It has been five-and-a-half years since I first posted on this blog. It all began with Grant Morrison’s JLA run in January 2019, a time when I was a relatively new reader of comic books. A lot has changed since then, and I’ve been writing this blog pretty much consistently – barring a few Christmas breaks – for a long time now. Post 275 is a momentous landmark to reach, but we are yet to reach the ultimate destination – the countdown begins to 300 reviews begins! Usually, I’d opt for a Multiverse tale that radically alters the DC Universe. The truth is that I have reviewed most of those. From the JLA-JSA yearly meet ups to Crisis on Infinite Earths, and then to Zero Hour and Infinite Crisis to Flashpoint and Convergence, these stories have been examined under the spotlight before returning to history. All that is left is Doomsday Clock, but that day will come. For now however, I thought I’d delve further back into history and review a story that may not be as crucial reading, but it is a great introduction to the bronze age of comics for new readers. For comic book fans wanting to witness a great tale of the Justice League of America’s past, where better to look than the title’s second-hundred issue…
Justice League of America (vol 1) 200 was published in March 1982. Written by Gerry Conway, the predominant writer of the league’s stories from the mid-1970s to the late-1980s, during this era the Justice League of America (vol 1) title was pencilled by the masterful George Perez. Although Perez continues to produce stunning work here, he is not alone. Throughout this special issue, an array of talent is on show – easily the greatest creative artistic talent DC have ever had. We got not just but Perez, but Pat Broderick, Jim Aparo, Terry Austin, Brian Bolland, Brett Breeding, Gerry Conway, Frank Giacoia, Dick Giordano, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, and Joe Kubert. Name me a better creative team than that! I’m reading this issue in its original issue, but it was reprinted in the rarity that is Justice League of America by George Perez Volume Two.
Justice League of America (vol 1) 200 may enjoy the presence of a huge creative cast, but Conway produces one long story. Where do the artists fit in? As was common in most JLA stories of the time, to fight and defeat their foes, the league would split off into groups to secure victory brick-by-brick. The same occurs here, with the heroes working in small groups; these adventures are chronicled by the artists known for drawing a character (or two) in that group. From such an idea, you can already imagine which artists will go there, but let’s keep that suspense for now!
Justice League of America (vol 1) 200 is 72 pages long. Therefore, it’s a chance for deeper storytelling and a longer plot. Conway, Perez, and Breeding use the first three pages of the issue to briefly explore the history of the league. By this time, the Justice League of America had been on the newsstands for 22 years; these early pages remind readers of how Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter all first met in Justice League of America (vol 1) 9. That story – famed by its cover trapped the desperate heroes in tree trunks – is an undisputable classic (its only flaw being that the Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader arrive too late on the scene) and it’s only right that Conway concisely recreates that origin story here.
But it’s on page four where A League Divided begins. On board the JLA satellite, much has changed from those early days of Gardner Fox. For starters, most people in the team now have a personality – this is best displayed by Firestorm, whose brash side isn’t enjoying monitor duty. To add some excitement to Firestorm’s day, the satellite wall explodes, and a confused and hostile Martian Manhunter enters. By this point in the league’s history, Martian Manhunter is no longer a team member – at this stage, new to the line-up is the Atom, Adam Strange, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Firestorm, Green Arrow, Hawkman, the Phantom Stranger, Red Tornado, and Zatanna. Either way, Firestorm and Martian Manhunter enjoy a fight on board the satellite – all is clearly not well. Firestorm sends an emergency signal out to the other members of the team and the heroes unite! But not all of them! None of the original members – including Martian Manhunter – attend the meeting. The league truly is divided between the originals and newcomers – why? A mystery is afoot, but that mystery is combined with annoyance as Snapper Carr tags along with the heroes. You’d think Snapper Carr wouldn’t be present either – after all, he did first appear in Brave and the Bold 28, but I guess he was only an honorary member. Regardless, it’s here where readers realise that those first three pages of this issue were not placed there simply to remind us all of the team’s origin story. In Justice League of America (vol 1) 9, seven meteorites crashed to Earth from the planet Appellax. These meteorites unleashed deadly alien giants who planned to claim Earth as their own, but they were defeated by the league. But now, it seems that the original seven JLA members have been hypnotised; Martian Manhunter came to the satellite because he wanted to reclaim one of the seven meteorite fragments the team picked up in their first adventure. The original heroes are not themselves and are under the control of the villains, and it means that the newer members of the team must locate their fellow heroes. The way Conway has linked Justice League of America (vol 1) 200 to the team’s first adventure is stunningly done. It’s a neat and creative idea, especially as it sets the stage for some interesting and dramatic action – readers will have to witnesses the original heroes of the team acting as villains. With a brilliant idea established, now comes the stage where the heroes break-out amongst themselves. The heroes will chase after an original member of the team and stop them from retrieving a fragment of the meteorite.
Conway has split this issue into chapters. From here until the end, each chapter is dedicated to heroes – some in groups – as they fight an original member of the team. With Chapter 1 introducing the story and featuring Martian Manhunter and Firestorm, Chapter 2 features the Phantom Stranger and Red Tornado. What a bizarre, yet enjoyable team-up – a robot and a ghoul. They both locate Aquaman in the Indian Ocean. It’s mainly a fight between Red Tornado and Aquaman – Phantom Stranger isn’t the fighting type, but his actions do lead to a moment of great mystery. With his foresight, Phantom Stranger discovers that victory in this battle isn’t desired. He ends up allowing Aquaman – after finding the meteorite fragment – to beat Red Tornado. The Phantom Stranger is the most enigmatic of characters, but readers notice how his traitorous move will later benefit the team. This chapter is made even greater by the drama and flawless artwork of Jim Aparo. Renowned for his work on Aquaman and Phantom Stranger, he was always going to be drawing this one. His sense of lighting and storytelling is as on point. As ever, he adds that enigmatic quality to the Phantom Stranger through his artwork.
Chapter 3 features Zatanna as she heads to Paradise Island to locate Wonder Woman, who finds the meteorite within seconds. Despite her magic, Zatanna is no match for Wonder Woman, and she quickly escapes successfully in her Invisible Plane – which is perhaps the worst creation in all of comic books. Dick Giordano’s artwork here is very clean, but what’s more, he uses less panels on each page. It means that the fight between the heroines has more room to breathe and expand. All-in-all, it’s a pretty standard encounter.
Chapter 4 takes us to Zimbabwe. The Atom – by shrinking down and travelling through a telephone (?) – is on the hunt for Hal Jordan. He finds Green Lantern in barren lands and comes close to defeating him. There’s a great page whereby the Atom attempts to convince Hal that he is not himself, but the hero usually controlled by willpower doesn’t take any notice. Once again, the meteorite is taken. As with Aparo, it shouldn’t be any shock that Gil Kane is the main artist here. That wonderful pioneer of Green Lantern tales in the silver age, his art here is perhaps not his best. The storytelling is great and follows well, but the inking is suspiciously flat – it’s almost as if he inked it himself with a Sharpie pen.
The world tour continues in Chapter 5. In the plains of Italy, the Flash searches for the meteorite only to be captured by the extendable limbs of Elongated Man. Their encounter is a brief one – Conway does write some comedic dialogue, while Carmine Infantino is a good choice for such a scene for obvious reasons. But as with Kane, Infantino’s style has degraded somewhat into a blockier affair, not helped greatly by the inks of Giacoia.
But then comes the most impressive of events. Chapter 6 takes us to the swamplands of Carolina, where Green Arrow and Black Canary wander through the atmospheric waters. In the darkness launches out Batman. Conway doesn’t write a typical boring fight scene. Instead, Batman easily finds the meteorite before toying with Green Arrow and Black Canary – turning the former’s trick arrows against the latter is a strong example. The action is transformed into pure flawless storytelling by Brian Bolland. That this stage, Bolland wasn’t known for his knack for the Dark Knight, but there are some pages and panels here where you can see as clear as day why DC would want Bolland to pencil and ink Batman. Alongside Aparo’s pages and Perez’s work, Bolland produces some of the best artwork in the special.
Last and not least before all the heroes reunite, we have Hawkman against Superman. Aside from the odd shock of Superman creating a robot of himself to distract Hawkman, it’s pretty typical and the result is the same as ever – the meteorite is collected by the original leaguer. Joe Kubert is a natural choice, especially as his experience drawing Hawkman goes back four decades, but it is a bit too messy and scratchy for my like. Splitting off into groups to tackle villains – or in this case, deranged heroes – was a common feature of JLA stories back in this era. Justice League of America (vol 1) 200 is no exception, and with more pages to fill, more time is spent on these battles. It must be said that the substance of these group scene is the same – none of the heroes succeed in defeating the original heroes. But what makes these scenes great is the creative mixture of heroes teaming-up together and the wonderful, varied artwork which accompanies it. The plotting is similar, but the styles are radically different.
So, the seven original members of the team have succeeded and captured the seven meteorite fragments. They return to the legendary JLA cave, their original base all those issues ago. With the meteorites together, they begin to hatch and out of the shells come the Appellaxians, those original foes from Justice League of America (vol 1) 9. They have used the leaguers like puppets, and now the villains have returned, sanity suddenly returns to the heroes. They realise they have been duped, and within a matter of pages, the Appellaxians defeat them. It’s a dramatic return for these forgotten foes and their elemental powers, but once the current members of the team return and reunite with their original comrades, the fight is on! The heroes split into three large groups to overwhelm the villains, and the plan succeeds. The Appellaxians are killed, and they fall sadly back into obscurity. In the end, the return to sanity for the original JLA heroes creates a celebratory mood as the league unite in their victory. Conway leaves on a warm note – the league is a family of heroes; united they stand, divided they fall.
Justice League of America (vol 1) 200 contains no surprises with its plot structure – from the heroes being beaten at their first try, to breaking out into groups, and then uniting for victory at the end, there’s nothing surprising. But it is a terrific celebration for the team – every hero from the team’s past appears and they get all their moment in the spotlight. Perhaps the only pages which feel out of place is the scene following Hawkman’s defeat, whereby he drifts into space and is rescued by Adam Strange, who then sends Hawkman back to Earth using a zeta-beam. It just feels like an awkward method of shoehorning Adam Strange into the story. But readers should certainly ignore such a petty criticism. Justice League of America (vol 1) 200 is fantastic because the plot is very creative. Structurally, it’s as regular as they come, but with a story that uses the team’s history and a previous story and then builds upon it, it creates a wonderful link between the team’s first adventure and this one. It is also proof of how the league shouldn’t be always defined by titans like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Here, Conway treats the likes of Firestorm, Red Tornado, and Green Arrow with the same awe as those three heavy weights. But this isn’t just a celebration of characters or the league, but of the creative team too. Conway understands these characters and their relationships with one another, but George Perez’s skill in creating this dramatic and beautiful world is masterful. Much weight and diversity are added with the wide array of artists, each of whom have a knack for recreating the JLA mood while also adding their own delightful styles to the story. All-in-all, it’s difficult not to be impressed.
VERDICT
Overall, Justice League of America (vol 1) 200 is a sensational celebration of the league after over two decades of their existence. It never feels as if Conway is dragging out the story for its own sake. Quadruple the size of a normal story, there is plenty of time for every character to enjoy time in the spotlight. Conway’s use of history and the team’s origin story from the title’s ninth issue is a very creative idea, and with a grand selection of artists present to add their own drama to the issue, it is a delight from start to finish. All-in-all, this is a celebration not just of the Justice League, but of the creative team too. It’s a great item for new readers to get their teeth into.
Next Week: Starman: Lightning and Stars (Starman (vol 2) 39-46, Power of Shazam 35-36). Written by James Robinson, Jerry Ordway, and David S. Goyer, with art by Tony Harris, Wade Von Grawbadger, Peter Krause, Dick Giordano, Ray Synder, Gary Erskine, Matthew Smith, Mike Mayhew, and Gene Ha.
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