Justice League of America volume 3: The Injustice League


By Dwayne McDuffie, Ed Benes, Mike McKone, Joe Benitez & various (DC Comics)

ISBN: 978-1-84576-887-4

The third volume of the latest Justice League of America incarnation (collecting the JLA Wedding Special and issues #13-16 of the monthly comic) starts with a light touch as the heroes prepare various events for the upcoming nuptials of team leader Black Canary and her long time beau (sorry, I simply couldn’t stop myself) Green Arrow, but tragedy and death are lurking as a team of villains ambushes and nearly kills new hero Firestorm…

Following the events of Infinite Crisis, One Year Later and 52, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman convened as a star-chamber to reform the JLA as a force for good, and now in an eerie echo of that event Lex Luthor, the Joker and the Cheetah similarly sift the ranks of bad-guys looking to build a perfect team to destroy the World’s Greatest Superheroes…

One by one the heroes are picked off and of course things look darkest before the dawn but in most of the ways that matter this is a good old fashioned yarn given a shiny gloss of modern angst and sophistication, wrapped in the sort of bombastic action that modern readers thrive on, so you know all will end well and with terrific style.

Writer Dwayne McDuffie and rotating art teams Mike McKone & Andy Lanning, Joe Benitez & Victor Llamas and Ed Benes & Sandra Hope have concocted the kind of fights ‘n’ tights tale that kids of all ages live for, and the book also includes two short pieces to balance the action and drama.

‘A Slight Tangent’ by McDuffie, Benitez & Llamas, is a teaser to a larger, and presumably forthcoming, crossover between the League and their namesakes from the Tangent Universe (for which see also Tangent Comics volumes 1 and 2) and the book closes with the delightful character piece ‘Soup Kitchen’ wherein Red Arrow sees another kind of Christmas cheer courtesy of a sad old villain and creative team Alan Burnett and Allan Jefferson.

It’s always easy to work on a book with loads of media push and high concept momentum, but the real test is to soldier on when the spotlight turns elsewhere. With the quality of solid tale-telling on view here JLA addicts and fans of great reading clearly don’t have too much to worry about.

© 2007, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

JLA: Zatanna’s Search


By Gardner Fox & various (DC Comics/Titan Books)
ISBN: 1-4012-0188-1

With Julius Schwartz and John Broome writer extraordinaire Gardner Fox built the Silver Age of comics and laid the foundations of the modern DC universe. He was also a canny innovator and one of the earliest proponents of extended storylines which have since become so familiar to us as “braided crossovers.”

A qualified lawyer, Fox began his comics career in the Golden Age on major and minor features, working in every genre and for most companies. One of the B-list strips he scripted was Zatara; a magician-hero in the Mandrake mould who had fought evil and astounded audiences in the pages of Action and World’s Finest Comics for over a decade, beginning with the very first issues (to be completely accurate the latter’s premiere performance was entitled World’s Best Comics #1, but whatever the book’s name, the top-hatted and tailed trickster was there…)

Zatara fell from favour at the end of the 1940s and faded from memory like so many outlandish crime-crushers. In 1956 Editor Schwartz reinvented the superhero genre and reintroduced costumed characters based on the company’s past pantheon. Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and the Atom were refitted for the sleek, scientific atomic age, and later their legendary predecessors were reincarnated and returned as denizens of an alternate Earth.

As the experiment became a trend and then inexorable policy, surviving heroes such as Superman, Batman, Green Arrow, Aquaman and Wonder Woman were retrofitted to match the new world order. The Superhero was back and the public appetite seemed inexhaustible.

For their next trick Fox and Schwartz turned to the magician and presumably found him wanting. Rather than condemn him to Earth-2 they created the first “legacy hero” by having Zatara vanish from sight and introduced his daughter, set on a far-reaching quest to find him. Zatanna debuted in Hawkman #4 (October-November 1964) illustrated by the great Murphy Anderson in a tale entitled ‘The Girl who Split in Two’.

Following a mystical trail and wearing a variation of Zatara’s garb the plucky but impatient lass had divided her body and travelled simultaneously to Ireland and China, but lapsed into paralysis until Hawkman and Hawkgirl answered her distress call.

Although nobody knew it at the time she appeared next as a villain in Detective Comics #336 (February 1965). ‘Batman’s Bewitched Nightmare’ found a broom-riding old crone attacking the Dynamic Duo at the command of mutant super-threat The Outsider in a stirring yarn drawn by Bob Kane and Joe Giella.

Current opinion is that this wasn’t originally intended as part of the epic, but when the quest was resolved in Justice League of America #51 at the height of TV inspired “Batmania” a very slick piece of back writing was necessary to bring the high-profile Caped Crusader into the storyline.

Gil Kane and Sid Greene illustrated the next two chapters in the saga; firstly in ‘World of the Magic Atom’ (Atom #19, June-July 1965), wherein the Mystic Maid and Tiny Titan battled Zatara’s old nemesis the Druid in the microversal world of Catamoore, and then with Green Lantern in an extra-dimensional realm on ‘The Other Side of the World!’ (Green Lantern #42, January 1966), as the malevolent Warlock of Ys was eventually compelled to reveal further clues in the trail.

The Elongated Man was a long-running back-up feature in Detective Comics, and from #355 (September 1966, pencilled and inked by Carmine Infantino) ‘The Tantalizing Trouble of the Tripod Thieves!’ revealed how the search for a stolen eldritch artefact brought the young sorceress closer to her goal, and the search concluded in spectacular fashion with the aforementioned JLA tale ‘Z – As in Zatanna – and Zero Hour!’ (#51, February 1967).

With art from the unmatchable team of Mike Sekowsky and Sid Greene, all the heroes who aided her are transported to another plane to fight in a classic battle of good versus evil, with plenty of cunning surprises for all and a happy ending at the end. Collected here is a triumphant long-running experiment in continuity that is one of the very best adventures of the Silver Age, featuring some of the period’s greatest creators at the peak of their powers.

This slim volume also has an encore in store: after the cover gallery is a never before reprinted 10 page tale ‘The Secret Spell!’ by Gerry Conway, Romeo Tanghal and Vince Colletta, originally seen in DC Blue Ribbon Digest #5 (November-December 1980) which revealed ‘Secret Origins of Super-Heroes’ and explores the hidden history of both father and daughter in a snappy, informative and inclusive manner.

Although a little hard to find now this is a superlative book for fans of costumed heroes and would also make a wonderful tome to introduce newcomers to the genre.

© 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1980, 2004 DC Comics.  All Rights Reserved.

Countdown: Arena


By Keith Champagne, Scott McDaniel & Andy Owens (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84567-867-6

Already bloated and overblown with too many plot-threads and too little discipline, the Countdown publishing event spawned a number of miniseries, crossovers and specials that did little to contribute to the drama but worked wonders with the overall level of muddle, confusion and bewilderment – not to mention producing a distressing kind of four colour snow-blindness.

The premise is as old as the hills: the villainous Monarch, who is trying to conquer the multiverse even as the 52 realities are unraveling around him, has decided to build an army from the most powerful superheroes of all those myriad worlds. To that end he has shanghaied alternate versions of Superman, Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman and all their costumed confederates from their home-worlds and made them compete against “themselves”.

Of each hero, by the end “there can be only one…” which give writer Champagne the opportunity to revisit such successful past ElseWorlds experiments as Gotham by Gaslight, Batman: Red Rain, Superman: Red Son, JSA: Liberty Files and many others as well as recent alternate venues such the Tangent Universe, the world of The Authority and the glorious DC: the New Frontier.

This tale, which was originally released as a four issue miniseries, is action-packed, vicarious and falls into the secret pit at the heart of every comics fan by attempting to answer those unholy questions “who’s strongest…?” and “who would win if…?” but if it’s that bad why am I wasting your time blathering on about it?

Two reasons really: the first is that sometimes all you really want from a comic experience is a great big fight, and this yarn has lots of those, and secondly the breathtaking carnage is drawn in spectacularly loose and engrossing fashion by one of the most stylish artists currently working in American comics. Sometimes comics are completely saved by the art and Scott McDaniel’s kinetic mastery just does that for me.

Unless you’re a story completist and you’re buying all the multifarious offshoots of Countdown I’d think long and hard about getting this book – the narrative does not even conclude here: only dovetails back into the overarching parent-tale, but if you can let niggling details like sense and logic go there’s a splendid visual treat in store for anyone who gets off on costumed character catharsis. Pick a side: I dare you…
© 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Underworld Unleashed


By Mark Waid, Howard Porter, Dennis Janke & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-447-5

In deference to the season here’s a brief chat about one of DC’s lesser company crossover classics. Underworld Unleashed was a DC universe-wide tale in which an ancient lord of Hell returns to offer heroes and villains whatever they desire – generally manifested as a boost in powers and a new costume – in return for their souls.

The story is more about baddies than goodies and there’s a juicy role for Flash’s Rogues Gallery – especially the Trickster, but the tale wanders too far and wide and though there are a lot of nice character moments there’s some fairly dire bits too.

Moreover the tale lacks conviction and tension, the horror and carnage really doesn’t have any lasting impact, and of course the Tempter has a nasty plan-within-a-plan, but as so often before, DC shot themselves in the foot by only selectively collecting the saga into one volume.

Whereas I can grasp the need to keep a collection manageable (the original event ran to the three issue miniseries included here, 42 assorted tie-ins over three months worth of regular titles and four one-shot Specials) I find it incomprehensible that key ancillary stories can be arbitrarily ignored.

A quartet of supplementary Specials ‘Abyss: Hell’s Sentinel’, ‘Apokolips: Dark Uprising’, ‘Batman: Devil’s Asylum’ and ‘Patterns of Fear’ added a great deal to the overarching storyline yet only the first of these (beautifully crafted by Scott Peterson, Phil Jimenez, J.H. Williams, John Stokes and Mick Gray, detailing the Golden Age Green Lantern’s rescue of the DCU’s magical champions from Hell) is included here. It is a great segment but so are the ones inexplicably omitted.

The bargain-basement Faustian bargains all end well and a kind of order is restored, but this very potentially highly enjoyable tale is unfairly truncated and we’re all the poorer for it. Hopefully somebody will get around to restoring this tale to a more comprehensible state for future editions…

Ooh, that’s the doorbell.

I’m off to throw hard candies at some kids; Happy Halloween reading…
© 1995, 1998 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

JLA: Trial By Fire NEW EXTENDED AND REVISED REVIEW


By Joe Kelly, Doug Mahnke and Tom Nguyen (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-928-X

When the World’s Greatest Superheroes (see JLA: New World Order) were relaunched in 1997 the quality – and hype – were everything jaded fans could have asked for, but the glistening aura of “fresh and new” doesn’t last forever and by the time of these tales (seven years later and reprinting issues #84-89) the hard task of keeping the excitement levels stoked in a fan-base with a notoriously short attention-span was getting much harder.

Clean, clear-cut, high-concept tales had perforce given way to more involved, even convoluted storylines, and an increasing dependence on other series’ and characters’ continuity. A low point from the usually excellent Joe Kelly was this tale following the appearance of an alien telepathic presence that puts American President Lex Luthor into a brain-dead coma before assaulting the entire League.

Investigations lead to an alien incursion more than twenty thousand years ago when a monstrous presence was defeated at huge cost by a band of cavemen led by the League’s oldest foe, but it appears that the diabolical beast known as “The Burning” may not have died forever…

Going back even further in DC history it would appear that the Guardians of the Universe, immortal taskmasters of the Green Lantern Corps were involved in the creation of The Burning, and their implacable meddling may have been instrumental in the origins, rise and potential fall of one of Earth’s greatest heroes…

Plagued by cruelly debilitating visions and psychic assaults, as are a sizable portion of humanity, the heroes are desperately struggling as one of their own is possessed by the malevolent entity Fernus who is only seconds away from turning the entire world into a radioactive cinder. Can the JLA get their act together in time to prevent Armageddon? Of course they can… but not without paying a brutal, tragic price…

This is not a terrible tale: whole sections are exceptionally entertaining and the art is spectacular throughout. But it is too far-ranging and undisciplined; with so many strands to keep hold of that it loses cohesion every now and then and feels almost rushed in execution.

The JLA has a long history in all its incarnations of starting strong but losing focus, and particularly of coasting by on past glories for extended periods – and it was distressing to see such portents so soon. Luckily the New/Old Dog still had a few more tricks and a little life in it before the inevitable demise and reboot for the next generation after Final Crisis.

Worth a little of your time, but only if, and in the context of, reading the good stuff too…

© 2004 DC Comics. All right reserved.

Checkmate: Pawn Breaks


By Greg Rucka, Jesus Saiz, Steve Scott & various (DC Comics)
ISBN:978-1-84576-603-0

In the aftermath of DC’s Infinite Crisis an international organisation to monitor and control meta-human affairs was developed, under the aegis of the United Nations Security Council. Originally an American agency, Checkmate had gone rogue under the telepathic influence of Maxwell Lord, and the new internationally sanctioned organisation is tasked with policing all nations, protecting them from metahuman dangers and terrorism, and also preventing “rogue” nations and regimes from weaponising their own paranormal resources.

This second tripwire-tight collection reprints issues #8-12 of the fondly remembered comic book, following as the organisation (composed of superheroes and traditional intelligence operatives) goes to absolutely outrageous lengths to place an undercover agent in the global death cult Kobra, courtesy of Greg Rucka, Jesus Saiz and Fernando Blanco.

‘Pawn 502’ is a superbly paranoid thriller with plenty of twists and turns and spellbinding action, cleverly plundering many dark and dusty corners of DC continuity for the delectation of long-term readers whilst skilfully keeping the newly initiated appraised. Crossover fans mighty like to know there’s a classy Shadowpact guest-shot included here.

Following is an intriguing tale that slips uncomfortably into the too-real world of South American death squads and rigged elections from writers Rucka, Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, pencillers Steve Scott and Cliff Richards, and inkers Nathan Messengill, Steve Bird and Art Thibert.

‘Corvahlo’ is a dark, sordid tale featuring ex-JLA-er Fire and Bat-baddie Bane which cleverly reveals that there’s a traitor in Checkmate and, as a team is sent to retrieve a witness to vote-rigging, that mystery Judas is planning to subvert or destroy the entire organisation if necessary…

This is a cool and engaging blend of genres, with the murky world of espionage coldly and logically grounding the high-flying gloss of costumed super-doers. Moody and addictive, but perhaps a little too dependent on a working knowledge of the DC universe, this is nevertheless a fabulous series of yarns for the older fan, and the spy-game milieu should guarantee a few converts from espionage devotees looking for a little something on the wild side…

© 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

JLA: World Without a Justice League NEW REVISED AND EXTENDED REVIEW


By Bob Harras, Tom Derenick & Dan Green (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-335-1

During the Identity Crisis it was revealed that not only did factions of the Justice League ignore Due Process and lobotomise (call it mind-wipe if you’re in a generous mood) some of their enemies, but when Batman objected he too had his brains scrambled by his own team-mates.

Torn apart, the League formally disbands just as the entire universe is on the verge of utter destruction. The repercussions of that betrayal poisons the relationships of these once staunch comrades, as does the revelation of an illicit affair between two of the heroes, so that when the remnants of the splintered super-hero team and a few former members more or less reunite to stop old foe the Key, they spend more time sniping at each other than dealing with the problem.

The villain has evolved from dedicated nuisance into a psionic mass-murderer, and further complicating the mess is the escape of one of the Original Seven Deadly Sins from its eternal captivity, adding to the level of destruction by inducing riots and insanity throughout the population of Gotham City. The final straw is loss of their most powerful assets halfway through the hunt as the resurrected Titan Donna Troy whisks a hastily cobbled together strike force into space to deal with the intergalactic ramifications of the Infinite Crisis.

One of the truly memorable incarnations of a venerable comics institution died with more of a whimper than a bang in this final collected story-arc (reprinting JLA #121-125) and for all the explosive action and “mano-a-mano” posturing, the result is a somewhat lacklustre postscript to a excellent series of super-hero adventures. The title was sadly lost in the huge shuffle of Infinite Crisis, and passed almost with few mourners.

Bob Harras, Tom Derenick and Dan Green did their best, but the heavy-handed shoehorning of the overweening Crisis segments destroyed the narrative flow, and any casual reader who just picks this book is just inviting a migraine if they haven’t read the other books too.

An inauspicious end to a great run, and poor use of some talented people and great characters but the “automatic rewind/reset” of Infinite Crisis and numerous ‘One Year Later’ relaunches (see 52 parts 1-4) soon made this a distant memory.

And of course, in comics, nothing stays dead for long…

© 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Diana Prince: Wonder Woman Volume 2


By Mike Sekowsky, Dick Giordano & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-900-0

Back for a second delicious helping of pop nostalgia and startling action is Diana Prince, erstwhile Amazon superhero, but for a brief moment a mortal woman with all the power and wit that entails – solving problems and fighting injustice with great style and incredible fashion-sense.

In 1968 superhero comics were in decline and publishers sought new ways to keep audience as tastes changed. Back then, the entire industry depended on newsstand sales, and if you weren’t popular, you died. Editor Jack Miller and Mike Sekowsky stepped up with a radical proposal and made a little bit of comic book history with the only female superhero then in the marketplace.

The superbly eccentric art of Sekowsky had been a DC mainstay for decades, and he had also scored big with fans at Gold Key with Man from Uncle and at Tower Comics’ T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and war comic Fight The Enemy! His unique take on the Justice League of America had cemented its overwhelming success, and now he was stretching himself with a number of experimental, youth-market directed projects.

Tapping into the teen zeitgeist with the Easy Rider-like drama Jason’s Quest proved ultimately unsuccessful, but with the Metal Men and the hopelessly moribund Wonder Woman he had much greater impact. He would ultimately work the same magic with Supergirl.

When the Amazons were forced to leave our dimension, they took with them all their magic – including Wonder Woman’s powers and all her weapons … Now no more or less than human she decided to stay on Earth permanently, assuming her own secret identity of Diana Prince, dedicated to fighting injustice as a mortal. Blind Buddhist monk I Ching trained her as a martial artist, and she quickly became embroiled in the schemes of would-be world-conqueror Doctor Cyber. Her one true love Steve Trevor was branded a traitor and killed…

This volume (which collects issues #185-189 of her comic book, a guest shot from Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #93 plus the first of two appearances in the Batman team-up vehicle Brave and the Bold #87) shows just how bold were those changes to the Amazing Amazon’s career. With young scripter Denny O’Neil moved to other projects Sekowsky took over the writing himself, surprising everyone with his savvy ear for dialogue and a refreshingly original take on the old conventions.

With apparently nothing to lose, the switch to espionage/adventurer in the fashionable footsteps of such popular TV characters as Emma Peel, The Girl from Uncle and Honey West, not to mention our own ultimate comic strip action-heroine Modesty Blaise, seemed like desperation, but clearly struck a chord with the public. Sekowsky opens this book with ‘Them!’ – one of the most original tales of the period, with few to match it written since.

Steeped heavily in the hippie counter-culture and Mod-fashion explosion, the New Wonder Woman had opened her own boutique and into it rushes a young girl seeking to escape three women who took her in and then made her their slave. Today this sort of psychological thriller is more recognisable, but in 1969 themes of bullying and peer abuse were utterly unknown in comic books, and this groundbreaking tale is uniquely informative: exploring other solutions than simply punching bad guys – although there’s enough of that so that the regular readers aren’t completely bewildered.

This is followed by ‘Morgana the Witch’, (WW #186) a spectacular flight of whimsy tapping into the then growing interest in the supernatural wherein a trio of teenaged girls with a talking frog (who was originally the boy friend of one of them) request help after accidentally summoning a powerful (and clearly bi-polar) sorceress to the 20th century.

Next is ‘The Superman-Wonder Woman Team!’ (by Robert Kanigher and Irv Novick from Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #93), a less adventurous and unreconstructed yarn where the also socially evolving girl-reporter seeks to uncover the reason the ex-Amazon is making an ill-concealed play for her man, and a superbly tense thriller by Sekowsky and Giordano from Brave and the Bold #87 entitled ‘The Widow-Maker’, wherein the son of one of Batman’s foes tries to add to his tally of murders by luring the Caped Crusader into a rigged high performance car race.

The book concludes with a gripping three-part saga revealing some of I Ching’s past  and reintroducing the deadly Dr. Cyber before seamlessly transiting into an exotic Cold War thriller. In ‘Earthquaker’ and ‘Cyber’s Revenge’ Diana’s mentor is summoned by old friends to Hong Kong where he and his astonishing pupil happen upon a plan to blackmail the island with catastrophic artificial earthquakes, before attempting to smuggle an entire village out of Communist China in the delightfully epic ‘Red for Death’. The spectacle is broken up by a wonderful extra two page strip vignette ‘Crime does not Pay’ which brilliantly demonstrates the wit and economy of the medium

Comics are an art-form dictated by markets, driven by sales and influenced by fashion. For a brief moment all these factors coalesced to produce a compelling, engaging and utterly fabulous sequence of tales that are timelessly perfect and eternally fresh. And now you can read them whenever you feel the need for better times simply by opening these pages…

© 1969, 1970, 2008 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

JLA: the Tenth Circle – New Fully Revised Review


By John Byrne, Chris Claremont & Jerry Ordway (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-913-1

After battling all manner of contemporary and futuristic foes the World’s Greatest Superheroes found themselves pitted against an ancient malevolence from out of Earth’s oldest nightmares in this sadly lacklustre tale from three of the industry’s biggest talents that originally ran in issues #94-99 of the monthly comic-book.

When team mystic Manitou Raven divines that a great evil has come hunting he is silenced before he can warn his comrades. As Batman and Flash follow a rash of global child disappearances Superman is defeated by a pair of rather unique kids. Comparing notes with other JLA members the heroes discover a pattern of metagenic abductions: someone or something is taking super-powered children…

Meanwhile an enthralled Man of Steel has become the slave – and lunch – of the diabolical vampire lord Crucifer, whose race of undying leeches has been secretly working to conquer the world since their initial defeat by the Amazon warriors of Themyscira thousands of years ago.

And in the background a shady group of freaks and outcasts undertakes their own plan to save the day…

The X-Men team supreme reunited for this supernatural adventure, but their old magic is sorely lacking: Byrne co-writing with Claremont and pencilling for the criminally underappreciated Jerry Ordway to ink and embellish is a far better “look” than “read”.

Comic fans love these sorts of nostalgia stunts, but sadly the results seldom live up to expectations and the result here is a competent but woefully predictable heroes versus vampires yarn that suffers greatly because it’s blatantly obvious that the whole thing is a high-profile, extended gimmick designed to kick-start Byrne’s reinvention of the Doom Patrol, and not really a JLA story at all.

Although competent enough the whole extravaganza is insubstantial and vaguely unsatisfying: Not the kind of book for a casual bystander and no certainly no way to broaden the appeal or range of the comic experience.

© 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Justice League Elite volume 2


By Joe Kelly, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-632-0

Joe Kelly, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen continue their examination of morality and necessity in the concluding volume of Justice League Elite (collecting issues #5-12 of the controversial series) as the assemblage of undercover heroes strives to cope with the poisonous nature of their black ops missions whilst holding on to the tattered shreds of their honour and integrity in a world so dark and seemingly beyond their control.

Multi-part saga ‘The Aftermath’ looks into the past of the energy wielding Coldcast, as the heroes infiltrate his own brother’s gang: a small-time mob of ordinary thugs with unexplained connections to alien narcotics and weaponry, whilst magician Manitou Raven makes some unwise bargains as he seeks the identity of the team-member who murdered the dictator of Changsha (in volume 1). Major Disaster succumbs to the constant pressure by going on a booze-and-drugs fuelled bender and Vera endures some very disturbing, persistent nightmares before their sting-operation brings them all into conflict with the out-of-the-loop Justice Society of America.

Parts 3 and 4 see the beginning of the end, and as is so often the case, infidelity between people who should know better starts the ball rolling. When the covert team finally meets the extraterrestrial mastermind behind the off-world contraband they discover just how hostile aliens can be, how duplicitous and self-serving humans are and, as a team mate dies, just how bad things can get…

‘Poison’ sees the guilt-ridden adulterers attempt to come to terms with their betrayal and someone finally confess to the murder that aborted the experiment before it began. Meanwhile Flash is super-quickly dying from a hideous toxin, assassin Kasumi reveals her true identity and human overseer and Naif al-Sheikh calls in the JLA Proper to end their missions for good.

The three part ‘Eve of Destruction’ finds the Elite in JLA custody, but far too late as the beast that has been possessing Vera erupts in a devastating orgy of destruction, giving the miserable failures one last spectacular chance to atone for all the harm their misguided efforts have caused in a classic, stirring epic of redemption.

Whether you like your heroes dark or shiny, this exploration of the ethics and morality of superhuman endeavour will address points you’ve never considered, and since the creators never forget that all that philosophy is “added value”, it’s all wrapped up in a tremendously rousing, intoxicating epic of superb writing and wonderful illustration. Enjoyment, Elucidation and Education: how can you resist?

© 2005, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.