May '91
At last! The concluding chapter in the seemingly endless saga of General Glory
"A Blaze of Glory!"
Four years ago, Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, and Andrew Helfer launched the brand-new Justice League, and--heaven help us--fifty issues later, they're still at it!
Now, aided by Linda Medley, John Beatty, Paris Cullins, Dave Elliott, Gene D'Angelo, Bob "Does this make me an accomplice to an aesthetic crime?" Lappan, and that crazy kid from California, Kevin Dooley--the inanity continues!
Special thanks to Kevin, Terry, Al, Ty, Joe, Mike, and Adam--for helping make this book the great success (or miserable failure, depending on who you talk to) that it is!
May '91
"Stars in Your Eyes"
Giffen - plot
Jones - dialogue
Sears - pencils
Elliott - inks
Lappan - letters
D'Angelo - colors
Dooley - this
Helfer - that
And suddenly we find ourselves in the home stretch, with Week 60 not so far off anymore. Clearly, though, the action hasn't abated. The General Glory saga concludes in epic fashion, replete with WWII-era flashbacks, the clearing of General Glory's name and yet another membership shake-up, this one seeing Orion and Lightray bidding adieu while General Glory and the "new" Mister Miracle are invited in. Also, the whole shebang ends with Guy Gardner calling up Andy Helfer at DC Comics and demanding that Glory's artist, Joe Mason, be made the penciler for the League's comic book.
Guy's phone call offers the springboard into a wonderful--and completely nuts--15-page backup story written and illustrated by Kyle Baker, in which Guy storms the DC offices with Mr. Mason in tow, offering a raw portrait of JLA's creative team, including (clockwise from left) Helfer, Giffen and DeMatteis...
...and even Linda Medley.
Across the pond, Starro conquers the latest iteration of the famous JLI cover shot, while inside the book he plays helpless and penitent, duping the League into helping repair his spacecraft so that he might die peacefully back on his homeworld. As Inspector Camus moves into an office in the JLE's embassy (an office, by the way, he has to share with the cat's litter box), Kilowog leads the League through the repairs on Starro's ship, but when the spacecraft lifts off, it explodes in the atmosphere. For a moment it seems Starro's lost and gone forever, but the final pages reveal his face-hugging stars raining down over London, whose inhabitants are quickly taken up in the conqueror's thrall. It's an excellent beginning to what will hopefully be a solid chapter in Starro's history, and while the art doesn't sing to me quite like it did last issue, Sears and Elliott nevertheless deliver grade-A work that's always great to look at.
There are some good nuggets in both books' letters pages. Beginning with "Justice Log," we learn: 1) "Glorious Cover by Adam Hughes, Karl Story, and Gene D'Angelo"; 2) "J'onn twists the Oreos apart when he meditates, and makes decisions by how much cream remains on one side, then he dips each half in milk"; and 3) Jacob Gilbert of Troy, NY alerts us to a mysterious "Special" and writes, "Farewell, Huntress. We hardly knew ya, luv. We'll definitely miss you." (So, I guess we won't be seeing her in these pages anymore.) And in "Europinion," we read: 1) "Mr. Bart styled the cover with haircolor by Mr. Bob"; 2) Tasmanian Devil "is a member of the JL ... in Australia"; and 3) Mister Miracle's book is ending with issue 28--I never read it, but the preview summaries in these letters pages have sounded entertaining.
And finally--for this week, anyway--let's take some time to appreciate two ads that meant a lot to me back in '91:
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, #47/23, #48/24, #49/25, #51/27, #52/28, #53/29, #54/30, #55/31, #56/32, #57/33, #58/34, #59/35, #60/36
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cereal ad copyright Ralston Purina Company and Mirage Studios. Rocketeer ad copyright Disney. All other images this post copyright DC Comics. Original text copyright Jon D. Witmer/The Danger Digest.
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