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

2018.001 Aquaman: The Waterbearer

One of the great things about an Aquaman movie coming is that DC is putting all sorts of Aqua-related material back in print.

I read this monthly when it first was published, but to be honest, I really don't remember any of what was printed in this volume.  When I think back to Rick Veitch's run, I recall his Black Manta storyline, but barely any of this.  I remember the Lady of the Lake giving Arthur his water hand, but little else.  

I found this book to be a little slow in places, but I recognize that Rick is setting all his pieces in place to start telling the story he wants.  This is a welcome change from Peter David's Aquaman.  While I can't really stand Peter David, I did enjoy many aspects of his run.  But I like this more.  Rick Veitch is putting Aquaman back where he should be, stripping away all of the bullshit laid on him by Peter David.  

I look forward to the next volume of this book to refresh my memory of this run.

Aquaman: The Waterbearer

Written by: Rick Veitch, Steve Conley

Illustrated by: Yvel Guichet, Darryl Banks, Norm Breyfogle, Rob Haynes, Joshua Hood, Deitrich Smith, Sal Velluto, Mark Propst, Bob Almond, Dennis Janke, Rob Leigh, Sean Parsons, Bob Petrecca

DC Comics

147 Wonder Woman And Justice League America Vol 2

DC should really be ashamed of itself.  Justice League should be the company's flagship title.  A book featuring the biggest and the brightest heroes banded together.  By this point in the company's history, Justice League was a group of D-List, at best, characters.  And not just one book of D-Listers, but three full series full of the worst of the worst.  I understand how this happened.  When the JLA was revamped into Justice League International, it had a solid creative team that took a lot of B-Listers and turned them into the premiere DC Superteam.  As time went on, the creative teams got worse and worse and the roster reflected that.  Luckily this is getting to the end of that era.

This book collects a big crossover between all the Justice League books.  It's an awful crossover that culminates with the death of Ice.  Booster Gold also dies, but only kind of dies.  But his Tony Stark Iron Man suit keeps him alive until a new creative team can fix the disaster they made of him.

This book is just not good.  It's everything that was wrong with the 90s all collected into one handy volume.

Wonder Woman And Justice League America Vol 2

Writer: Dan Vado, Mark Waid, Gerard Jones

Artist: Marc Campos, Chuck  Wojtkiewicz, Sal Velluto, Ken Branch, Kevin Conrad, Bob Dvorak, Robert Jones, Rich Rankin, Jeff Albrecht

DC Comics

050 Superman And Justice League America Vol 2

Oh boy.  Dan Jurgens is better than this.  At least that's what I keep telling myself.  I don't think he's the greatest writer out there, but he's solid and reliable.  But after reading this, I really have to rethink that.

This book focuses on a dark era of the JLA.  This is a shadow of what the Justice League once was and will be again.  This Justice League isn't even D-List and that's counting Superman on the team.  The group has fallen apart and the only members left are Superman, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Maxima, Bloodwynd, Fire, Ice and Guy Gardner.  Then Doomsday shows up, killing Superman, nearly killing Beetle, destroying Booster's uniform and Fire loses her powers.  Ice quits.  The team is even sadder than before, so they recruit new members.  The Ray, Black Condor, Agent Liberty and Wonder Woman.  This is so not the JLA.  I'm sorry.

There's a fairly decent (in relation) story with Doctor Destiny, and we get the startling (not) truth about Bloodwynd, but for the most part this run of the book is pure dreck.  And Dan Jurgens leaves at the end of this collection.  Hopefully the next writer can take what he's left with and spin it into gold.  Stay turned to find out....

Superman And Justice League America Vol 2
Writer: Dan Jurgens, Dan Mishkin
Artist: Dan Jurgens, Dave Cockrum, Rick Burchett, Romeo Tanghal, Jose Marzan Jr, Bob Smith, Sal Velluto
DC Comics