60 WEEKS WITH THE JUSTICE LEAGUE: Week 47

Justice League America #47
Feb. '91
"General Glory Fights Again!"
It's a red, white & blue epic, brought to you by those Yankee Doodle Dandies--
Keith Giffen, plot & breakdowns
J.M. DeMatteis, script
Linda Medley, guest penciller
John Beatty, inker
Bob Lappan, letterer
Gene D'Angelo, colorist
Kevin Dooley, stars in his eyes, stripes on his pants
Andy Helfer, father of our country
General Glory created by J.M. DeMatteis an' Keith Giffen

Justice League Europe #23
Feb. '91
"Foxy Ladies"
Keith Giffen, germs of ideas
Gerard Jones, typing
Bart Sears, lots of little lines
Randy Elliott, dark stuff
Bob Lappan, marks with a pen
Gene D'Angelo, colored splotches
Kevin Dooley, blue marks and phone calls
Andy Helfer, coffee, cigarettes and ceaseless fidgeting


The General Glory storyline continues swimmingly, with Medley's pencils once again perfectly complementing this fun romp. While the penciller does well with the JLA's entire cast, she especially draws a great looking Blue Beetle.

In JLA's first half, the League interrupts a public performance by the then-new Mr. Miracle, a.k.a. Shilo Norman, only they don't know there is a new Mr. Miracle until the old Mr. Miracle--you know, Scott Free--shows up with Oberon to try and set things straight. Mistaken identities are a tried-and-true ingredient of good, wholesome comedy, and Giffen and DeMatteis nail the old trope while still managing to save pages for General Glory to join the League in fighting a fire. Furthermore, as the General runs headlong into the conflagration, he comes face to face with a Nazi Uberbot, rescues a dog and wields a garbage-can lid like it's Captain America's shield. Not bad for a newby.

JLE, meanwhile, breaks form to deliver 23 pages packed with story--following what may well be the best cover of this book's run--beautifully rendered by Bart Sears and Randy Elliott. (Boy howdy, is it nice having them back!) Getting the better of Marvel Comics by some 17 years, the issue kicks off with an internal dispute over Inspector Camus' mandate that all League members register with Interpol's meta-human cooperative unit; Power Girl is strongly against it, Crimson Fox is for, and Rex/Metamorpho is busy watchin' the Three Stooges.

The story then reveals the secretive Society of St. Cholmondely, a group of robe wearers who feed off hatred and possess a giant tuning fork that summons a monstrous subterranean worm to devour the order's foes. (I'd like to see Sonar try to do as much with his tuning-fork gun.) In the example here illustrated, that foe turns out to be Simon Stagg (yep, him again), who loses his London factory to the worm-monster.

Tying everything together, the Society's leader is none other than Monsieur Puanteur, the sworn enemy of the Crimson Fox, whose true identity is here revealed to be split between identical twin sisters Constance and Vivian D'Aramis--turns out they faked the death of Constance, and now both take turns with the roles of Vivian and Crimson Fox. I know it all sounds pretty convoluted when I try to summarize it, but it actually works in the book, and I've got to give credit to the creative team for coming up with a fairly unique alter ego.

JLA's "Justice Log" tells us that "JLAntarctica no longer exists" and then shares these credits: "Cover by Adam Hughes, pencils; Karl Story, inks; Bob Le Rose, colors." And from JLE's "Europinion": "Cover by Bart Sears with coloring by Bob Le Rose."


The complete 60 Weeks with the Justice League on The Danger Digest:
#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23, #24, #25/1, #26/2, #27/3, #28/4, #29/5, #30/6, #31/7, #32/8, #33/9, #34/10, #35/11, #36/12, #37/13, #38/14, #39/15, #40/16, #41/17, #42/18, #43/19, #44/20, #45/21, #46/22, #48/24, #49/25, #50/26, #51/27, #52/28, #53/29, #54/30, #55/31, #56/32, #57/33, #58/34, #59/35, #60/36


All images this post copyright DC Comics. Original text copyright Jon D. Witmer/The Danger Digest.