By Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Christopher Priest & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-5638-9435-0
By the time of this fourth collection featuring the astonishing exploits of the World’s Greatest Superheroes, a pattern for big-picture epics and frenetic cosmic endeavours had been established and series resuscitators Grant Morrison and Howard Porter were clearly, patiently, laying the complex groundwork for a colossal future saga.
Collecting issues #16-23 of the monthly comic-book and the Prometheus one-shot, this volume kicks off in full-attack mode with ‘Heroes’ (Christopher Priest, Yanick Paquette & Mark Lipka) as the world’s costumed champions (and a few obnoxious and hilarious hangers-on) gather to relaunch the JLA following its formal dissolution, after which the villainous Prometheus stars in a chilling origin tale ‘There Was a Crooked Man’ by Morrison, Arnie Jorgensen & David Meikis.
The main event begins with ‘Camelot’ (by Morrison, Porter & John Dell) as the new team – Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Huntress, Plastic Man, Steel, the fallen Angel Zauriel plus covert information resource Oracle – invite the world’s press to their lunar base, the Watchtower, inadvertently allowing the insidious and seemingly unstoppable mastermind to infiltrate and destroy them. Continuing with ‘Prometheus Unbound’ (assistant-inked by Mark Pennington) the heroes strike back, aided by a surprise guest-star and the last-minute appearance of New Gods Orion and Big Barda (yet more hints of the greater threat to come…)
Scripter Mark Waid steps in for a scary, surreal and utterly enthralling two-part thriller ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Julian September’: ‘Synchronicity’ is illustrated by Porter& Dell and finds the heroes hard-pressed to combat the rewriting of reality by a luck-bending scientist. Walden Wong joins the art team to conclude the spectacular last-chance battles in the ‘Seven Soldiers of Probability’ featuring an impressive guest-shot for lapsed JLA-er the Atom.
Adam Strange then guests in a splendid ‘Mystery in Space’ (Waid, Jorgensen & Meikis) as the League travels to the distant planet Rann only to be betrayed and enslaved by one of their oldest allies; an epic encounter resolved in the Doug Hazlewood inked ‘Strange New World’. This gloriously “old-school†volume then concludes with the return of Morrison, Porter and Dell for a multi-layered extravaganza as the League’s most uncanny old enemy returns. ‘It’ finds the world under the mental sway of the insidious space invader Starro, and only a little boy, aided by the (post Neil Gaiman) Morpheus/Lord of Dreams/Sandman can turn the tide in the breathtaking finale ‘Conquerors’…
If you haven’t read this sparkling slice of fight ‘n’ tights wonderment then your fantastic comic-life just isn’t complete yet. Compelling, challenging and never afraid of nostalgia or laughing at itself, the new JLA was an all-out effort to be Smart and Fun. For that brief moment in the team’s long and chequered career these were the “World’s Greatest Superheroes†and these increasingly ambitious epics reminded everybody of the fact. This is the kind of thrill that nobody ever outgrows. These are graphic novels to be read and re-read forever…
© 1998 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.