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

123 Batman/Two-Face: Face The Face Deluxe Edition

I read this back when it was originally published.  It's been over ten years, so it was definitely time to revisit it.  And thankfully, DC has collected it in a deluxe hardcover.

James Robinson has that unique ability to hook me on page one and keep me involved until the last page.  This story is no different.  

After Infinite Crisis, Batman left Gotham for a year.  While he was gone, he didn't want to leave Gotham unprotected, so he enlisted Harvey Dent, the former Two-Face.  Harvey was finally cured of being Two-Face, both mentally and physically.  And he took on the role of Gotham's protector and excelled at it.  But now Batman is back and Harvey feels like he's out of a job.  In the meantime, it appears that he's falling back into his old, criminal ways.  Some D-List Bat villains are turning up dead and all the evidence is pointing to Harvey.  Batman doesn't believe it and sets out to prove Harvey innocent.  But with everything that's going on, it's driving Harvey nuts and he's losing his grip on sanity, eventually reverting back to Two-Face.  Which is all unfortunate because Batman discovers that Harvey is indeed being set up for the crimes.

This is a fascinating story and one that I will definitely read again sometime in the future.  James Robinson is one of my heroes.

Batman/Two-Face: Face The Face Deluxe Edition

Writer: James Robinson

Artist: Leonard Kirk, Don Kramer, Andy Clarke, Wayne Faucher, Keith Champagne, Michael Bair

DC Comics

073 Last Days Of the Justice Society Of America

I love collections like this.  There wasn't enough of the main story to fill a trade paperback, so it's more of a themed collection than one story.  Which is fine by me.  I've read all of these stories in the past and I was excited to read them again.

My memories of the main story weren't very good.  I remember not feeling satisfied with the story when it was first published.  It was published as a Special after Crisis On Infinite Earths finished.  DC wanted to take the JSA off the page and Roy Thomas was tasked with that job.  He was the perfect choice since he wrote most every JSA (and related) story during the 80s.  Rereading this story didn't bring me any new insights.  It just made me sad all over again.  I always felt that this story just didn't do the JSA justice.  All these amazing characters were sentenced to a hellish limbo to live out their days (at least until someone decided it was okay to bring them back.)  It just wasn't my favorite story then, it still isn't my favorite story now.

To round out this collection, we get a ton of origin stories from Secret Origins.  These were fun to read.  Roy Thomas' love of these characters and their histories showed in each one.

Overall, it's a good book if you're looking for some done in one JSA stories.

Last Days Of The Justice Society Of America

Writer: Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas

Artist: David Ross, Mike Gustovich, Michael Bair, Steve Montano, Tom Grindberg, George Tuska, Jerry Acerno, Luke McDonnell, Tony DeZuniga, Mike Clark, Dave Hunt, Michael T. Gilbert, George Freeman, Bob Downs

DC Comics