World Famous Comics: Justice League of America Vol. 2: The Lightning Saga
Justice League of America Vol. 2: The Lightning Saga
By: Brad Meltzer, Geoff Johns Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: DC Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 224 Publication Date: February 13, 2008 Release Date: February 13, 2008
Product Description: Number-one bestselling novelist Brad Meltzer joins forces with top comics writer Geoff Johns for this incredible graphic novel bringing together the DC Universes top super-teams! Two of DCs biggest super-teamsthe Justice League of America, featuring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and more, and the Justice Society of America, including Hawkman, Wildcat and othersjoin forces in this stunning hardcover volume! The JLA has discovered that several members of the Legion of Super-Heroes from the 31st century are in the present. With the help of the JSA, Superman and his team must track down all seven Legionnaires to discover why these heroes of the future have traveled back in time!
very good!!!! Im not to much of a justice league guy but this book and part one are great toread and try to like the league.
Justice League of America: The Lightning Saga This is the great follow up to The Tornado's Path. It is written by two very superb writers Brad Meltzer (Identity Crisis), and GEOFF JOHNS (Green Lantern/Infinite Crisis/52)! It reveals the conclusion as to why Karate Kid was in the past posing as Trident, and hosts the return of a certain superhero thought to be dead. Also the trade gives a few building block for the upcoming Injustice League. All and all this is another great addition to the JLA storyline.
Best Justice League in Years I recently picked up volumes 1-10 of the previous JLA series -- the one that started with Grant Morrison's very good "New World Order" -- and I have to say that over the course of 10 volumes I pretty much lost interest in the League. I loved Bruce Timm's Justice League Unlimmited cartoon, but as far as League comics go, they just seemed bland and unimportant overall (with the exception of New World Order, and the also very good Tower of Babel storylines.)
The previous series had lots of big action, but it didn't have much if any continuity. It didn't have character development, it didn't have a sense of history to it, it didn't even really have any character moments (again, with the exception of the two volumes listed above.) It was pretty much all big action with larger than life stories that in the end were all chaos and violence amounting to nothing.
I almost didn't buy the Tornado's Path (Meltzer's first collection) or the Lightning Saga because I'd honestly lost interest in the JLA comics over the course of the prevous 10 volumes. In fact, if I hadn't bought all ten volumes at once, I would have stopped after the first three or four most likely. I'm glad I had a change of heart and decided to give Melter's take a chance (based on his excellent Identity Crisis.)
Meltzer brings real character, emotion, and history to the series. His stories have continuity. He knows where the League has been, and he gives a sense that it's going somewhere. Reading Meltzer's stories, the League's past matters and it's future matters and its characters matter. I honestly don't think any of that was true for most of the previous JLA series. And because Meltzer makes you care about the character and grounds them in a world where the past seems to matter and consequences carry forward, it makes the action far more interesting (plus Meltzer just writes really good action sequences, his best being the JLA vs Deathstroke scene in Identity Crisis.)
I honestly came to care about the JLA again over the course of Meltzer's two volumes. And while I like longer story arcs better, I have to say Walls was an amazing stand alone story (that still, despite being a stand alone story, had some lasting reprecussions in later issues.) Monitor Duty was also very good and really showed the importance Meltzer places on characterization and the continuing story of the League. Too many League stories in the past felt like they happened in a vacuum, with no consequesnces, coming from nowhere and going nowhere. Meltzers stories felt like they evolved from what came before, like they mattered more, and like they would continue to matter as the League's story went forward.
The final issue in the Lightning Saga collection, issue zero, really exemplifies the epic, historical, character driven nature of Meltzer's work on the series, and was truly enjoyable and affecting.
Overall, I recommend both of Melter's Justice League collections -- the Tornado's Path and the Lightning Saga. To me, they are the Justice League done as they should be done, similar to the way Geoff Johns is currently doing the JSA -- like a team of real people with a real past and a real future. There's far more emotion invested in Meltzer's two volumes than in the first ten of the previous series. And boy, it was great to see Meltzer's and John's take on the Legion of Superheroes in volume two. They did a great job of instiling a sense of history and importance to the Legion in just five issues (and they made Karate Kid a much more interesting character than he's ever been.)
Mixed bag The Lightning Saga continues Brad Meltzer's relaunch of Justice League of America, and crosses over with Geoff Johns' Justice Society of America. This hardcover collects issues from both series' (mainly JLA) as the Justice League (now also sporting Geo-Force as a member) and the Justice Society team up to discover why members of the Legion of Superheroes are trapped here in the present day, and just what their mysterious agenda is. Sadly, Meltzer's parts of the story just aren't all that interesting. The segments written by Johns, arguably the best superhero writer in comics today, are undoubtedly the best parts of The Lightning Saga, where as Meltzer's segments just seem kinda boring. All that being said, The Lightning Saga concludes with the return of a hero that departed back during Infinite Crisis, and the book also finishes up with an excellent issue called "Walls", written by Meltzer and with art by Gene Ha, in which Red Arrow and Vixen are trapped and running out of time. Justice League of America #0 is included as well (and features art from everyone to Dick Giordano, to George Perez, to the Kubert brothers, to Jim Lee among others), and the book as a whole includes great work from Ed Benes, Dale Eaglesham, Shane Davis, and Fernando Pasarin. All in all, despite an uneven feel, The Lightning Saga is a worthy read for JLA fans, and with seeds planted to lead up to Final Crisis, why not give it a try?
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