By Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn & Barry Kitson with Michael Bair, John Stokes, Mark Propst, Pat Garahy, Ken Lopez & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: ?978-1-4012-7086-5 (HB/Digital Edition), 978-1-56389-512-8 (TPB)
This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Fabulous and Fulsome Fights ‘n’ Tights Furore …9/10
If the chop-and-change continuity gymnastics DC have undergone in recent years gives you a headache, but you still love reading excellent superhero team stories, you could just take my word that this is one of the best of that breed and move on to the next review. If you’re okay with the confusion or still need convincing, though, please read on…
With then-partner All-American Publishing, in 1940 DC published the Justice Society of America in All-Star Comics in #3. Cover-dated “Winter Issue”, the issue was on sale from November 22nd 1940 with a shelf life that spanned the year’s end and until January. The JSA were the first superhero team in comics.
In 1960 – following a decade largely devoid of superheroes – the now fully-amalgamated publisher sagely revived the team concept as the Justice League of America, thereby gradually reintroducing the JSA ancestors as heroes on an alternative Earth to a fresh new caped and cowled world. By 1985, the ever-burgeoning continuity had become saturated and overcrowded with so many heroic multiples and close duplicates that DC’s editorial Powers-That-Be deemed it all too confusing. As a deterrent to new readers, they decreed total change must come. This resulted in maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths and the events of that earths-shattering, groundbreaking saga led to a winnowing and restructuring of the DC Universe…
With all the best bits from past stories (for which one could read “least charming or daft”) having now occurred on one singular and sole Earth, and with many major heroes remade and re-launched (Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash et al.), one of the newest curses to readers (and writers) was keeping definitive track of what was now DC “History” and what had now never actually happened. Thus 12-issue maxiseries JLA: Year One presented the absolute, definitive, real story of the formation and early days of the Justice League, the World’s Greatest – but no longer first – band of Superheroes…
Of course, since Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis and all the other subsequent publishing course-correcting extravaganzas (such as 52, Countdown, Dark Nights: Death Metal and so on) it’s not strictly true anymore. Still. Again…
None of which impacts upon the superb quality of the tale told here. Way back then – January to December 1998 and in the wake of Grant Morrison & Howard Porter’s spectacular re-reboot of the then-current team – Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn & illustrator Barry Kitson (plus assorted assisting inkers, colourist Pat Garahy & letterer Ken Lopez) crafted a superb version of that iteration’s earliest days. It’s still one of the best and most readable variations on the theme, and was finally acknowledged as such with a premier hardcover edition in 2017 which is happily still available now.
It all begins “ten years ago” in ‘Justice League of America: Year One’ as a hidden observer gathers files on a newly emergent generation of costumed heroes. When an alien invasion from Appellax brings inexperienced neophyte heroes Flash, Green Lantern, Black Canary, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter together to save Earth from colonisation, the media scent a news sensation, but the real story is the hidden forces hovering in the background of the event…
Black Canary was reimagined as the rebellious daughter of the JSA original who had been active during WWII, and the others, like the Sea King and J’onn J’onzz, had undergone recent origin revisions too. The main action begins after that initial victory, as the heroes – novices all, remember – opt to stick together as a team, only to be targeted by secret super-science society Locus, who start snatching up alien corpses for genetic experimentation…
The second issue/chapter sees the new kids as media sensations overwhelmed and out of their depth. Everyone wanting a piece of them. Older outfits like the Blackhawks, Challengers of the Unknown and even officially-retired JSA veterans are watching with apprehension whilst Bruce Wayne wants them far away from Gotham City as they establish their ‘Group Dynamic’. Even trick archer Green Arrow is constantly hanging around, clearly angling for an invitation to join… but that’s never gonna happen. Immortal villain Vandal Savage targets the inexperienced heroes with a squad of veteran supervillains – The Thorn, Solomon Grundy, Clayface and Eclipso – as everywhere, more new superheroes are emerging. Savage is utterly resolved to stop this second Heroic Age before it begins…
In #3, Locus’ bio advancements lead to alliance with Savage, but their schemes are sidelined as the team struggle to work together. Every man there seems distracted by Black Canary, but their “chivalrous impulses” in combat are not only insulting but will get someone killed – if not by enemies, then by her…
The team is fully occupied playing ‘Guess Who?’ after accepting funding and resources from a mystery billionaire. The influx of cash results in a purpose-built secret mountain HQ, a covert personal communications network, live-in custodian/valet/tech support Snapper Carr and a security system designed by maverick teen genius Ted Kord. At least the heroes are starting to bond, sharing jokes, origins and trade secrets, but tensions are still high and trust in each other is fragile…
Inker Michael Bair joins with #4 as ‘While You Were Out…’ sees Locus at last launch their campaign of conquest: picking off lone hero Dan Garrett, whose mystic Blue Beetle scarab proves no match for alien-enhanced bio-weaponry, even as the heroes are all singled out for close observation by mystery operatives…
The merciless Brotherhood of Evil unleash Locus-designed horrors on Manchester, Alabama in #5, leading to a tenuous team-up of Justice League and Doom Patrol that ends in disaster and defeat. Maimed and deprived of their abilities, they are ‘A League Divided’ until the DP’s resident genius Niles Caulder provides stopgap powers and weapons in ‘Sum of Their Parts’ (inked by Bair & John Stokes), enabling the heroes to rally and restore themselves…
In ‘The American Way’ the JLA suffer a shock after their greatest inspiration – Superman – declines an offer to join, even as Locus’ endgame begins. The dispirited champions barely notice, as ‘Loose Ends’ exposes treachery in the ranks, further distracting those heroes who discover a trusted ally has been spying on them in their private lives. They have no idea what’s really going on. With unity shattered, the JLA turns on itself, missing Locus’ attempt to terraform Earth and literally ‘Change the World’…
‘Heaven and Earth’ (inked by Bair & Mark Propst) finds all humanity’s helpless and all its many heroes subdued in a superpowered blitzkrieg that catches the planet napping. Crushed, defeated and interned in ‘Stalag Earth’, all hope is lost until the reunited Justice League lead a counter-offensive, turning tragedy into triumph and ensuring ‘Justice for All’…
A brilliantly addictive plot, superbly sharp dialogue and wonderfully underplayed but enticingly efficient art suck the reader into an enthralling climax that makes you proud to be human… or at least terrestrially-based. This saga of our champions’ bonding and feuding under extended threat of rogue geneticists, planetary upheaval, and the mystery of who actually bankrolls the team, all added to continual, usual, everyday threats in a superhero’s life, is both enchanting and gripping.
Also included in this bombastic bonanza is an Introduction from author Wade to usher you in to the wonderment balanced by biographies, the wraparound cover by Kitson for that 1999 edition plus the (fully annotated) equivalent wraparound cover for this volume complete with
a selection of sketches, designs and art process pages.
When it’s done right there’s nothing wrong with being allowed to feel ten years old again. In-the-know fans will delight at the clever incorporation of classic comics moments, in-jokes and guest-shots from beloved contemporaneous heroes and villains such as The Sea Devils, Metal Men, Atom and such, but the creators of this revised history never forgot their new audience and nothing here is unclear for first-timers. The finale is a fan’s all-action dream with every hero on Earth united to combat all-out alien invasion!… and of course, the rookie JLA save the day again in glorious style.
This is what superheroes are all about. Don’t stint yourself…
© 1998, 1999, 2017 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.