60 WEEKS WITH THE JUSTICE LEAGUE: Week 59

Justice League America #59
Feb. '92
Breakdowns Part 13
"Ex-Factor"
It's the final stretch for those tired, old racehorces:
Keith Giffen, plot & layouts
J.M. DeMatteis, writ & wit
Bart Sears, pencils
Elliott/Beatty, inks
Bob Lappan, letters
Gene D'Angelo, colors
Kevin Dooley, coming around the far turn
Andy Helfer, headed for the glue factory

Justice League Europe #35
Feb. '92
Breakdowns Part 14
"The Ceremony of Innocence"
A fond farewell from the battered and weary team of Gerard Jones, Darick Robertson, Romeo Tanghal, Willie Schubert, Gene D'Angelo, Kevin Dooley, and the most battered and most weary: Keith Giffen and Andy Helfer.


Marking the return of Kevin Maguire to cover duties (a great concept somewhat poorly executed), JLA finds the League taking its fight to KooeyKooeyKooey, where Dreamslayer (still in Max's body) has ensorcelled the natives into mindless obedience. Bart Sears--again aided and abetted by the one-two punch of Elliott and Beatty--delivers another solid issue, and one which ends on a serious cliffhanger: While Silver Sorceress bleeds to death on KooeyKooeyKooey, J'onn, Beetle, Metamporpho, BlueJay, Power Girl, Rocket Red and Fire are all brain-drained by Dreamslayer, who turns these Leaguers into "the new Extremists" and sends them back to the JLI's cave HQ to wipe out their fellow teammates.

In JLE, Darick Robertson (with inks this time by Romeo Tanghal) turns in his best issue to date, with stunning art and pitch-perfect layouts. After his somewhat brazen disregard for the page grid in recent issues, he here shows some real restraint that supports the issue's somber tone. However, he does have the chance to experiment with some more creative layouts when Silver Sorceress lures Dreamslayer into her own mind for a final showdown. As her body lay dying, Silver Sorceress finally manages to destroy Dreamslayer, and in so doing frees the captive minds and bodies of Maxwell Lord, much of the Justice League and all of the surviving inhabitants of KooeyKooeyKooey. Before dying, she also manages an explanation of sorts for the disparity between her name and the color of her costume: Turns out, Silver Sorceress was colorblind.

Worthy of note is this "Announcement!" from "Justice Log," detailing the fates of the League books and creative staff:

Since it's already a done deal (and so there's nothing you can do about it--NYEAH-HA-HA!) here is the new regular creative team on JLA/E (Kaiser roll, please): with #61 Dan Jurgens will be the main force behind JLA, both as writer and penciller. Over at JLE will be Gerard Jones, writer, and Ron Randall, penciller, with #37. Brian Augustyn, editor of THE FLASH, OUTLAWS, THE JAGUAR, THE FLY, and THE SHADOW STRIKES! will be the new editor. When asked what he thought about editing this...cacophony, Brian was heard to say "HA-HA-BWAH!" So expect something completely different. We think that all Justice League fans--yes, every single solitary one of you--will enjoy what's going to happen here.

Keith Giffen will still be plotting LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, the LOBO PARAMILITARY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (not for the weak-hearted), a new ECLIPSO series, and a fun, fun, fun title with a new hero called THE HECKLER.

What are those two crazy editorial kids going to do? Andy now has the esteemed position of Group Editor for Experimental Projects at Piranha Press, so expect interesting new things from that quarter. Kevin is now the editor of GREEN LANTERN (with more spin-offs to come), AQUAMAN, RAGMAN, THE HECKLER, and more.

Both issue's lettercols offer cover credits. From "Justice Log": "Kevin Maguire, pencils; Terry Austin, inks; Bob Le Rose, colors." From "Europinion": "Darick Robertson, pencils; Romeo Tanghal, inks; Bob Le Rose, colors."

See you in seven days for Week 60 of 60 Weeks with the Justice League, or: The End (as we know it).


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, #50/26, #51/27, #52/28, #53/29, #54/30, #55/31, #56/32, #57/33, #58/34, #60/36


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