2018.038 Justice League Task Force Vol 1: The Purification Plague

Justice League Task Force Vol 1: The Purification Plague
Written By: David Michelinie, Chuck Dixon, Dennis O'Neal, Peter David, Jeph Loeb, Michael Jan Friedman
Illustrated by: Sal Velluto, Gabriel Morrissette, Greg LaRocque, Jeff Albrecht, Dick Giordano, Aaron McClellan, Kevin Conrad, Robert Jones
DC Comics

2018.031 Justice League Of America Vol 1: The Tornado's Path

Justice League Of America Vol 1: The Tornado's Path
Written by: Brad Meltzer
Illustrated by: Ed Benes, Sandra Hope
DC Comics

175 Justice League Of America Vol 2: Curse Of The Kingbutcher

Not Steve Orlando's strongest work.

Justice League Of America Vol 2: Curse Of The Kingbutcher

Writer: Steve Orlando

Artist: Felipe Watanabe, Jamal Campbell, Andy MacDonald, Neil Edwards, Scott Hanna, Sandu Florea

DC Comics

145 JLA: A Midsummer's Nightmare - The Deluxe Edition

I just realized it's been nearly a month since I've posted anything.  Time has been at a premium lately and I really haven't read much.  This will be the first of six or seven posts.  That's all I've managed to read this month.  It's kind of sad because I have such a big backlog of books.  My October shipment was only four books, which meant I could delve into my backlog.  Or not, as it happens.

Anyway, the first of the six books I'm going to briefly talk about is JLA: A Midsummer's Nightmare.  Originally a three issue mini series back in the 90's, it set the stage for Grant Morrison reviving the JLA.  By this point in time, the JLA was a giant joke (see the next post).  This mini-series served to bring the big guns back together, something that was sorely needed.

I remember loving this series when it first came out.  This time around, however, I just found it to be okay.  Maybe I loved it so much because it was the first time in years that the REAL JLA got together again?  Maybe it was just in that time this book was top notch.  Styles and trends change over the years.  Reading it this time, I thought it was a solid story, definitely rooted in it's era, but that era kind of tainted it just a touch for me.  I thought the art was good, but somewhat generic.  Nothing stand out for a series that served a bigger purpose.

I do love these Deluxe Editions DC is putting out.  The pages are just a little bit bigger, the art is just a little clearer than originally published.  It's a really nice way to reprint these books.

JLA: A Midsummer's Nightmare - The Deluxe Edition

Writer: Mark Waid, Fabian Nicieze

Artist: Jeff Johnson, Darick Robertson, Jon Holdredge, Hanibal Rodriguez

DC Comics

138 JLA Year One: The Deluxe Edition

I suppose there was a need for this book.  Crisis On Infinite Earths had made the JLA's origin obsolete.  Things needed to be shuffled around to make it still work.  And this book put it all down on paper for us.  I remember enjoying the book when it first came out all those years ago.  But reading it with a fresh set of eyes, all these years later, I kind of feel like this story is a big waste of time.  In the years since it was published, this story, too, has become obsolete.  Events have made changes in history and this doesn't hold up anymore.  And maybe that's why I feel like it was a waste?  I don't know.

There were a lot of things that bothered me about this book.  I love an Easter egg, but it felt like this book when above and beyond the call of duty to shove as many of them in here as possible.  It's distracting.  Some of the characterizations also annoyed me.  Black Canary especially.  She was insufferable to me.

I heard a lot of behind the scenes stuff about the production of this book back when it was being published.  There was a lot of talk about Mark Waid being furious with Brian Augustyn's scripting and that he had to rescript an awful lot of this book.  It may be true.  I've never been a big Augustyn fan.  I don't feel he's a very good writer.  It may be his presence here that brings the book down for me.  Because it's not Waid.  He's still got a million ideas and they're all good.

It was nice to revisit this book, but I don't know if it was necessary.

JLA Year One: The Deluxe Edition

Writer: Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn

Artist: Barry Kitson, Michael Bair, Mark Propst, John Stokes

DC Comics

090 Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I went on vacation in mid-June (and that's when my posts stopped.)  I had a layover on my way to Austin, Texas, but because of bad weather, my flight was delayed.  By hours.  Thankfully I had a big stack of books to read during my travels.  This book I read cover to cover during my delay in the Baltimore Airport.

I'll be honest.  I wasn't expecting much out of the book.  And maybe because the bar was low, I really enjoyed what I read.  Well, most of it.  This book collects the complete mini-series as well as the crossover issues from each team's regular series.  The mini-series was a lot of fun.  The crossovers were nothing more than pointless money grabs.

The book is basically the JLA vs. the Suicide Squad, then the JLA teaming up with the Suicide Squad against the greater enemy.  Your basic super-team crossover.  But more specifically, all this is is a set up for the upcoming Justice League of America book.  The Batman lead team.  Killer Frost is a member of the upcoming JLA book, and this story is very much about her redemption, however temporary or permanent it's going to be.

While I'm not a big fan of the Suicide Squad, I've been warming up to the during the whole Rebirth thing.  I had a good time with this book.

Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad

Writer: Joshua Williamson, Tim Seeley, Rob Williams, Si Spurrier

Artist: Jason Fabok, Tony S. Daniel, Jesus Merino, Fernando Pasarin, Robson Rocha, Howard Porter, Christian Duce, Riley Rossmo, Scot Eaton, Giuseppe Cafaro, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Sandu Florea, Andy Owens, Matt Ryan, Wayne Faucher, Jay Leisten, Daniel Henriques, Oclair Albert, Francesco Mattina

DC Comics

063 JLA Vol 9

This book was a real mixed bag for me.  It's the final volume in this era of JLA.  I believe it leads right into Infinite Crisis and then into the Brad Metzler run of JLA.

We have three big stories here.  And I see each of them differently.  One I loved.  One I hated.  One I liked.  The book starts off with the end of Kurt Busiek's run.  I love Busiek.  I think he's a fantastic writer.  His run of Avengers was my favorite run of the book.  Astro City is a book that is amazing to me.  But for some reason, Busiek and the DCU just don't gel together for me.  At all.  I don't know why.  The characters don't seem right to me.  The stories just don't grab my attention.  And this book starts off with a big story.  Nine or ten parts, I think.  It's massive.  And, for me, really hard to get through.  I did not enjoy it then.  I didn't enjoy it now.

The next story was my favorite.  It's a six part arc that sort of served as a sequel to Identity Crisis.  It was the beginning of the end of this era of JLA.  The team was falling apart.  Hard.  The Secret Society was going after the JLA and their loved ones.  Mind wipes were discussed.  It was a big mess for the team.  And although there was one more story arc, for all intents and purposes, the JLA was done.

The last story features the team pretty much packing it in, but before they can officially close this chapter, The Key strikes.

Despite my feeling towards the Busiek story, this is a really good collection of JLA tales from the early 2000s.

JLA Vol 9

Writer: Kurt Busiek, Bob Harras, Allan Heinberg, Geoff Johns

Artist: Chris Batista, Tom Derenick, Ron Garney, Mark Farmer, Dan Green

DC Comics