hair salon. That's the kind of thing, well, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold would have done. I like the extended cast of characters here well enough, particularly some of the D-list supervillains who sign up for their reality show, and the use of L-RON and Ma Kent. Natacha Bustos is a strong artist, but Joanne Starer's comedy writing isn't strong enough to pull this off. It's more "occasional mild chuckle" than "laugh out loud" even if it is clearly going for the latter.

(Continuity-wise, I guess there was a point where everyone on the Earth knew Superman's secret identity. Was this the Truth storyline? This was later erased, but according to this book, Fire and Ice retained their knowledge of it because of the telepathic link J'onn J'onnz created when the characters all served in the JLA together. But back in those days, Superman's secret identity was a closely guarded secret, not known to even his fellow League members! Also, when was Kooeykooeykooey destroyed? I don't remember this at all. (Ah, the DC wiki says it happened during a post–Zero Hour JLA story, after I stopped reading.)) 

from Fire & Ice: When Hell Freezes Over #2

When Hell Freezes Over, from Fire & Ice: When Hell Freezes Over #1-6 (June-Nov. 2025), reprinted in Fire & Ice: When Hell Freezes Over (2025)
written by Joanne Starer, art by Stephen Byrne, letters by Ariana Maher

I did not think the second one of these minis was as good as the first. The basic idea of Fire and Ice switching powers, and later bodies, is a decent one. The best part is of course how they each dress very differently in each other's bodies. And though I like the idea of a "monkey paw" wish backfiring is a fun one, I don't buy that Fire would be so dumb as to do it in the first place.

The story mostly splits Fire and Ice from their new supporting cast; Fire and Ice go on a quest into Hell to undo the bodyswitch, while their supporting cast deal with their own bodyswitches back in Smallville. But I just don't care enough about these supporting characters to keep track of who is in whose body! The quest in Hell is better, but moves quite slowly, and why use Etrigan if you don't want to write rhymes for him? That's his whole gimmick! Overall, this kind of fizzles out. Still, some decent jokes here and there; I particularly liked the gag about how when the former supervillain with mind-control powers gets bodyswapped from her original black female body into one of a white man, she doesn't need the powers anymore. Also the bit about how Ma Kent instantly recognizes a bodyswap because she spent so much time in weird situations because of her son is good too.

(Continuity notes again: Kord Industries is a sponsor of the new casino in the new Kooeykooeykooey, so has Ted gotten his fortune back since Blue and Gold? Also, it turns out that Bea's father was abusive and trained her as a deadly assassin; again, I would have appreciated a footnote! It doesn't fit at all with what I remember of her Secret Origins story by the Bierbaums. Some research informs me this idea comes from when she was in Checkmate in the mid-2000s; I will have to hunt it down for the full details, I guess.)

Anyway, all three of these stories were fun enough... but when will the JLI nostalgia give us what I really want? Bring them all back in a new ongoing! C'mon, DC, you cowards!

This is the penultimate in a series of posts about Justice League International. The next covers a reading order for the comics. 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) 
15. Justice League America #89-92 / Justice League International #65-68 / Justice League Task Force #13-16 (June 1994–Sept. 1994)
16. Formerly Known as the Justice League / I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League (Feb. 2000–Aug. 2005)

Black Panther: Wakanda by Evan Narcisse et al.

Wakanda

Collection published: 2023
Contents originally published: 2022-23
Read: November 2025

Writers: Stephanie Williams, Evan Narcisse, Adam Serwer, Ho Che Anderson, John Ridley, Brandon Thomas

Pencillers: Paco Medina, Ibraim Roberson, Sean Hill, Julian Shaw, José Luís, Natacha Bustos
Inkers: Walden Wong & Elisabetta D'Amico, Ibraim Roberson, Le Beau with Keith Champagne, Julian Shaw, José Luís, Natacha Bustos

Color Artists: Bryan Valenza, Andrew Dalhouse, Jordie Bellaire

Letterer: Joe Sabino

During John Ridley's run on Black Panther, Marvel also published Wakanda, a five-issue miniseries of stories focusing on various non-T'Challa Wakandan characters; they seem to mostly be set between volumes two and three, while T'Challa is in exile.

The first is a Shuri-focused story (creatively titled "Shuri"), where she battles Spider-Man foe Rhino, who's been smuggled into Wakanda to take advantage of T'Challa's absence. The story itself is fine; I always like a bit of Shuri, and writer Stephanie Williams does a good job with her relationship with her mother. I also liked the vibrant, expressive art of Paco Medina (who I recollect from a good Young Avengers Presents story).

The second story focuses on M'Baku, the former rebel who is now the regent of the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda. I really enjoyed the previous M'Baku-focused story from co-writer Evan Narcisse, so I was pretty disappointed in this tale, which clearly suffers from trying to cram way too much into a single issue. Too much dialogue, too many characters, too much backstory, too many turns in the plot. The art struggles to get it all in. That said, Narcisse is always up to something interesting, and I really hope someday he gets to cook with a space-based Wakanda ongoing, because I think he could do some strong stuff with M'Baku and company.

Why does he think a whole country is going to be vulnerable because one guy is missing?
from Wakanda #1 (script by Stephanie Williams, art by Paco Medina and Walden Wong & Elisabetta D'Amico)

The worst story in the book is certainly the Killmonger-focused one, the only one to be set outside the timeframe of Ridley's ongoing; it covers a trial when Killmonger was a young member of Ulysses Klaw's criminal organization, where a bunch of recruits were made to climb a mountain together and also secretly kill each other off. Even in the realm of supervillainy, I'm not convinced this is a good way to create a secret organization, I don't think the story is very consistent with other depictions of Killmonger's youth (most recently the miniseries named after him, though admittedly, I thought that miniseries wasn't very good either), and the story has way too many characters who are hard to tell apart.

Was all of this backstory in Tosin's previous spotlight story? I don't remember it.
from Wakanda #4 (script by John Ridley, art by Julian Shaw)

There's then two stories, one about Tosin the angry young Wakandan from Ridley's run, and one about Okoye, the one remaining member of the Dora Milaje. These are both fine but not up to much; I didn't care for the art in the Tosin one, and while I appreciate the attempt to flesh out him and his world, it didn't really resonate with what we have already seen of him.

Like, who are these guys?
from Wakanda #3 (script by Evan Narcisse, art by Natacha Bustos)

Lastly, the end of the book collects a bunch of back-ups that originally ran in each issue, about the history of the Black Panthers. These are probably more interesting if you're more au fait with the continuity of the wider Marvel universe than I am. I did note that Jack Kirby's run has been retconned as happening to T'Challa's father, T'Chaka, when he was Black Panther. Boo! Why can't we have whimsy? I did really like Natacha Bustos's art, though.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

Black Panther: Into the Heartlands by Roseanne A. Brown, Dika Araújo, Natacha Bustos, Claudia Aguirre, et al.

Into the Heartlands: A Black Panther Graphic Novel

Published: 2022
Read: November 2025

Written by Roseanne A. Brown
Illustrated by Dika Araújo, Natacha Bustos & Claudia Aguirre
Layouts by Geoffo
Colors by Cris Peter
Letters by Arianna Maher

This YA graphic novel takes us back to the childhood of T'Challa and Shuri, after the death of their father T'Chaka, before T'Challa ascended to the throne himself. The two children fight and argue, and both seem somewhat ill-prepared for their future responsibilities; T'Challa is a bit pompous, and disdains his younger sister, while Shuri would rather be doing science and thinks she's smarter than anyone else.

Only at a Wakanda ceremony both are ill-prepared for something goes horribly wrong, and people—including their mother, Ramonda—are infected with a mysterious virus. Could the work of T'Challa's birth mother, herself a successful scientist, lead them to a cure in the mysterious heartlands of Wakanda?

The result is a decent book about the two siblings going on a quest together along with a talking jerboa with a mysterious past. Like the flashback story in the recent Long Shadow collection, this leans more into the African storytelling traditions more than many Black Panther stories, and I very much enjoyed that aspect of it. The art is pretty typical for a YA superhero comics, sort of anime influenced, but I particularly enjoyed the vibrant coloring of Cris Peter.

I was a little disappointed in how the character of T'Challa himself was handled. I feel like the story turns much more on Shuri's decisions than his, and would have liked to have seen him project the commanding presence he's more commonly depicted as having.

(Lots of people on the Internet, including the Hoopla catalog, call this book "Shuri and T'Challa: Into the Heartlands," but the "Shuri and T'Challa" part of the title appears nowhere on or in the actual book as far as I can tell.) 

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE