Golden Age Secret Files & Origins by John Ostrander, Cliff Chiang, et al.

Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, DC did a lot of "Secret Files & Origins" one-shots, which would have a couple short stories about a character or theme, coupled with some profile pages or other in-universe background. There were two JSA ones, as well as one JLA/JSA one, the stories from which are all collected in the JSA by Geoff Johns collections. But aside from a five-page story included in The Justice Society Returns!, this one has gone uncollected, so I picked it up on its own.

There is some JSA focus here (the aforementioned story and a profile page), but much of the issue focuses on the Crimson Avenger. "The Crimson" was, I think, DC's second superhero in publication order, following Superman, which meant that following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, he was the first one.* The story "The Dawn of the Golden Age," written by John Ostrander and drawn by Cliff Chiang, focuses on this legacy; reporter Clark Kent tries to figure out what motivated Lee Travis to put on a costume and fight crime. What the story does is kind of clever; it reinstates Superman as the first superhero by having Travis be inspired by a vision of the future where he sees Superman! It's a nice story, supplemented by some strong art from an early Cliff Chiang, who I always like. Ostrander, as always, is good at character voices and continuity, which is exactly what this story needs. There's also a text story in the form of a faux newspaper interview of Travis by Jonathan Law (the Tarantula from All-Star Squadron) and a profile page. Back when I read the Thomases' The Crimson Avenger: The Dark Cross Conspiracy, I said you could make a good trade out of that, Secret Origins #5, and DC Comics Presents #38. Well, now clearly you would chuck in this stuff to wrap it all up; it would make a good follow-up to the DCCP story.

script by John Ostrander, art by Cliff Chiang

"The Dawn of the Golden Age" is a full twenty-page story; the rest of the volume is filled out with shorter ones. I already discussed "Scenes From The Class Struggle at J.S.A. Mansion" when I read it in Justice Society Returns!; the other two are a kind of funny story about Dr. Occult trying to get Zatara the Magician to be become a crimefighter and a frankly baffling one about young Dr. Sivana.

Decent stuff overall; as a fan of the post–Golden Age Crimson Avenger, I'm glad I tracked it down.

* Sometimes, anyway. Sandman Mystery Theatre pushed the Sandman's debut back so that it preceded the Crimson's, for example... but the story here ignores that and has Sandy explicitly say Wes was inspired by the case of the Crimson Avenger and the Phantom of the Fair. That said, Sandy wasn't around yet when that happened, so what does he know?

 

Golden Age Secret Files & Origins was originally published in one issue (Feb. 2001). The comic stories were written by John Ostrander, Tom Peyer, Peter Gross, and Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt; pencilled by Cliff Chiang, Peter Grau, Peter Gross, and Jamal Igle; inked by Cliff Chiang, Claude St. Aubin, Peter Gross, and Rod Ramos; colored by Tom McCraw; and lettered by John Costanza and Richard Starkings. The text story and profile pages were written by Scott Beatty, and the profile pages were illustrated by Peter Grau & Christian Alamy, Mike Collins & Bob McLeod, Mark Propst, and Michael Lark. The issue was edited by Tony Bedard.

 

This post is thirty-third in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers JSA by Geoff Johns, Book Three. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
5. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)
6. Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)
7. America vs. the Justice Society (1985)
8. Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)
9. Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)
10. Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]
11. Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)
12. All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)
13. Steel, the Indestructible Man (1978)
14. Superman vs. Wonder Woman: An Untold Epic of World War Two (1977)
• Wonder Woman: Earth-Two (1977-78)
15. Secret Origins of the Golden Age (1986-89)
16. The Young All-Stars (1987-89)
17. Gladiator (1930) ["Man-God!" (1976)]
    
18. The Crimson Avenger: The Dark Cross Conspiracy (1981-88)
19. The Immortal Doctor Fate (1940-82)
20. Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice (1951-91)
21. Armageddon: Inferno (1992)
22. Justice Society of America vol. 2 (1992-93)
23. The Adventures of Alan Scott--Green Lantern (1992-93)
24. Damage (1994-96)
25. The Justice Society Returns! (1999-2001)
26. Chase (1998-2002)
27. Stargirl by Geoff Johns (1999-2003)
28. The Sandman Presents: The Furies (2002)
29. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book One (1999-2000)
30. Wonder Woman: The 18th Letter: A Love Story (2000)
31. Two Thousand (2000)
32. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book Two (1999-2003)
    

DC Comics: Two Thousand by Tom Peyer, Val Semekis, and Prentis Rollins

This is a JLA/JSA crossover of what, as far as I can recall, was a new kind. Instead of crossing the two organizations over in the present day, it sees the present-day Justice League facing down the Justice Society in its heyday. It's a bit complicated, but minor Justice League villain T. O. Morrow is using time travel technology to travel from the year 2000 to 1941, where he's providing 2000-era technology in order to boost humanity's technological advancement. This leads to a dystopian 2000 with him in control, so the JLA travels back in time to stop him. Only, in doing so, they reveal the future to the JSA, who realizes this technology the JLA is so desperate to stop from getting out can save lives, and so a different dystopian timeline comes about, thanks to the JSA's alteration of history.

It's just two issues long, but each is triple-length, so the story really has time to breathe. The first issue is mostly told from the JSA's perspective: we know who the mysterious "bat-man" in the shadows is, but they do not. I don't think Peyer wrote much for the JSA outside of this (he did have a story in The Justice Society Returns!), but he does great by them here. Good uses of them as characters, nice grasp of tone, strong sense of what makes them different from a twenty-first-century superhero. I liked that the JSA was horrified of what they saw of the real twenty-first century; Peyer did a great job of mining this for both drama and comedy. (My favorite gag is when the JSA have a laptop and think that when a bomb icon pops up with an error message, that the laptop must be a bomb.) Similarly, Peyer does great by T. O. Morrow, a guy who I'd never given much thought to before, but who here ends up with a fascinating, kind of moving backstory.

The JSA discovers GIFs, circa 2000.
from DC 2000 #1

The second issue broadens the perspective, and also has to take in a lot, and as a result is somewhat weaker: key decisions feel rushed because there's just not the time to do them justice. But overall this is a fun story with great art. It's a shame that it's never been reprinted; the "DC 2000" branding is obviously not very timely anymore, but call it something like JLA/JSA: The Tomorrow Paradox, and it would make a great trade. I'm glad I tracked it down; of the myriad JSA-related publications of the year 2000, this was certainly my favorite.

Two Thousand originally appeared in issues #1-2 of DC 2000 (2000). The story was written by Tom Peyer, pencilled by Val Semeiks, inked by Prentis Rollins, lettered by Kurt Hathaway, colored by John Kalisz, and edited by Dan Raspler.

 

This post is thirty-first in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers JSA by Geoff Johns, Book Two. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
5. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)
6. Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)
7. America vs. the Justice Society (1985)
8. Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)
9. Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)
10. Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]
11. Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)
12. All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)
13. Steel, the Indestructible Man (1978)
14. Superman vs. Wonder Woman: An Untold Epic of World War Two (1977)
• Wonder Woman: Earth-Two (1977-78)
15. Secret Origins of the Golden Age (1986-89)
16. The Young All-Stars (1987-89)
17. Gladiator (1930) ["Man-God!" (1976)]
    
18. The Crimson Avenger: The Dark Cross Conspiracy (1981-88)
19. The Immortal Doctor Fate (1940-82)
20. Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice (1951-91)
21. Armageddon: Inferno (1992)
22. Justice Society of America vol. 2 (1992-93)
23. The Adventures of Alan Scott--Green Lantern (1992-93)
24. Damage (1994-96)
25. The Justice Society Returns! (1999-2001)
26. Chase (1998-2002)
27. Stargirl by Geoff Johns (1999-2003)
28. The Sandman Presents: The Furies (2002)
29. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book One (1999-2000)
30. Wonder Woman: The 18th Letter: A Love Story (2000)
    

The Justice Society Returns! by David Goyer, James Robinson, et al.

 The Justice Society Returns!

Collection published: 2003
Contents originally published: 1999-2001
Acquired and read: February 2022

Writers: David Goyer, James Robinson, Chuck Dixon, Geoff Johns, Ron Marz, Tom Peyer, Mark Waid

Pencillers: Michael Lark, William Rosado, Eduardo Barreto, Scott Benefiel, Russ Heath, Aaron Lopresti, Stephen Sadowski, Peter Snejbjerg, Chris Weston, Peter Grau
Inkers: Michael Bair, Eduardo Barreto, Keith Champagne, John Dell, Wade Von Grawbadger, Doug Hazlewood, Russ Heath, Ray Kryssing, Aaron Lopresti, Mark Propst, Claude St. Aubin, Christ Weston
Colorists: John Kalisz, Carla Feeny, Noelle Giddings, Tom McCraw

Letterers: Ken Lopez, Kurth Hathaway, Bill Oakley, John Costanza, Janice Chiang

I'm coming up on the return of the JSA to an ongoing comic, but before then, I'm reading four collected editions with JSA connections, of which this is the first.

The title of this volume would seem to indicate that it's about a triumphant return of the Justice Society of America. This is only kind of true. This isn't a "return" in the narrative; the JSA (which had disbanded in Zero Hour) was still moribund in the present-day of the DC Universe (though that was about to change), it was a return out of the narrative, in that 1999 gave us a JSA title for the first time since the end of its short-lived only ongoing back in 1993. But if you were to look at my list of titles below, it's slightly deceptive: it would imply no JSA-adjacent titles from the end of Damage in 1996 until now. But in fact one had been steadily chugging along since 1994: James Robinson's Starman. This was about the most recent inheritor of the Starman mantle, but it had played a lot with the history of the character, including his JSA ties. That title was primarily written by James Robinson, often co-plotted by David Goyer, and it's those two that primarily guide this storyline.

Did people in 1945 know this? I guess probably.
from All Star Comics vol. 2 #1 (script by James Robinson & David Goyer, art by Michael Lark and Wade Von Grawbadger & Doug Hazlewood)

The Justice Society Returns! is set in 1945, as it seems World War II is coming to an end, and one could imagine it as a story arc in All-Star Squadron if the series had made it that far along; like that series, it weaves the superheroics in and out of real war to good effect. It is structured like a typical Golden Age JSA storyline: the characters as a group discover some issue, then they split up into groups to handle different aspects of it, then they come back together as a group to finish it off. Except, instead of having just a single issue to do all of this, JSA Returns takes nine issues, two of which are double-sized!

This turns out to really work. I usually dislike the typical JSA structure because everything is rushed and you don't get much genuine character interaction—which is surely what you want out of a team book! But with one issue apiece for each pair of heroes, you can really dig into them. The individual stories, like All-Star Squadron did, do neat stuff by placing these superheroes in wartime, exploring what makes them tick, and delving into the war itself at the same time. Goyer and Robinson write the two framing issues (All Star Comics vol. 2 #1-2, more on them later), while a variety of writers pen the ones in between; each issue has its own artist.

Good use of the silent panel, here.
from All-American Comics vol. 2 #1 (script by Ron Marz, art by Eduardo Barreto)

Highlights included "Cold Heart" (All-American Comics vol. 2 #1), which is about Green Lantern and Johnny Thunder protecting the Yalta Conference, but is mostly told from the perspective of an ordinary American soldier trying to do the same without superpowers: a strong sense of tone, time, and character make this an effective tale. It might be the best Ron Marz script I've ever read, and Eduardo Barreto is a great penciller who I am surprised not to know more of given this quality of work.

Go little guy, go!
from Adventure Comics vol. 2 #1 (script by James Robinson & David Goyer, art by Peter Snejbjerg & Keith Champagne)

I also really liked "Stars and Atoms" (Adventure Comics vol. 2 #1), which sends Starman and the Atom to Los Alamos to protect the atom bomb test site. Robinson and Goyer themselves provide a great focus on one of my favorite JSAers, the eternal underdog the Atom, and Peter Snejbjerg (is he an underrated talent? I always like him but can't remember seeing him get much high-profile stuff) also turns in some atmospheric pencils, backed up by great coloring from John Kalisz. The debt that this whole series owes to A-SS is most clear here, as it picks up on some stuff Roy Thomas established about how the Atom developed superpowers and changed costumes (though I think that "really" didn't happen until 1948).

I don't think I've ever read a comic really focused on Mr. Terrific, but I usually enjoy him when he pops up.
from National Comics vol. 2 #1 (script by Mark Waid, art by Aaron Lopresti)

It would probably surprise no one to know that Mark Waid's story is also one of the collection's greats. "Fair Play" (National Comics vol. 2 #1) is set in Dresden during the Dresden bombing, focusing on the Flash and Mr. Terrific. The story is narrated by the Flash, but focuses on Mr. Terrific, whose sense of fair play is undermined by the horrific events he witnesses... perpetrated by his own side! The ending is a little pat, though, as the story kind of punts responsibility for the bombing onto war itself rather than, you know, the people who make these decisions.

Gotta get our gratuitous shots into those comics about women, amirite?
from Sensation Comics vol. 2 #1 (script by James Robinson & David Goyer, art by Scott Benefiel & Mark Propst)

Probably the only misfire is "Womanly Deeds & Manly Words" (Sensation Comics vol. 2 #1). The writing here from Robinson & Goyer is fine, teaming up Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl, but it is pretty typical superhero comics that clearly someone involved went, "Well, why would people read a comic about two women unless it had a lot of panels with gratuitous focuses on tits, asses, and panties in it?" I don't know this Scott Benefiel guy, and I am not encouraged to do so. The Wonder Woman here is Diana's mother, Queen Hippolyta, having travelled back in time (I think this happened in John Byrne's Wonder Woman comics, which I haven't read), but the story mostly shies away from that; aside from Johnny Thunder calling her "Polly" in one issue, I don't think there's a reference. (Roy Thomas established back in All-Star Squadron/Secret Origins that Miss America filled Wonder Woman's role in the JSA in the post-Crisis timeline, but later writers don't seem to have been very interested in that idea.)

I have never really been convinced I want to read a Johnny Thunder series or something, but I have come to see him as a delightful bit of color in JSA stories.
from All Star Comics vol. 2 #1 (script by James Robinson & David Goyer, art by Michael Lark and Wade Von Grawbadger & Doug Hazlewood)

I also was not very taken by the wrap-up issue, "Time's Arrow" (All Star Comics vol. 2 #2), which becomes a confusing muddle involving time travel for no evident reason. It felt like the writers ran out of space... but they only ran out of space because they added a bunch of unnecessary stuff! But the first issue, "Time's Keeper" (All Star Comics vol. 2 #1), was a strong one; it's essentially two one-issue stories combined: first an Hourman solo story, then a big JSA fight. I can't claim to love Hourman (I would be very happen to never read another ham-fisted Miraclo addiction storyline), but he can work well in some cases, and this is one of them. Michael Lark, better known for his work on Gotham Central, is just as adept with traditional superheroics.

(There are also two short stories that pad out the volume, one about class snobbery in the JSA from Golden Age Secret Files and Origins #1, and one about Stargirl from JSA Secret Files and Origins #1. The former was fun, but the latter did not make me like Stargirl very much. I am curious to see her in her original solo series, which I should do soon.)

Overall, this is great, doing what the "retroactive continuity"–based JSA comics have done at their best since the days of All-Star Squadron, and I am glad I spent the money to track down a physical copy. Soon I'll be reunited with the JSA in the present (there is a veritable explosion of JSA content in the early 2000s) but this is a great teaser for things to come, a great return to the glory days.

This post is twenty-fifth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Chase. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
5. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)
6. Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)
7. America vs. the Justice Society (1985)
8. Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)
9. Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)
10. Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]
11. Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)
12. All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)
13. Steel, the Indestructible Man (1978)
14. Superman vs. Wonder Woman: An Untold Epic of World War Two (1977)
• Wonder Woman: Earth-Two (1977-78)
15. Secret Origins of the Golden Age (1986-89)
16. The Young All-Stars (1987-89)
17. Gladiator (1930) ["Man-God!" (1976)]
    
18. The Crimson Avenger: The Dark Cross Conspiracy (1981-88)
19. The Immortal Doctor Fate (1940-82)
20. Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice (1951-91)
21. Armageddon: Inferno (1992)
22. Justice Society of America vol. 2 (1992-93)
23. The Adventures of Alan Scott--Green Lantern (1992-93)
24. Damage (1994-96)
    

DC's R.E.B.E.L.S.: An Interesting, But Flawed Experiment

By the time it ended, L.E.G.I.O.N. had run for 70 issues, plus assorted annuals. It featured a large and complex array of characters, and a number of ongoing plots and subplots. Zero Hour provided an opportunity: not to cancel the series outright, but to relaunch it in a way that would make it less impenetrable to newcomers. If nothing else, it would have single-digit issue numbers again, not frightening ones in the 60s and beyond. In these days of DC Rebirth and All-New, All-Different Marvel, a comics publisher probably wouldn't think twice about just starting the book over at #1 with no other changes, but writer Tom "Tennessee" Peyer goes the extra mile.

L.E.G.I.O.N. had been about a corps of space police for hire led by Vril Dox, sometimes called Brainiac 2, scion of the Superman foe, ancestor of Legion of Super-Heroes member Brainiac 5. The last few issues of L.E.G.I.O.N. saw Vril Dox slowly supplanted by his superintelligent infant son, Lyrl Dox; this culminated in Lyrl taking over the organization outright in L.E.G.I.O.N. '94 #70 and Vril Dox going on the run with the "core" team of L.E.G.I.O.N. R.E.B.E.L.S. (1994-96) is the sequel series to L.E.G.I.O.N., picking up right where its predecessor left off, following the attempts of Vril Dox and company to seize control back from Lyrl. (R.E.B.E.L.S. stands for "Revolutionary Elite Brigade to Eradicate L.E.G.I.O.N. Supremacy.")

Gotta get some of that sweet Kyle Rayner crossover action in your second issue to get people to read. (Yes, #1 is the second issue.)
R.E.B.E.L.S. '94 #1 (Nov. 1994, cover by Dave Johnson)

The editorial staff periodically explains the rationale for the name change in the letter column, and it makes sense: if the series name remained L.E.G.I.O.N., you would never buy Lyrl's takeover as anything more than temporary, a short-term shift in the status quo to be overturned after a story arc. But by renaming the book after the goal of resisting L.E.G.I.O.N., it becomes clear that this could go on for a long time. You take the takeover seriously, at least in theory.

But it didn't really work for me. With the series named after the concept of resisting L.E.G.I.O.N., you know exactly when our heroes will finally succeed: the last issue. Now, as someone coming to this series twenty years later, I do know exactly how long the series is (18 issues, including #0), but even without that context, I think there would be a real feeling of wheel-spinning throughout. It never feels like Vril Dox and company get anywhere or accomplish anything; they try something to resist L.E.G.I.O.N., and it fails. Then they try something else, and it fails. And so on, until it succeeds because this time it's the final issue. It doesn't help that the book doesn't draw on the continuity established by L.E.G.I.O.N. enough, sending Vril Dox to planets and people that are supposedly important but somehow never came up in the previous seventy issues of adventures.

For some reason, each issue of R.E.B.E.L.S. had a one- or two-word caption above the title. This one is probably the weirdest of them.
R.E.B.E.L.S. '95 #6 (Apr. 1995, cover by Dave Johnson)

At its best, under Alan Grant and Barry Kitson, L.E.G.I.O.N. balanced a large, diverse ensemble cast with a number of ongoing plots. R.E.B.E.L.S., with everything subordinate to the masterplot of Dox vs. Dox, never recreates that alchemy. Strata, Stealth, Phase, Telepath, and many of the other L.E.G.I.O.N. characters are present, but mostly they just stand there and complain about Dox's plans. Grant and Kitson were good about giving all the characters meaningful contributions to the story, even if Dox does have a tendency to dominate the proceedings, but here the big cast is a chorus of one-dimensional whiners. "Dox, you can't do x! Oh, you did anyway? How terrible yet I shall do nothing to stop you." Most of the series is drawn by Derec Aucoin and Mark Propst, who are serviceable and not prone to the excesses of 1990s comics, but aren't as good at facial expressions or character as Barry Kitson. (But then, few are.)

Many of the threads of the tapestry of L.E.G.I.O.N., like Garryn Bek, his wife Marij'n, and her love for Captain Comet, are completely dropped. Those that R.E.B.E.L.S. introduces on its own, such as the romance between Dox and Stealth, are just strange. (Stealth raped Dox and left him for dead in L.E.G.I.O.N., following a biological imperative of her unusual species. That either could ever love the other seems grossly out of character, and Peyer does nothing to convince the reader of it here.) Without the character dynamics to motivate it, R.E.B.E.L.S. is a barrage of relentless, but uninvolving action.

The slight 3-D shading elements of some of the series' later covers make it look like a cheap videogame.
R.E.B.E.L.S. '96 #16 (Feb. 1996, cover by Derek Aucoin and John Dell)

That's not to say it's without its high points, my favorite probably being when Captain Comet reveals that he solved the problem of being marooned on a pre-industrial planet by elevating them from the Stone Age to the Space Age in six months. Which is made even better by the way Lyrl Dox dismisses his pompousness. And the ending, with Comet taking command of a reincorporated L.E.G.I.O.N. while Vril Dox goes into retirement to garden and raise his son right, is surprisingly sweet. (Though not really followed up on as far as I know; in its Infinite Crisis-era appearances, L.E.G.I.O.N. is led by Dox once again, and Captain Comet has gone freelance by the time of 52 and Mystery in Space.)

I applaud Peyer and company for doing something different... but unfortunately, it didn't really work. I do look forward to seeing what Tony Bedard does with these characters when R.E.B.E.L.S. is brought back in the 2000s, though; he's usually good with character and humor, which is what L.E.G.I.O.N./R.E.B.E.L.S. requires, and his experience (co-)writing Legion of Super-Heroes (during the "threeboot" era) will probably transfer well.

Ongoing Comics I've Been Reading: L.E.G.I.O.N.

This is the time period Lobo becomes popular, so he's on the cover a lot. But I feel like the interiors are always making fun of him!

Since sometime in June, I think, I've been reading the DC Comics series L.E.G.I.O.N. (Or, rather, succession of series, technically. There's L.E.G.I.O.N. '89, which has issues #1-10, L.E.G.I.O.N. '90, which has issues #11-22, and so on. I don't know why they decided to do this, except that I guess it makes it clear that unlike its famous cousin Legion of Super-Heroes, this does not take place in the future.) L.E.G.I.O.N. is about an interstellar police force-for-hire founded by Vril Dox, the son of Brainiac. His team initially consists of a group of characters he was imprisoned with in Invasion!, and the initial plot of the book is them, post-escape, trying to return to their homes. But Dox is a crafty fellow, and he soon uses them to take over both the criminal operations and the police forces of the world of Cairn, reforming them all into the Licensed Extra-Governmental Interstellar Operatives Network, which offers police protection to planets that can't protect themselves (except Earth, because everyone in space hates Earth).

The core team is soon supplemented by an army of cops, and there are also a number of characters who come and go, giving the book a rather sprawling cast. They're a rather diverse lot, with different reasons for doing what they do, and different perspectives on how it ought to be done. Subplots weave in and out of the book over time, as different aspects rise and fall in prominence gradually.

Lobo, Lyrissa Mallor, Stealth, Garryn Bek, Strata, and Vril Dox. Three of the six core members are women, which was a bit surprising, especially as Strata is not traditionally feminine.

So, of course I loved it. Ensemble casts of disparate personalities are my ideal form of ongoing story, especially when as well-balanced as they are here. Some periods of the series are better than others-- with 70 monthly issues, plus 5 annuals, and a couple crossovers, there's a lot of variation, and the creative teams shift gradually over time. But of course, that level of variation is part of what makes ongoing comics so enjoyable to me as a medium; I love the way in which things change gradually, in which concepts are slowly retooled, sometimes for good (as in L.E.G.I.O.N.), sometimes for bad (Alpha Flight), the ways in which you see the same concept refracted through the creative vision of a number of different creators.

And L.E.G.I.O.N.'s transition of creators in more interesting than most. Leaving out fill-ins, you have a number of distinct creative eras: [there's rarely consistent inkers, so I've omitted them here]

1. #1-12: Keith Giffen (plots and breakdowns), Alan Grant (scripts), Barry Kitson (pencils)
2. #13-18: Alan Grant (plots and scripts), Barry Kitson (plot and pencils)
3. #19-24: Alan Grant (plots and scripts), Jim Fern (pencils)
4. #25-39: Alan Grant (plots and scripts), Barry Kitson (plots and pencils)
5. #40-48: Barry Kitson (plots, scripts, and pencils)
6. #49-60: Barry Kitson (plots and pencils), Mark Waid (scripts)
7. #61-70: Tom "Tennessee" Peyer (plots and scripts), Arnie Jorgensen (pencils)

The best part about this fight is that Captain Marvel is so gosh-darn nice that he turns out to be nearly impossible for even Lobo to provoke.

As you can see, the comic transforms gradually over time. It starts out driven by Keith Giffen, but Barry Kitson goes from penciling according to Giffen's breakdowns, to co-plotting the series with Alan Grant, to writing and drawing it. Some artist-turned-writer transformations in comics can be nightmares, but this one is excellent. I don't think Kitson had drawn any monthly book before L.E.G.I.O.N., but eventually he was doing almost all the work!

And indeed, the real peak of the book is the second Grant/Kitson period and the Kitson solo period (issues #25-48), where it the book "grows the beard." This is where they finally nail all the characters, and where they learn to balance subplots against the overarching plots. (In the first eighteen issues, it felt like each issue often saw eight different subplots advance in a minuscule fashion.) In these issues, Lobo fights Captain Marvel, a set of R.E.C.R.U.I.T.S. is introduced, a new villain starts to dismantle L.E.G.I.O.N. from the inside, the core team has to go on the run from their own troops, the L.E.G.I.O.N. discovers it's propping up a genocidal regime on one of its client worlds, and Green Lantern gets in a fight with Lobo.

To top it all off, Kitson is just a great artist, especially when paired with a good inker (Mark McKenna, on issues #4-18, was probably my favorite): he does excellent facial expressions, which aids immeasurably in making the characters come to life, and his storytelling is always clear.

Ouch.

The last ten issues I'm a little skeptical of. Tom Peyer doesn't quite "get" some of the characters, reducing some of the complicated relationship dynamics into melodrama. There's a twist I'm unsure about-- but we'll see, as issue #70 was not the end in a conventional sense. Rather, it leads straight into a successor series, R.E.B.E.L.S., so the story he began isn't over yet. If it all works out, I'm on board, but I can also imagine ways it could go horribly wrong!