Category: DC Superhero

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Superman: Past and Future


By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-074-1

In the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DCU, time travel became a really big deal. So when the Metropolis Marvel did break the fourth dimension, as in the superb Superman: Time and Time Again the gimmick became as big a deal as the plot. But there was a period when all history and the implausible future was just a short spin away…

Superman is the comicbook crusader who started the whole genre and in the decades since his debut in 1938 has probably undertaken every kind of adventure imaginable. With this in mind it’s tempting and very rewarding to gather up whole swathes of his inventory and periodically re-present them in specific themed collections, such as this delightful confection of time-busting escapades from the many superb writers and artists who have contributed to his canon over the years.

The fun begins with a tale from Superboy #85 (1960) which reiterated an iron-clad cosmic law of the Silver Age: “History Cannot Be Changed”: as the Smallville Sensation tragically discovered in ‘The Impossible Mission!’ (by Jerry Siegel and George Papp) when he traveled to 1865 to prevent the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, fate will always conspire to make events unfold along a predestined course…

A different theory was in play in 1947 when the Man of Steel broke the time barrier for the first time to collect famous signatures for an ailing boy in ‘Autograph, Please!’ (Superman #48, by Siegel and John Sikela), whilst in ‘Rip Van Superman’ (Superman #107, 1956 by Bill Finger Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye Siegel) an accident placed the hero in a coma, trapping him in a future where he was redundant…

The 1960s were the heyday of time travel tales with the Man of Tomorrow and his friends nipping forward and back the way you or I (well me, anyway) would pop to the pub. In the brilliantly ingenious ‘Superman Under the Red Sun!’ (Action Comics #300, 1963 by Edmond Hamilton and Al Plastino) our hero is dispatched to the far, far future where the sun has cooled, and undergoes incredible hardship before figuring out a way home.

In ‘Jimmy’s D-Day Adventure!’ the boy reporter travelled to World War II to solve a bizarre mystery only to end up a trusted member of Hitler’s inner circle, (Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #86, (1964, Leo Dorfman, Curt Swan and George Klein) whilst his Daily Planet colleague almost ripped apart the fabric of reality by nearly becoming Superman’s mum in ‘Lois Lane’s Romance with Jor-El!’ (Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #59, 1965, by Hamilton and Kurt Schaffenberger)

One of the boldest experiments of the decade occurred when Hamilton, Swan and Klein introduced us to ‘The Superman of 2965!’ (Superman #181, November 1965) for a series of adventures starring the Man of Steel’s distant descendent. A two-part sequel appeared the following summer in Action Comics #338-339, ‘Muto… Monarch of Menace!’ and ‘Muto Versus the Man of Tomorrow!’ and a postscript tale appeared in World’s Finest Comics #166 entitled ‘The Danger of the Deadly Duo!’ teaming that era’s Batman and Superman against Muto and the last in a long line of Jokers.

For Superman #295, Elliot Maggin, Curt Swan and Bob Oksner produced ‘Costume, Costume – Who’s got the Costume?’ (1976) a neat piece of cross-continuity clean-up that featured DC parallel worlds including those of Kamandi and the Legion of Super-Heroes. From that same year ‘Superman, 2001!’, by Maggin, Cary Bates Swan and Oksner is an imaginary Story (a tale removed from regular continuity) featured in the anniversary issue Superman #300, and posited what would have happened if baby Kal-El’s rocket had landed in the Cold War era of 1976 – an intriguing premise then which looks uncomfortably like the TV series Smallville to my jaded 21st century eyes.

This fascinating collection concludes with ‘The Last Secret Identity’ (from 1983’s DC Comics Presents Annual #2, by Maggin, Keith Pollard, Mike DeCarlo and Tod Smith, which introduced the first incarnation of Superwoman, when a time-travelling historian landed in Metropolis only to become the subject of her own research.

These tales are clever, plot driven romps far removed from today’s angst-heavy psycho-dramas and unrelentingly oppressive epics. If you’re after some clean-cut, wittily gentle adventure there’s no better place to go – or time…

© 1947, 1956, 1960, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1976, 1983, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The All-New Atom: My Life in Miniature


By Gail Simone, John Byrne, Eddy Barrows & Trevor Scott (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1325-1

Gail Simone is probably the best writer of straight superhero stories currently working in the business. Big concepts might garner out-industry publicity but I’ll take solid plotting, believable characterization, bravura whimsy and the sharpest, funniest dialogue money can buy any day.

Here she takes a crack at the freshest incarnation of one of my very favourite super-doers and makes me love it. In the post Identity Crisis/Infinite Crisis DC universe, the size-changing physics Professor Ray Palmer had deliberately disappeared, leaving his world behind him. But life goes on, and his teaching chair at Ivy University is offered to young Ryan Choi, a prodigy from Hong Kong who just happens to be a pen-friend and confidante of Palmer’s: privy to his predecessor’s secrets ever since he was a little boy.

Ivy Town is not the sedate place Palmer made it sound however, as this collection (reprinting the first six issues of The All-New Atom and the teaser prequel from the one-shot Brave New World) clearly displays. The city is plagued by temporal anomalies, the new Dean is an unctuous toad, and his fellow professors are a bizarre band of brilliant loons. There’s also a weird cab-driver turning up, leaving the new kid crazy palindromic clues… but to what?

‘Indivisible’ and ‘Atomic Shell’ barrel right along setting up the new premise, which of course leads to young Ryan discovering hidden size and weight equipment and learning the rules of sub-atomic transmigration as well as discovering the strangest race of alien invaders I’ve ever seen, lurking in the very last place you’d ever look for them (Really. The absolute and utter last place) whilst ‘Binding Energies’ introduces some impressive sub-plots including a secret war between science and magic in Ivy town, an immortal cancer god, a personal arch enemy and a fifty foot tall naked chick rampaging through campus and city.

These gems were all illustrated by venerable veteran John Byrne, but Eddy Barrows takes over for ‘Aggressive Ideologies’ as all those plotlines coalesce and the new Atom is forced to escape from the grossest death-trap ever, in the funniest manner permitted by (borderline) good taste…

‘Redline Shift’ sees the young hero’s career almost ended by a parental curfew, whilst the time-bent ‘Handle of the Teacup’ (from Brave New World, with art by Byrne) neatly slots in here with the belated and action-packed introduction of those invading aliens I mentioned before. This first book ends with ‘Charged Particles’ as Ivy town becomes ground zero for the science/magic war, and the psychotic serial killer Dwarfstar goes on killing spree.

Suddenly the hero-game isn’t all fun anymore and, more importantly, the brilliant young man realises something isn’t right with Palmer’s size-changing gear and indeed the entire set-up of his new career…

And thus begins the superb run of a new “legacy hero” (comicbook-ese for a new guy using an established name) that’s funny, charming stirring and incredibly addictive: moreover this is a completely planned book, there are clues and hints here that will only make sense when the final book is completed – and the creative team even have the nerve and confidence to treat the entire venture as a fair-play mystery.

Stick with the All-New Atom, match wits with the writers and have a huge amount of fun along the way…
© 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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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.

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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.

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The Question Volume 3: Epitaph for a Hero


By Dennis O’Neil, Denys Cowan & Rick Magyar (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-996-3

In the “real” world, some solutions require careful Questions…

An ordinary man pushed to the edge by his obsessions, Vic Sage used his fists and a mask that made him look faceless to get answers (and justice) whenever normal journalistic methods failed – or whenever his own compulsive curiosity gripped him too tightly. After a few minor successes around the DC universe Sage got a TV reporting job in the town where he grew up.

This third collection (reprinting issues #13-18 of the highly regarded 1980s series) brings Sage into a thoroughly modern nightmare as he seeks to discover the foundations of patriotism, honour and glory and the roots of domestic terrorism in ‘Be All that you can Be…’ when a team operating on strict military principles carries out a series of murderous attacks on Army recruiting centres and personnel. The ace reporter tracks down the killers only to be captured and experience a harrowing example of their torturous training and a staggering example of their integrity in the concluding ‘Saving Face’.

The major portion of the Question’s adventures take place within the urban hell of Hub City, a ghastly analogue of blighted, Reagan-era Chicago, run by a merciless political machine and an utterly corrupt police force until Sage and the Question returned. His old girlfriend Myra Connelly had married the drunken puppet who is the Mayor and now as he dissolves into madness she is trying to win a mandate to run the city herself. Another unlikely champion is reformed and conflicted cop Izzy O’Toole, formerly the most corrupt lawman in “the Hub”.

‘Epitaph for a Hero’ further pushes the traditional boundaries and definitions of heroism when racist private detective Loomis McCarthy comes seeking to pool information on a spate of racially motivated murders during a tight fought election struggle between Myra and millionaire “old guard” patrician Royal Dinsmore. This startling mystery is not as cut-and-dried as it appears and presents some very unsettling facets for all concerned…

Izzy O’Toole continues his struggle for redemption in a brutal untitled confrontation with mythic underpinnings as illegal arms-dealers Butch and Sundance attempt to turn Hub into their own Hole-in-the-Wall (that was an impregnable hideout used by bandits in the old West), casting the grizzled old lawdog as a highly unlikely “Sheriff of Dodge City”.

The tale continues in ‘A Dream of Rorschach’ which tacitly acknowledges the debt owed to the groundbreaking Watchmen in the revival of the Question, as Sage reads the book and has a vision of and conversation with the iconic sociopath whilst flying to Seattle and a chilling showdown with Butch and Sundance as well as a highly suspicious and impatient Green Arrow in the concluding ‘Desperate Ground’.

Complex characters, a very mature depiction of the struggle between Good and Evil using Eastern philosophy and very human prowess to challenge crime, corruption, abuse, neglect and complacency would seem to be a recipe for heady but dull reading yet these stories and especially the mythic martial arts action delineated by Denys Cowan are gripping beyond belief and constantly challenge any and all preconceptions.

Combating Western dystopia with Eastern Thought and martial arts action is not a new concept but O’Neil’s focus on cultural and social problems rather than histrionic super-heroics make this series a truly philosophical work, and Cowan’s raw, edgy art imbues this darkly adult, powerfully sophisticated thriller with a maturity that is simply breathtaking.

The Question’s direct sales series was one of DC’s best efforts from a hugely creative period, and with a new hero wearing the faceless mask these days those tales form a perfect snapshot in comics history. Whether it fades to obscurity or becomes a popular, fabled and revered icon depends on you people: to make it the hit it always should have been all you have to do is obtain these superb trade paperback collections, and enjoy the magic…

© 1988, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Wonder Woman


By “Charles Moulton” & HG Peter (DC Comics/Tempo Books)
ISBN: 0-448-14531-6-125

Here’s another delightful pocketful of memories in a much-missed (by me at least) format: resized strips as paperback books reprinting a selection of the best stories money could buy. Released in 1978 to capitalise on the popular TV series starring Linda Carter, this dandy little black and white paperback was part of a continuing drive by DC to get out of the down-market newsstands and place their characters regularly onto the shelves of bookstores.

Of course this was before they gave up trying to fit their major asset – visual impact – into a limited format and went the European route of albums with such spectacular results that you’re now reading one of many, many blogs dedicated to reviewing graphic novels, trade paperbacks and items of related interest.

And just in case you were wondering why periodical publishers kept trying?

At its best, a comics title could reach about a million unit sales through magazine vendor systems whilst a book – any book – had the potential of reaching four to twenty times that number…

This collection opens with a re-presentation of one of the Amazing Amazon’s earliest exploits with ‘Wonder Woman’s Lasso’ (1942), an engaging yarn of World War II in which the world’s premiere female costumed foe of injustice (written by controversial psychologist and creator William Moulton Marston) battled spies and sister Amazons to win a magical lariat that could compel and control anybody that fell within its coils.

Too much has been posited about the subtexts of bondage and subjugation in Marston’s tales – and frankly I don’t care what his intentions might have been – I’m more impressed with the skilful drama and incredible fantasy elements that are always wonderfully, intriguingly present: I mean, just where does the concept of giant battle kangaroos come from?

Moulton died in 1947 but his fellow creator, artist Harry G Peter, continued until 1958, although the heroine (one of only three costumed characters who maintained a star presence from the Golden to Silver Ages of comics: the other being Superman and Batman) found the outlandish tenor of her adventures considerably subdued under the editing and writing aegis of Robert Kanigher.

From 1955 ‘The Bird Who Revealed Wonder Woman’s Identity’ found her trying to preserve her secrets after a gabby Mynah bird overheard a revealing conversation to mimic, whilst ‘Wonder Woman’s Wedding Day’(1954) is a charming, traditional romp of wicked thugs and wily mad scientists.

Psychological warfare is the subject of 1953’s fascinating ‘The Secret Invasion’ – a plot by the nefarious Duke of Deception, whilst both ‘The Talking Tiara’ (1954) and the concluding entry ‘The Origin of the Amazon Plane’ (1955) reveal the hidden stories behind Princess Diana’s fabulous accessories in tales rife with dinosaurs, aliens, sea monsters and fantastic quests.

Wonder Woman is rightly revered as a focus of female strength, independence and empowerment, and the welcoming nostalgia and easy familiarity to these tales is a delight for all types of reader but the true value of these exploits is the incredible quality of entertainment they provide.

Although there are excellent and comprehensive collections of her earliest adventures the post-War years of the Amazon have been woefully neglected, and are long over due for some serious compilation attention. Until that time little gems like this are all we can turn to…
© 1978 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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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.

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The Medusa Chain


By Ernie Colon (DC Comics)
ISBN: 0-930289-00-5

Born in Puerto Rico in 1931 Ernie Colón is a tremendously undervalued and unsung maestro of the American comics industry whose work has been seen by generations of readers. Whether as artist, writer, colourist or editor his contributions have affected the youngest of comics consumers (Monster in My Pocket, Richie Rich and Casper the Friendly Ghost for Harvey Comics and his similar work on Marvel’s Star Comics imprint) to the most sophisticated connoisseur with strips such as his startling indie thriller Manimal.

His catalogue of “straight” comic-book work includes Battlestar Galactica, Damage Control and Doom 2099 for Marvel, Grim Ghost for Atlas/Seaboard, the fabulous  Arak, Son of Thunder, Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld, the Airboy revival for Eclipse, Magnus: Robot Fighter for Valiant and so very many others.

In 2006 with long-time Harvey Comics/Star collaborator Sid Jacobson he created a graphic novel of the 9/11 Commission Report entitled The 9/11 Report: a Graphic Adaptation. In August 2008, they released a 160-page follow-up: After 9/11: America’s War on Terror. Even now he’s still hard at work on the strip SpyCat which has appeared in Weekly World News since 2005.

During the first wave of experimental creativity that gripped the 1980s comics business he released this self-generated (even lettering and colouring it himself) science fiction thriller through DC’s ambitious, oversized Graphic Novels line. Intriguing, complex and multi-layered, it is the gritty tale of Chon Adams, a star-ship officer convicted of a dreadful crime, sentenced to a lifetime of penal servitude on a deep-space space cargo ship, and how he finds a kind of fulfilment in a situation most would describe as a living hell.

Flavoured by Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination (commonly known now as Tiger! Tiger!) by way of noir prison/chain-gang movies like George W. Hill’s The Big House this is a fascinating tale-within-a-tale as Chon’s “crime” is gradually revealed whilst he endures and survives against unbelievable odds in the depths of infinity gaining unlikely allies and a grain of self-respect…

Graphic, uncompromising and thoroughly compelling this classy tale careens from cynical depths of human depravity to heights of glorious high fantasy with ease: a true lost gem of that boldly exploratory 1980s comics boom, and a cracking read for any older SF fan.

And the one good thing – for you – about Colon’s relative obscurity is that copies of this gem – and his later Marvel graphic novel Ax – are still readily available through internet retailers at ridiculously low prices. Definitely one you really, really want…
© 1984 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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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.

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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.