When stories titled around of the premise of “is this the end” of this or that, they tend to be there only for dramatic effect and when the years pass, the story is thrown on a large pile of forgotten stories. The End of the Justice League of America partly conforms to that, but also doesn’t at the same time. Its true in a sense because these four issues of Justice League of America (vol 1) are the final four of the title, published twenty-seven years after its launch in early 1960. However, this isn’t really the Justice League of America anymore. Up until Justice League of America (vol 1) 233 in December 1984, the league had those recognisable faces who were there from the very beginning. Sure, there had been some roster changes, but the heroic titans known as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash were all still present. With Justice League of America (vol 1) 233 however, the team radically changed, and Justice League Detroit was born. No longer with the consistent five heroes, the team consisted of Elongated Man, Zatanna, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter (the only two left from Brave and the Bold 28). But, starring alongside them was four new heroes, four who DC were betting on becoming modern classics. They were Gypsy, a sorcerer who left home young; Steel, part-man part-robot; Vibe, a wannabe hero with the main goal of becoming famous; and Vixen, a model who could use her connections to the animal world to harness their powers. To cut a long story short, JLD was a disaster and sales fell dramatically. It didn’t help how some of the old guard like Aquaman began to disappear and all that was left was Martian Manhunter effectively leading these third-rate heroes. It was down to J. M. DeMatteis to put the
Detroit heroes out of their misery and, for once, deliver a good story in which they actually play a big part in….
Justice League of America (vol 1) 258-261 was published from January to April 1987. The story was written by J. M. DeMatteis with art by Luke McDonnell, Bob Smith, Bill Wray, Steve Montano, and Bob Lewis. I’ve read the story in its original issues.
Ever since the Justice League’s creation in Brave and the Bold 28, the heroic team has faced many foes and for the final story of the original run, the team faces off one of their earliest enemies: Professor Ivo, creator of Amazo (an android who could harness the powers of all league members). Forever one to hold a grudge against the league for the numerous occasions in which they defeated him, Ivo now takes himself to therapy and completely ignores his psychiatrist’s advice by switching him off. Yes, Ivo has created a robot doctor to help cure his mental problems caused by his scarred face, which he blames the Justice League for. Ivo decides that today is the day of revenge. With his army of robots, who constantly refer to him as father, Ivo declares war against the justice League. Fortunately for him, the league is in a very bad state after getting their butts kicked in Legends 1. You see, The End of the Justice League of America is a crossover to Legends, a miniseries which aimed to clear up some major parts of the DC Universe after the monolithic Crisis on Infinite Earths. Justice League of America 258-261 is the main crossover, but it’s very loose. Legends isn’t referenced much at all (apart from in scenes where the heroes fight against a hostile police force) and it’s only really here to explain why Martian Manhunter is alone by the time of Legends 6. Without getting too ahead of ourselves, the Justice League are down and feeling useless. Elongated Man loses his temper with Vibe, causing a huge argument which ends with the League disbanding to follow the President’s law that all superheroes are outlawed (see Legends). Enraged, the heroes all go their separate directions. For the first part, the main focus is on Vibe, the only character from Detroit’s line-up that I really despise. It isn’t just his badly dated costume, or his annoying personality, or even his arrogance in believing that he is the best, but the fact that he is in the Justice League. This is actually a huge problem which this story has, but more on that later. Alone, Vibe wanders the streets and finds a kid who idolises Superman. A depressed Vibe is then suddenly attacked by one of Ivo’s androids. A huge fight breaks out and it looks as if Vibe is victorious. The kid cheers him on and for once, Vibe is a hero with respect. That is, until the android wakes up and uses his detachable hands to strangle Vibe to death and steal his face. One down, three to go. Although I despise Vibe, I think his final scene is actually very good. Sure, I’ve never read much else of the Detroit era, but I know enough to see that these heroes really aren’t that good. Therefore, for Vibe to become a hero in that final scene is a touching end to the life of one of DC’s most annoying characters. The big problem is the reason why Ivo would want to kill Vibe, or any of the four new Detroit heroes. This isn’t the Justice League who he fought before. To him, these are just kids who call themselves the Justice League. Really, he should be going after Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. That is far by the largest problem with this whole story. To Ivo, this is simply the Justice League in name only as he faces characters he’s never met. Anyway, the second part begins with Martian Manhunter, Vixen, and Steel finding Vibe’s body. For the first time since Mister Terrific’s death in Justice League of America 171, the leaguers are mourning (continued)
the death of another hero. Martian Manhunter instantly recognises that Ivo is behind the killing. The villain himself watches the scene before retiring back to his recliner for another session with his robot psychiatrist. Although insane, Ivo grows affectionate for Gypsy, who he believes is totally innocent and that she doesn’t deserve to die. Where this affection spawns from is unknown to me. To my knowledge, Ivo has never met Gypsy before, but be breaks down over the possibility of killing her. There’s never really much of an explanation to this, but it plays a key part in the next scene. Ivo reluctantly orders one of his androids to hunt down Gypsy and kill her. Using a ploy, Gypsy meets the android on her journey home. As expected, the android turns on her, but as the android is mentally linked to Ivo, it feels the same affection for Gypsy. Unknown to Ivo, Gypsy and the android trick Ivo by creating a fake death for the hero. This somehow succeeds, despite Ivo surely being able to see every move that his androids make. As Ivo breaks down into tears over his apparent killing of Gypsy, she is mostly unharmed. With the android's help, she arrives home, while the android is greeted by an enraged and furious Martian Manhunter. For him, Ivo’s pain is almost like mental torture, as the Detroit heroes were written as if he was the leader. He took Vibe, Gypsy, Steel, and Vixen under his wing to help them become heroes. But, with Vibe’s death, and Gypsy returning home to her family, everything is falling apart around him. Soon, the league may be no more. Now with Ivo’s fury, the android fights Martian Manhunter, who tears it apart in his anger over Vibe’s death. This is one of the rare occasions where Martian Manhunter grows angry. Usually, he is the calm and relaxed one in the league. But, because Ivo has killed one of his best friends and caused the breakup of the league, something has snapped. Meanwhile, Steel and Vixen are hiding in the big city, but the former grows agitated that there is nothing for them to do. Steel storms out in anger, unaware of his eventual fate. At the same time, Ivo has another mental breakdown as he rages against his robot physiatrist. In previous stories, Ivo was never usually this unhinged and there are times in the story where you see Ivo in a padded cell alone while screaming his thoughts aloud to his forever faithful robots. This aspect plays a huge role in the fourth part, but more on that later. Steel meanwhile heads out onto the street where he is confronted by another of Ivo’s androids. In front of the hero-disillusioned crowd, Steel is panned for attacking the android disguised as a police officer, but things get worse when the android unleashes burning destructive beams from its eyes. With that, Steel’s metallic framework is nearly destroyed, and in his final moments, he destroys the android. Although alive, Steel is barely functioning. Martian Manhunter arrives just in time to rescue Steel, but when his body is taken to his grandfather, Infinity Inc hero Commander Steel, they both known they are too late. Once and for all, his grandfather puts him out of his misery and pulls the plug, leaving behind a distraught Martian Manhunter and a shaking and seemingly remorseful Ivo. With two dead, and the others gone, all the league consists of is Martian Manhunter and Vixen. For the final part, there’s a nice bit of background about Ivo and his very first run in with the Justice League, along with a recap of the previous three issues. This is fine, but it just
hammers home even more the huge problem that this story has. As I said, Ivo should really be after Superman, Batman, and Wonder, not Gypsy and Vibe. Sure, you could argue that he is doing it to torture Martian Manhunter (who fought Ivo also in Brave and the Bold 30). However, this complex plot just wouldn’t work if its goal was to just take down one character, that being Martian Manhunter. Especially because of the President’s new law to ban superheroes, this would be Ivo’s prime time to go after Batman and the likes of the Justice League. He’d even have public support too because of Glorious Godfrey’s immense control over the public. Regardless, Ivo finally gives up with his psychiatrist and he destroys it once and for all. At the same time, a bloodthirsty Vixen searches the streets for any sign of where Ivo may be. Out of the four Detroit heroes, Vixen is the only good one. In fact, she’s the only one who’s really remembered as she turns up later in titles such as Animal Man (vol 1) and even Justice League of America (vol 2) as a regular alongside the big three. Anyway, both she and Martian Manhunter are out for Ivo’s blood to get revenge for what happened to Vibe and Steel. Using a rat in the sewers, Vixen finds Ivo’s secret base underground and confronts him. He unleashes his army of androids upon her, but luckily Martian Manhunter arrives just in time and defeat them all. With Ivo in his sights, Martian Manhunter confronts him, but fails to bring up the courage to kill him. Vixen then comes along and decapitates him. However, it’s not the real Ivo. It’s another android! The two heroes find the real Ivo behind a locked door, in a padded cell, shaking and talking to himself. This is the final twist of the story and I love it. The real Ivo has been in his cell since the very beginning. He acknowledged that he was twisted and insane, so he created an android of himself to continue his work and to relieve him of any guilt. It’s actually a very sad ending, as the android version of Ivo seems to be far more evil and cunning than the real one. He realises what a danger he has become and, just stretching it a bit, it’s the reason why the android went after the current JLA heroes and not the older heroes. Perhaps it didn’t have all of Ivo’s memories or something, but if that’s the case then why did the robots feel the same emotions as Ivo, both the real and evil versions. Really, there’s no reason to look too deep into it and you’ve just got to accept that the biggest problem in the story is that Ivo is after the wrong heroes. Regardless, with Ivo taken care of, Martian Manhunter says farewell to Vixen, telling her to continue on her path as a hero. Now alone, the last founding member of the original Justice League receives a signal. He sprints out of the base and with that, the Justice League of America finally ends. Although Justice League Detroit was very different from what the title had been, it still makes for a very emotional ending to the title. Twenty-seven years of stories come to an end, but, as ever with comics, the league continues. Just four weeks later in May 1987, DC publish Justice League 1, by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire. It begins a new era of the Justice League, and ultimately one of my favourite comic books of all time. But all of that is for another day…
In terms of the art, I’ve unfortunately got to admit that instead of finding it good or bad, I just found it bland and forgettable. Luke McDonnell is a safe pair of hands. His art can’t really be considered too radical. It tells the story and that it’s prime function. However, it just looks so boring and bland. There is never a sense of excitement or action in the story. Everything appears very static. To me, this was typical of many DC (continued)
titles in the mid-1980s. It was after that 1970s explosion of great artists and before that period of Vertigo art which commenced around mid-1987. It just tells the story, nothing more. It also doesn’t help none of the four inkers add much of anything to the finished art. Overall, it’s just bland. Not bad, just forgettable.
VERDICT
Overall, The End of the Justice League of America is a story which does well in ending one of DC’s most famous titles. Although I’m not much of a fan of the Justice League Detroit era or its heroes, I think it gave them a touching send-off and made me think differently of some of them, like Vibe for instance. I also think that Ivo works brilliantly as the villain here and the revelation at the end is a real highlight. That being said, the huge problem I mentioned earlier remains and the more you think about it, the more glaring and obvious it is. Regardless, DeMatteis manages to end the title with grace and as this era of Justice League ends, a new and exciting one begins. If the story’s main goal was the clear the stage for the next act, then it does that excellently.
Story: 8.5/10
Art: 5/10
Next Week: The Question by Steve Ditko (Blue Beetle (vol 5) 1-5), Mysterious Suspense). Written and drawn by Steve Ditko, with additional writing by Steve Skeates
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