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 Eight, Part I: The Purification Plague (JLA #86-88 / JLI #58-64 / JLTF #10-12)

Here, the three Justice League ongoings get back into sync in order to lead into the Judgment Day crossover that spanned all three titles. (This is what my next post will cover.) JLTF #10-12, JLA #86-88, and JLI #63-64 all take place simultaneously as a series of natural disasters begins springing up around the world; I recommend reading them in that order, because a couple characters (T. O. Morrow and Desaad) cross between the titles, and that's the order the stories happen for them. All three of those story arcs end on a cliffhanger leading into JLA #89. Moreover, JLI #58-62 is a continuous story where its final issue also overlaps with JLA #86.

Because of this, even though they came out in 1994, I recommend reading the two Elseworlds annuals earlier, so as to not disrupt the continuous story that goes from JLI #58 up to Zero Hour.

from Justice League America Annual #8

"The Once and Future League" / "Attack of the 'O' Squad!!! or: What If They Staged an Invasion and Nobody Came?" / "No Rules to Follow", from Justice League America Annual #8 and Justice League International Annual vol. 2 #5 (1994)
written by Dan Vado and Gerard Jones; pencils by Norman Felchile, Evan Dorkin, and Kiki Chansamone; inks by John Stokes & Rich Rankin, Paul Guinan, and Rich Rankin, John Stokes, Frank Percy, & Don Hillsman; colors by Gene D'Angelo and Rick Taylor; letters by Kevin Cunningham, Gaspar Saladino, and Clem Robins

These two annuals present stories from alternate continuities: I think DC has done some great "Elseworlds" stories but my impression of the 1994 Elseworlds annuals I have read is that having every series do one all at once was probably stretching the concept too thin. These ones are... pretty okay. The JLA annual actually contains two; the first posits that during the early days of the Justice League, Felix Faust lured them into a trap and destroyed them all, allowing him to rule the world; the bulk of the story takes place a century later, where people finally begins rising up against Faust—including a new set of Justice Leaguers. I probably spent too much time thinking about the mechanics of this. At this point in DC continuity, Batman didn't work with the League in its early days, and Wonder Woman wasn't even around back then, so how could they have been killed by Faust? Similarly, why are a bunch of familiar characters (e.g., Jimmy Olsen, Ted Kord, Snapper Carr) around a whole century later? I mean, I know it's an alternate continuity, so these could all just be points of divergence, but the story goes to some pains to establish what its main point of divergence is, so it feels weird to add extra ones on top of that. Outside of that, it's an okay story; I feel like it's very similar to other Elseworlds or even "Legends of the Dead Earth" stories I've read. Who the new Leaguers are is barely explained, which definitely undermined it.

JLA Annual #8 also contains a humorous short where every supervillain with a name ending in "O" teams up: Amazo, Chemo, Sinestro, Starro, Kanjar Ro, Destro, and so on. They are not very good at cooperation. Meanwhile, the Justice League is trying to find something to watch on tv. It's not great stuff, but it is probably the single best Justice League story written by Dan Vado. I liked the last-page joke the best.

The JLI Annual is set in a world where superheroes didn't emerge until the 1990s, and people are reacting to them with fear and suspicion, especially Bruce Wayne, who has channeled his anguish over his parents' death into quashing crime via the Wayne Foundation. Wayne and the government attempt to crack down on these heroes, who fracture over what the best way to respond is. The lineup of the new heroes is mostly JLI characters (the Wally West Flash, Power Girl, Tasmanian Devil, Metamorpho, Fire) but with some random others ones thrown in (Beast Boy of the Titans, Poison Ivy), plus Booster and Blue Beetle appear as part of the group sent to stop the new heroes. (And also Ralph Dibny appears as a powerless writer who wonders if he might have been inspired to obtain powers if history had gone differently.) It's okay; there are too many characters, and the art is not great, but I did like the ending.

from Justice League International vol. 2 #61

"Nocturne" / "Ordinary People" / "Out of the Future" / "Born of Man and Woman" / "The Sacrifice", from Justice League International vol. 2 #58-62 (Nov. 1993–Mar. 1994)
written by Gerard Jones & Will Jacobs; pencilled by Ron Randall and Chuck Wojtiekiewicz; inked by Roy Richardson, Craig Gilmore, and Michael Oeming, Rich Rankin, & Don Hillsman; lettered by Clem Robins; colored by Gene D'Angelo

Here we have another set of totally mediocre JLI stories that jerk from concept to concept. I feel like Gerard Jones and Will Jacobs are struggling to both maintain threads they set up early on but also lean into the storytelling trends of the early 1990s, and pretty much failing at both as a result. Lots of time is given over to a really boring storyline about people from the future, but also there's this whole thing about the JLI waking up in a timeline where someone averted their heroic origins: Guy is Earth's only Green Lantern, Rex never got his powers, Kara was never woken up, and so on. I liked the bit about how Guy was a great guy in this timeline, but it's boring otherwise, and it feels like a diversion from the book's core premise. Rex gets a new "battle form"... like, why? So many dumb things in this run. 

You can also see them struggling to accommodate what's going on in other titles, specially Green Lantern, which previously the book was good at. For example, there's been no mention of the destruction of Coast City in JLI even though Hal is a lead here. In issue #61, Hal suddenly has his arm in a sling, which happened in the Coast City fight with Mongul, even though the opening scene of #61 directly continues from the closing scene of #60, where his arm is not in a sling. Certainly the destruction of Coast City didn't happen between those issues!

I found the notes from assistant editor Ruben Diaz in the letter column annoying. In issue #59, for example, he opines that other comics (I think he's dissing Marvel's X-Men line here) "have offered multiple crossovers, with big surprises, big changes, big star talent—big deal! Most of what they deliver is layers of convoluted storylines, inconsequential endings with little personal change in the characters, clichés, and less than 100% effort on the part of creators who step on each other's toes trying to outdo each other." But if that's so awful, then why do I feel like all the Justice League titles are just trying to imitate that storytelling style, instead of leaning into what they were actually good at? You can't diss the 1990s Marvel/Image style and copy it! There's another one (somewhere in the #53-57 range, I think) where Ruben apologizes for how bad the book has been since Breakdowns. Like, ouch! Why would I want to told as a reader that I've been getting substandard product? Why would you throw the writers and artists under bus like that?? And what if I liked some of that run???

from Justice League Task Force #11
(panels not contiguous in the original)

The Purification Plague, from Justice League Task Force #10-12 (Mar.-May 1994), reprinted in Justice League Task Force, Volume 1: The Purification Plague (2018)
written by Michael Jan Friedman, pencilled by Sal Velluto, inked by Jeff Albrecht (with Robert Jones), lettered by Bob Pinaha, colored by Glenn Whitmore

In this final story from the first (and, I guess, only, given it's been eight years) JLTF trade, J'onn and Gypsy assemble a team to go undercover among white supremacists in rural Nebraska: they are joined by Black Canary, Elongated Man, the original Hourman, and Thunderbolt. I had actually read this story in single issues before, when I read through a bunch of uncollected stories featuring the original Birds of Prey lineup.

It's about as okay as every JLTF storyline. Nothing will rock your world here; it's depressing to see the evil Aryans using what reads like MAGA rhetoric. The ending is a bit pat. I found it weird that Ralph somehow didn't know Gypsy's codename didn't reflect her heritage given they served in the League together during the Detroit era. Like, surely someone would ask at some point?

from Justice League America #88

Cult of the Machine / "Rage against the Machine", from Justice League America #86-88 (Mar.-May 1994), reprinted in Wonder Woman and Justice League America, Volume 2 (2017)
written by Dan Vado, pencils by Mark Campos, inks by Ken Branch & Kevin Conrad, letters by Clem Robins, colors by Gene D'Angelo

Oh God make it stop.

I really struggled with this one. Ice is mopey and emotional; Marc Campos's art is incapable of nuance, so everyone is shouting at each other all the time. Captain Atom is a stupid jarhead who gets into argument with an ineffectual Wonder Woman; he's nothing like the guy who lead the JLE back in their Paris days. The story is about some cultists who build a transmitter tower or something that somehow brings back Dreamslayer of the Extremists; the resulting story is as unappealing as every Extremists story. Wait, no, moreso. How all this hangs together is left as an exercise for the reader, because neither art nor story are doing the work. At one point you have to turn the book sideways to read a page; this strikes me as the kind of power move that only works if your art is good enough to justify the effort. Campos's is not.

Bad bad bad. I hated every page of it, every panel.

from Justice League International vol. 2 #64

"Visions of Death" / "Immortal Truth", from Justice League International vol. 2 #63-64 (Apr.-May 1994)
written by Gerard Jones (with Will Jacobs), pencilled by Chuck Wojtiekiewicz, inked by Bob Dvorak & Rich Rankin and Craig Gilmore, letters by Clem Robins, colors by Gene D'Angelo

As I said at the top of this post, these issues take place in parallel with the contemporary issues of JLTF and JLA. While the growing natural disasters are a background element in the other two series, it's the main focus of these issues, which have the JLI on the ground in India trying to deal with them; meanwhile, Doctor Light is dealing with the disembodied consciousness Erewhon with which she's somehow fallen in love. This latter plotline could be interesting, I think, but at this point makes this overstuffed book feel even more unfocused. At the same time these issues are trying to lead into Judgment Day, they're also trying to pay off the ongoing JLI plot (since issue #51) about ancient cults rising up; it turns out (I think) that whatever's causing the disasters is also empowering the Cadre of the Immortal, with representatives from a bunch of different ancient civilizations. The JLI has to go to Africa and fight Prester John, and meanwhile Power Girl is pregnant and her baby can magically generate forcefields, and Chandi has temporarily been turned evil.

It's all another uninteresting action-focused story that's pulled in ten different directions. I feel like Gerard Jones has lost control of this book and, more significantly, completely lost what made it appeal so much to me just thirteen issues ago. 

This is the fourteenth in a series of posts about Justice League International. The next covers issues #89-92 of JLA, #65-68 of JLI, and #13-16 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)
13. Justice League America #84-85 / Justice League International #53-57 / Justice League Task Force #9 (Aug. 1993–Feb. 1994) 

Justice League International Year Seven, Part II: The Trouble with Guys (JLA #78-83 / JLI #51-52 / JLTF #4-8)

As I said in my previous post (see below), we're now in an era where the Justice League line of titles is juggling three ongoing monthly titles. My write-ups here are not aiming for strict chronology, but rather rotating through the series in a way that makes for the smoothest reading experience. It isn't totally possible to avoid any hiccups, though; for example, Hal Jordan turns up in JLA #83, a story that must take place before Bloodlines, with his arm in a sling, indicating that the story follows the destruction of Coast City in The Return of Superman. But Hal doesn't have his arm in a sling in any JLI stories until issue #61, which definitely takes place after Bloodlines. None of his JLI stories even mention the destruction of Coast City! 

Anyway, I've done my best to balance things out; I doubt, for example, that all five of the below JLTF  issues take place exactly where I've placed them, but you can read them there with no problems as JLTF doesn't intersect with either JLA or JLI until issue #9.

from Justice League International vol. 2 #51

"The New World" / "All Is Maya", from Justice League International vol. 2 #51-52 (June-July 1993)
written by Gerard Jones & Will Jacobs, pencilled by Ron Randall, inked by Randy Elliott, lettered by Willie Schubert, colored by Gene D'Angelo

Following the events of JLE #50 (see item #10 in the list below), the Justice League's London branch is now Justice League International, and as a result, is on an international goodwill tour; these two issues take the team to Mexico and India. We also have a slightly adjusted lineup, with Aquaman gone, but Tasmanian Devil and new hero Chandi joining the team. Each is a done-in-one story hinting at a larger plotline. I don't think these two stories are quite as good as the Jones/Randall/Elliott run on JLE #37-50, but they're decent enough. Jones has a good grasp on the characters (especially Ralph and Sue, though I'm not really sure where the Kara-is-pregnant plotline was intended to go), and he's always trying to do something more interesting than a generic superhero punchup.

from Justice League Task Force #8

"The Arsenal of Souls" / Knightquest: The Search / "Valley of the Daals!" / "How Green Was My Daalie?", from Justice League Task Force #4-8 (Sept. 1993–Jan. 1994), reprinted in Justice League Task Force, Volume 1: The Purification Plague (2018)
written by Chuck Dixon, Dennis O'Neil, and Peter David; pencilled by Gabriel Morrissette and Sal Velluto; inked by Dick Giordano and Jeff Albrecht (with Aaron McClellan); colored by Glenn Whitmore; lettered by Albert De Guzman, Clem Robins, and Bob Pinaha

Here we have three stories: a one-parter and two two-parters. Each of the stories has a different writer; all five of the issues but the first is drawn by Sal Velluto and Jeff Albrecht. The first is a Gypsy spotlight putting her up against regular Batman villain Lady Shiva, written by Chuck Dixon, regular Batman writer. I do like Lady Shiva, and in theory it's nice to get something focused on Shiva, but I didn't find the story very memorable.

Batman tie-ins continue to dominate the series with the next two issues, which are part of the Batman event Knightquest: The Search; Bruce Wayne (during the era where his back is broken and Azrael is Batman) asks the JLTF to help find Tim Drake's dad and Dr. Leslie Thompkins on the Caribbean island of Santa Prisca. (So many Caribbean islands in this era of Justice League comics.) For this mission, J'onn and Gypsy are joined by the Green Arrow (in his Mike Grell phase) and the Bronze Tiger (a character I do not remember ever encountering before or even hearing about). There's a lot of running around; I didn't find it very interesting, and of course it ultimately doesn't even go anywhere because a key plot point from a Batman event isn't going to be resolved in a second-tier Justice League tie-in.

Lastly, there's a two-part story by Peter David about the Justice League Task Force being sent into a hidden matriarchal society to retrieve a crashed UN operative. Only women can enter this society, meaning the team consists of Gypsy, Wonder Woman, Maxima, Dolphin, Vixen... and J'onn!? Because, of course, the Martian Manhunter can shapeshift into a female form. I read a lot of Peter David Star Trek when I was in high school and usually found it funny; I haven't reread any of that work recently, so I don't know if it this just isn't as funny, or if my tastes have changed, or it what worked in the 1990s does not work in the 2020s. I'd like to think there could be a funny story in the Martian Manhunter becoming a woman and this not being a big deal. Why should American constructions of gender matter to an immortal shapeshifting Martian alien? Or, even, a funny story in the fact that they somehow do? But what we get here is just hyuk hyuk hyuk lesbians. I mostly did not enjoy this, and it definitely verges into trans panic vibes at points. I'm not sure Sal Velluto is the right artist to pair with Peter David even on one of PAD's good days, in any case. 

The bit about Paradise Island was funny, though.

One thing in general about Justice League Task Force that bugs me is that Sal Velluto likes two-page spreads too much. This is definitely a "him" thing, not a writing thing, because it's consistent across the series's myriad writers. They're not the kind with one big image across two pages, but a full set of dozen panels like you might normally see on two pages, except instead of reading left-to-right-and-down across the lefthand page and then the right, you have to read left-to-right across the page gutter. Almost every time I initially read the lefthand page on its own, struggled with how incoherent it seemed, and then belatedly realized the righthand page should have been part of my sequence. Velluto isn't that great about clearly breaking the central panel in the first row in such a way that your eye follows it across so you know how to read the whole spread. (Admittedly, it must be tricky to do! I remember Lee Sullivan discussing how to do it in the commentary essay for the comic strip for Doctor Who Magazine #598.)

from Justice League America #81

"Lives in the Balance" / "Extreme Measures" / "Running from Justice" / "Do the Right Thing" / "Guilty as Sin" / The Trouble with Guys, from Justice League America #78-82 (Early Aug.-Nov. 1993) and Justice League America #83 & Guy Gardner #15 (Dec. 1993), reprinted in Wonder Woman and Justice League America, Volume 1 (2017)
written by Dan Vado and Chuck Dixon; pencils by Mike Collins, Kevin West, and Chris Hunter; finished art by Carlos Garzón & Romeo Tanghal, Rick Burchett, and Terry Beatty; letters by Willie Schubert, Tim Harkins, and Albert De Guzman; colors by Gene D'Angelo, Gina Going, and Anthony Tollin

Lastly, we have a pretty continuous run of stories from Justice League America. Issues #78 and 79 make a two-part story, then issues #80 through 83 make another story that's finished in an issue of Guy Gardner (and then, actually issues #84-85 make another two-part story that picks up right from Guy Gardner #15, but I'll cover that next time). All of the JLA issues are written by Dan Vado, who succeeded Dan Jurgens as writer; Mike Collins pencils the initial two-parter, and then Kevin West becomes the regular penciller. (Chuck Dixon writes the GG issue.)

Like Justice League Task Force, this run of JLA dials up the "character conflict" by having everyone constantly snarl at each other; on top of this, like JLTF, there's a lot of hamhandedly boring stuff about interventionist geopolitics. And then some new Extremists debuted. I found the Extremists of the weaker parts of the original Giffen/DeMatteis run, so the last thing they need is to be reinvented for the "extreme" 1990s. And also Jay Garrick there for some reason? Not even the usually reliable Mike Collins can save this.

All of these tendencies get even worse in the long story about alien refugees crash-landing on the Earth. The U.S government (we get a Bill Clinton appearance! Regan appeared a couple times in the late 1980s stories, but I feel like we totally skipped over Bush I) wants them handed over to another group of aliens, but Wonder Woman doesn't want to do that, so Captain Atom (who is back from the dead for reasons no one ever gives) is sent in to fight the JLA. Again, the characterization is about as subtle as being hit with a brick, and I don't get why Wonder Woman is constantly being shown up and/or undermined as team leader. I would say this is all the worst tendencies of 1990s comics, except I've already read volume 2, and I know it goes downhill even more.

The crossover with Guy Gardner at the end spins out of an incident in JLA #82, where Guy—who has been acting increasingly deranged—kills someone. We eventually find out he's been replaced by an alien clone, and the real Guy turns up to defeat him. Guy is slowly descending into his insufferable period here; I can't stand it. I did appreciate finding out where the Guy clone in Birds of Prey originated.

Other than quietly forgetting um... those two guys Jurgens added to the team, you know who I mean, Vado keeps the same line-up, and even gets Fire and Booster back into action. I guess I appreciate that intellectually, but they don't really do much that I enjoyed. Booster in particular is now wearing a particularly 1990s Imagetastic ugly suit of armor.

Anyway, uh, this is a great era for the Justice League. 

This is the twelfth in a series of posts about Justice League International. The next covers issues #84-85 of JLA, #53-57 of JLI, and #9 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) 

Justice League International Year Seven, Part I: Destiny's Hand (JLA #70-77 / JLTF #1-3)

This series of posts took a bit of a breather. Partially because I have to track down out-of-print trade paperbacks, but partially also because trying to read the stories in any kind of reasonable or accurate sequence gets much harder around this point! I had been using the Cosmic Teams timeline, but it has lots of placements that very obviously do not make sense if you read the actual stories, making me think it was done from someone's vague memories of the series. So I kept on reading, but put my writeups on pause while I tried to work out the best order.

Now, finally, I am back in action. It is interesting; this era gives you some signs that the Justice League family of titles was in trouble, in that approaches are constantly being jerked around and creative teams switching. But it also gives you indications things were going quite well, because a third ongoing monthly title was added to the lineup. Has there ever been any other era in the history of DC where there were four ongoing Justice League titles? (America, International, and Task Force all as monthlies, but also Quarterly keeps going, with three issues' worth of content every quarter, so essentially another monthly.)

This post covers the end of Dan Jurgens's run on Justice League America (collected in a book called Superman and Justice League America, Volume 2... even though Superman is dead for every single one of these issues!) and the first three issues of Justice League Task Force. Based on chronological considerations, it will be a bit before we get back to JLE, now retitled Justice League International. Plus, a single issue of JLQ!

from Justice League America #76

"Grieving" / "A New Look" / Destiny's Hand / Blood Secrets, from Justice League America #70-77 (Jan.-Late July 1993), reprinted in Superman and Justice League America, Volume 2 (2016)
words/layouts by Dan Jurgens (guest pencils by Sal Velluto), finishes by Rick Burchett and Romeo Tanghal & Bob Smith, letters by Willie Schubert, colors by Gene D'Angelo

So, JLA #69 ended with Superman showing up to battle Doomsday. JLA #70 begins with him dead, having been killed off in Superman #75 as part of the Death of Superman story. The issue first focuses on the reactions of the various League members to the events of the battle with Doomsday: Ice, who had a crush on Superman, is devastated; Blue Beetle is in a coma; Booster is beside himself at both the injury of his best friend and the destruction of his suit. It then takes a broader approach, as other characters show up to grieve, like the Flash and Aquaman and Hawkman and Green Arrow. Even Guy Gardner is sad! It's fine, it does exactly what it should, I suppose. Dan Jurgens's art lifts his story; he's very good at classical heroic heroes emoting, which is exactly what this needs.

The next issue is one of those dull transitional issues, establishing the new status quo for the League: who quits, who joins, &c. Wonder Woman takes over as team leader. Ice quits. Booster and Fire are still around but neither has powers. A bunch of new members join, including the Ray (who lasts for quite a while) and two other characters who I honestly forget were even in the title until I went to write these issues up just now! These are Condor and Agent Liberty. Jurgens never really establishes their deals in an interesting way during his run, and they just vanish after it's over; I am pretty sure they are not written out, they just stop appearing after issue #75! I would say that's typical of the post-Giffen/DeMatteis JLA, which very much struggles to create a compelling mix of characters no matter who's writing.

At this point, Jurgens's run fizzles out. First we get a really boring four-part story about Doctor Dee dreaming a harsher Justice League into existence, which begins to bleed into the real world. It's just not a very interesting idea and it goes on far too long. The whole thing wraps up with a two-part story finally explaining what's been going on with Bloodwynd: he's the Martian Manhunter in the form of Bloodwynd. This is a great twist but not a great story because it turns out J'onn J'onnz thinks he's Bloodwynd so he's acting exactly how Bloodwynd would act. It tells us nothing about either Bloodwynd or J'onn as a character, so what's the point? I do like how Jurgens writes Blue Beetle, though, never forgetting that in addition to being a goofball he's also an obsessive genius.

from Justice League Quarterly #11

"Beautiful, Wonderful, Perfect" / "Heat Wave" / "The Damnation Agenda, Part 1 of 5: The Hiding Kind", from Justice League Quarterly #11 (Summer 1993)
writes by William Messner-Loebs, Pat McGreal & Dave Rawson, and Michael Jan Friedman; pencils by Mike Wieringo & Lee Moder, Dave Cockrum, and Mike Mayhew; inks by Richard Space, Peter Gross, and Dan Davis; letters by Bob Pinaha and Tim Harkins; colors by Gene D'Angelo, Steve Mattsson, and Glenn Whitmore

The lead story in this issue is said to "take place before current issues of Justice League," but there's pretty much nowhere it could go, as it features both Wonder Woman and Ice in the JLA, and Ice quit the same issue Wonder Woman joined (JLA #71). Additionally, Beetle is unseen but mentioned as active, yet he was comatose from JLA #69 to 75. But it can't go later, once Ice rejoins (JLA #85), because by then, Crimson Fox has quit the League!

Anyway, the lead story here has potential but, like all of William Messner-Loebs's contributions to JLQ, is not very well done. The League is asked to protect the wife of a conservative Muslim prince, so only female members can be used. The main characters have to be pretty dumb and gullible for the whole thing to work. There are some decent character moments among the leads, but also I feel like Mike Wieringo and Lee Moder's art wasn't quite ready for prime time. (But then, I guess JLQ isn't exactly prime time.) There's also a flashback story about the Martian Manhunter in the 1960s, battling racism in the South. I wouldn't say it's great comics, but I thought it was solid, and surprisingly nuanced for the early 1990s. It's cowritten by Pat McGreal, who overall did some solid stuff for JLQ; I'd've liked to have seen more work from him. And the art is by the great Dave Cockrum; nice to see him get to cut loose with something other than standard superhero fare.

Lastly, this issue sees the debut of JLQ's first-ever ongoing feature. This stars Praxis... and if you're going, "Who?", I don't blame you. Praxis has a very flimsy JL connection; way back in JLQ #1 he was a member of Conglomerate. It would be quite easy to not remember him! (I see from DCUGuide that he actually debuted in a 1989 Spectre story arc, but I don't think that's ever mentioned in any of his JLQ appearances.) Why would he be picked up for a return appearance? Well, if you remember the 1990s, it's not too surprising: he wears a leather jacket and sunglasses and mostly goes around angsting. So totally of his time it almost reads as parody. Praxis was a cop who failed to save his niece from a serial killer and got superpowers; after Conglomerate fell apart, he returned to police work. The story here, told from the perspective of his female partner, focuses on them trying to stop a new serial killer with a grisly MO. It's by Michael Jan Friedman and Mike Mayhew, both solid comics creators, but I found there was a bit too much narration. Let the story breathe!

from Justice League Task Force #1

"The Tyranny Gun!" / "Split Hit" / "Twisted Glass!", from Justice League Task Force #1-3 (June-Aug. 1993), reprinted in Justice League Task Force, Volume 1: The Purification Plague (2018)
written by David Michelinie, pencils by Sal Velluto, inks by Jeff Albrecht, letters by Bob Pinaha, colors by Glenn Whitmore

Justice League Task Force is a new ongoing. It only has two consistent lead characters, Martian Manhunter and Gypsy; other than the two of them, each story arc sees a new team assembled every issue, from a broad mix of DC superheroes. Interestingly, this grabbag approach also extends to the series's writing: David Michelinie gets first author on the collection cover, but actually only writes three of the twelve issues it collects... but no one writes more than three. While ongoing comics with rotating creators aren't unusual, I can't remember another comic I've read where the writer is constantly changing, but the artist is not; Sal Velluto pencilled all but two of the series's first fifteen issues.

In the first story, the UN uses the newly formed Task Force to take down rebels in a Caribbean nation. In this one, in addition to Manhunter and Gypsy, there's the Flash, Aquaman, and Nightwing. I don't really care for it. Sal Velluto has done good work elsewhere but this isn't his best, leaning too much into the early 1990s grim-and-gritty style; the writing is like that, too, with the characters always barking and snarling at each other. I don't find attempts to insert mainstream superhero characters into "realistic" geopolitics very interesting. This must go shortly after JLA #77 for J'onn, but the trauma he went through there is never mentioned, and weirdly, the actual JLA series never mentions why J'onn suddenly never appears again after his return!

I feel like David Michelinie was probably meant to write more of this title than he did. He gets cover credit on the fourth issue even though it was written by someone else (more on that next time), and the ending of #3 seems to set up a recurring villain who never recurs.

This is the eleventh in a series of posts about Justice League International. The next covers issues #78-83 of JLA, #51-52 of JLI, and #4-8 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) 

"With the sleekness of the jungle cat whose name he bears, T-Challa - King of Wakanda - stalks both the concrete city and the undergrowth of the Veldt. So it has been for countless generations of warrior kings, so it is today, and so it shall be for the law of the jungle dictates that only the swift, the smart, and the strong survive! Noble champion. Vigiliant protector. BLACK PANTHER"

In 1998, Christopher Priest began as the writer of a new volume on Black Panther for Marvel's "Marvel Knights" imprint; this was, I think, intended as a twelve-issue run and ended up lasting until issue #62 in 2003. Black Panther vol. 3 would introduce a lot of what will be familiar to contemporary viewers of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the Dora Milaje, Everett K. Ross (played by Martin Freeman on screen), Wakanda vying for a place in contemporary geopolitics, and the Black Panther's more thoughtful, stoic demeanor.

from Black Panther vol. 3 #10
(script by Priest, art by Mike Manley)

Priest thinks through what it would mean for the Black Panther to be a king—he's not a superhero, though he is a fairly hands-on king. He's not going around recusing babies from trees or even punching supervillains, he's defending a nation from its threats, and he's doing so using political cunning even moreso than superpowers. In order to make this work, we mostly see T'Challa from the outside, usually from the perspective of Everett K. Ross, his liaison in the U.S. Department of State. Ross is meant to provide T'Challa with transportation and assistance during a quick trip to New York City, but ends up embroiled in T'Challa's machinations, which results in things like losing his pants to the demon Mephisto, becoming regent of Wakanda, accidentally offending Bill Clinton by roller-skating through the White House, and being exiled to a U.S. listening post in the Arctic.

from Black Panther vol. 3 #21
(script by Priest, art by Sal Velluto & Bob Almond)

The first twelve issues are almost certainly the highlight. The story is told out of order as Ross attempts to make some kind of sense of everything he's gone through, to little avail; with its out-of-order vignettes, all preceded by some kind of caption, it came across as an attempt to do Quentin Tarantino on the comics page. This is surely one of the most 1990s moves you could pull, and Priest and his ever-changing artistic collaborators pull it off perfectly. I was constantly laughing at the reversals facing Ross, as he confronts his own prejudices about Africa and the increasing series of absurdities he is faced with. Upon reading this series, it became very clear to me why Ross is played by Martin Freeman in the movies, because who does "put upon" better than Martin Freeman, but it also became clear to me that the movies had largely failed to take advantage of the character.

Priest's Panther instantly marked itself as the best run on the character I'd read thus far, taking the best aspects of Don McGregor's run in particular (though we don't spend much time in Wakanda here, Priest very much builds on McGregor's sense of it as a real, complicated place). You can very easily see why it kept getting extended, even though it was apparently always on the verge of cancellation. A revolving door of artists at the series's beginning soon gives way to Sal Velluto and Bob Almond, who illustrated thirty of the series's sixty-two issues, excellently capturing the humanity and the action alike. Priest is always coming up with new spins on old concepts, always keeping things fresh.

from Black Panther vol. 3 #25
(script by Priest, art by Sal Velluto & Bob Almond)

The Dora Milaje are not exactly what they became on screen, not an army of warrior women; here, they're wives of the king, one from each tribe in Wakanda as a way of maintaining political balance. They may only speak to the king (in Hausa) and must defend him with their lives. One of my favorite characters was Chanté Giovanni Brown, a teenager social justice crusader from inner-city Chicago who renamed herself "Queen Divine Justice"... and then learned that as the estranged descendant of a Wakandan tribal leader, she was a new Dora Milaje. I feel like we have really missed out by not getting her on screen.

That said, he perhaps sometimes keeps things too fresh. One gets the sense of a juggler continually adding balls to his act, forgetting to maintain balls he already launched into the air. (Okay, how's that for a metaphor?) Soon there's the Hulk (okay, the bit where Queen Divine Justice bonds with him is cute), and then Power Man and Iron Fist, and there's a crossover with Deadpool (ugh), and a flash-forward to a dystopian Black Panther, and all sorts of other stuff, and I found myself missing Ross and the supporting cast of the book's earlier days, whose stories had more faded away than actually come to an end. Though there's always a lot to like, from, say, issue #30 to 40 especially, I found myself a bit adrift in the book's overcomplications.

Also, suddenly a second T'Challa appears, one written and even drawn in the Jack Kirby adventurer fashion, complete with friend Abner Little. This is hilarious, especially given how much the two Black Panthers like each other, but the mystery of who he is and how he got there is drawn out too long and not really resolved satisfactorily. Like, we get all the answers we need, but the story just kind of fizzles out.

However, with the Enemy of the State II storyline, where Wakanda annexes part of Canada and T'Challa pits himself against Tony Stark, the book showed a marked improvement, again recapturing that energy and focus of the first twelve issues, and then there's a two-parter where the whole cast is inadvertently tossed through time into the Wild West, which is of course hilarious.

from Black Panther vol. 3 #51
(script by Priest, art by Jorge Lucas)

But, having got its mojo back, the book must have seemed in even more danger of cancellation than ever, for with issue #50, it's suddenly drastically retooled. T'Challa is missing, presumed dead,* and the main character is suddenly Kevin "Kasper" Cole, a New York cop who finds a discarded Black Panther suit and begins using it to take down corrupt cops, the whole series suddenly transforming into a seedy crime novel of sorts. Priest does an okay job with it, but it's just never as interesting as what he was doing. Unfortunately (aside from a terrible two-issue fill-in by the usually reliable J. Torres), Kasper is the main character for the rest of the run. He has its moments, but I found his character beats a bit repetitive, and, well, no one is reading Black Panther for a grounded crime thriller about corrupt cops. Kasper briefly counts as a new Black Panther, but by series's end, has become the White Tiger, endorsed by T'Challa and given the heart-shaped herb for his own superpowers.

I read the whole run on comiXology, having got it for free in a sale; it's also been collected as four trade paperbacks called Black Panther: The Complete Collection. The first three volumes collect all of stuff actually focused on T'Challa, and they are well worth your time to pick up. I have a lot of Black Panther comics to go, but it seems unlikely to me that any of them will top this.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

* Well, kind of. In one issue we're told he's supposedly dead, in another, we learn he's still a member of the Avengers!