Product Description: The sixth new Justice League of America collec- tion sees the world descending into strife and chaos as mankind approaches its ultimate test! And where are Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the team at this pivotal point in human history? Fighting for their very lives against the New Injustice Gang, including villains Lex Luthor, Prometheus, and the indestructible General!
Not bad Not too bad. I must say that I did enjoy this JLA story. It was good but not great but not bad.
The story does as the Universe's greatest heroes face two deadly threats that could mean both the end of the Justice League and the world. First, the Justice League must battle Mageddon, the doomsday weapon of the Old Gods, and prevent his attempt to end all of existence. Then Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, and the Martian Manhunter find themselves up against a new, deadlier Injustice Gang led by Lex Luthor. With the addition of Prometheus, the man who almost single-handedly defeated the JLA, as well as the General and Queen Bee, it looks as if the Justice League may lose even if they win.
I did enjoy the battle scenes in the story and I like the new Injustice League and there are some surprises and the artwork is pretty good.
Graphic SF Reader The Justice League face a large scale menace from space, and with that on their plate already, the Injustice Gang and that bald guy that likes to harrass Superman decide the time is right to make a play for dominance.
The League will not be able to overcome such threats without sacrifice.
Big clumsy super hero story I really enjoyed most of Grant Morrison's run on JLA. Unfortunately, his work grew rather weak towards the tail end of his run, and you'll certainly find evidence of that in this collection.
My overall gripe with this run is that it reads like a big super hero story done exactly by the numbers. It feels as if Morrison ran down a checklist of necessary story elements, checking each of in order as he included them in the plot.
The main threat in the story is a 15 billion year old doomsday weapon which has thrown Earth into peril. Global threat of cosmic origin - check. The bummer is, you never get the impression that this is anything more than a plot device. It's there because it needs to be there.
As if that weren't enough, we have the formation of a new Injustice Gang. With impeccable timing, they come together to give the Justice League a sound thrashing at the worst possible moment. Thread of destruction from super villains - check.
The real downer is that Morrision brings Prometheus, a character who I really enjoyed in his previous runs, back into the book. He then uses the characters in several sequences that fail to impress. First, there is a confrontation with Oracle which resolves itself between pages. This really doesn't fly; Prometheus is capable of taking down the entire league, yet we are to believe that Oracle is saved from impending doom that cleanly? Later, Prometheus comes to blows with Batman - and it's obvious that the confrontation was only a means for Morrison to work in what he thought was a cool idea regarding Prometheus' helmet. Both fights (Oracle and Batman) seem to have been put in place so that Morrision could use this plot device, and it comes across as lazy story telling.
I know that super hero stories are built on clichés. The good guys always win; there is often some new cosmic threat which we've never seen before - whatever. A good super hero story can have all of these clichés, but can still feel fresh. Nothing here feels new or particularly special.
In addition to Morrision's less than exciting JLA story, there is also a Spectre story by J.M. Dematteis. I love J.M. Dematteis. However, I wasn't especially impressed by this issue. It could be that I'm biased, as I never warmed to the idea of Hal Joran becoming The Spectre. Either way, it didn't do anything to raise my opinion of this trade paperback.
Don't get me wrong, Morrision did some great work on JLA. This just isn't it.
The best one yet! These were originally published as JLA #34 - #41.
The World War III story is the best one of the JLA series so far. Not only does it bring together many of the previous stories, it also yet again brings forth the basic characters of several of the key JLAers.
This is the end of the world saga foretold in several earlier JLA issues. The Injustice League is back as well, recruiting previous nemesis Prometheis (although Batman, whom Prometheis handily whooped last time, has a few tricks in store for him). The injustice league also rescues General Eiling from an asteroid where he was marooned several issues ago. But the return of the Injustice League isn't the main event; the end of the world as foretold by many (Meteron, Hourman, Zauriel to some extent) is coming, in the form of the aptly named Mageddon. This is the threat that Orion and Barda were sent to Earth to fight, although it seems even greater than their powers.
Batman, Superman, Green Lantern and Plastic Man all get to show their character, flaws and all. Again, this is what makes JLA among the best graphic novels: the heroes have character flaws, even Superman, and the JLAers sometimes dig into each other.
The best bit is Batman, the king of despair, helping Superman, the eternal optimist, overcome mental anguish caused by Maggedon.
The worst part of the JLA is all of the changes that happen in the characters own comics. Diana is back as Wonder Woman, replacing her mother with no explanation. Other characters wander in and out (though there is some great interaction with Huntress, Superman and Batman).
Fav panel: pg 176: Zauriel, getting volunteers from the Pax Dei!
Tries too hard to live up to big event status I remember years ago hearing people say how Grant Morrison saved and revitalized the JLA. As a matter of fact I still hear people say this. Some consider his JLA stories to be groundbreaking epics of altered consciousness painted on a grand scale. His work on JLA was a very popular in terms of sales and fan reaction. But I have to ask am I the only one who finds this more than a little puzzling? I have now read all six JLA trades comprising Morrison's run on the title and I don't see what all the praise is about. I will grant that his use of the White Martians at the start of his run was an interesting idea but it didn't amount to much in the end. And that I see as a consistent trait with his JLA work. He seems to insist on working on a huge canvas when from what I can tell he is not much beyond paint by numbers. His stories are choppy and inconsistent leaving the reader wondering what's going on from moment to moment. In his stories he plays with our perceptions of dimension, time and consciousness with often little regard to characterization. I think he is more concerned with creating some grand catastrophe for his characters to battle than he is in making the story actually work for the reader.
This trade which reprints JLA 34-41 concerns the formation of a new Injustice Gang and the imminent threat of a 15 billion year old galaxy destroying doomsday weapon called Mageddon. This is yet another Grant Morrison tale that goes through the motions of giving you lots of action but very little story. We are told that this Mageddon is an unstoppable doomsday weapon that causes those of an evil nature to wage war against those of a good nature until all are corrupted by its influence. But before the JLA can face Mageddon they have to deal with the Injustice Gang. After bypassing the JLA's security measures the Injustice Gang decimates the Watchtower leaving the team in disarray.
Now this brings us to the character of Prometheus. Morrison has described this character he created as "the anti-Batman." As we all know Batman trained himself to be a weapon against crime after seeing his parents killed by a criminal. Prometheus trained himself to be a weapon against law after seeing his criminal parents killed by the police. He created a helmet that feeds the skills and abilities of others he keeps stored on compact discs directly into his central nervous system. He confronts Oracle in her clock tower and offers to use his technology to restore her legs if she will betray the JLA. When she refuses he knocks her through the face of the clock leaving her hanging on to one of the clock hands. When we see Oracle again next issue she is safe and sound back in her wheelchair inside the clock tower but we never find out how this happened. I guess this happened in one of the Batman related books. It would have been nice if Morrison had made some mention of how she survived since she had no way to call for help.
Despite having no weapons available Oracle somehow managed to damage Prometheus' helmet when he attacked her. During a previous fight the JLA had with Prometheus Batman had captured one of his helmets and ran tests on it to find out how it worked. When he returns to get his spare helmet he knocks out Huntress and is then confronted by Batman. During their fight Batman pulls out a device that rewrites the information on his disc leaving him helpless. Why would Batman even bother to fight him if he didn't have to? This doesn't sound like the master strategist Batman is supposed to be.
I would have given this trade a one star review if not for the Spectre story in issue 35. It concerns Hal Jordan trying to find a way to balance his role as The Spectre against his humanity. It's an interesting story that shows some members of the JLA could be open to judgement by the Spectre. J.M DeMatteis wrote this story.
Having now read Morrison's work on JLA I'm not inclined to try anything else of his. If over reaching convoluted stories are your idea of good comics you may just like Grant Morrison's JLA. But if you prefer your comics have great stories and well written characters I suggest you buy Kurt Busiek's Avengers stories or his creator owned work in Astro City. You'll be glad you did.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
