60 WEEKS WITH THE JUSTICE LEAGUE: Week 57

Justice League America #57
Dec. '91
Breakdowns Part 9
"The Descent of ... Despero!"
Meaningless violence and a few stale jokes ... brought to you by those immortal masters of comic art:
Keith Giffen, plot 'n' breakdowns
J.M. DeMatteis, dialogue & complaints
Chris Wozniak, penciller
Bruce Patterson, inker
Bob Lappan, letterer
Gene D'Angelo, colorist
Kevin Dooley, hungers for more power
Andy Helfer, just wants out

Justice League Europe #33
Dec. '91
Breakdowns Part 10
"Mere Anarchy"
Keen-O Keith Giffen - plots
Germane Gerard Jones - script
Darin' Darick Robertson - pencils
Jostlin' John Beatty - inks
Wired Willie Schubert - letters
Genial Gene D'Angelo - colors
Kvetchin' Kevin Dooley - associate editing
Anxious Andy Helfer - editing
Billious Billy Yeats


At last, JLA presents the long-awaited return of Mitch Wacky. (And the Beefeater, but that's another story.) Unfortunately, JLE may well be his last appearance--it's unclear, but I think he might have been killed by none other than Dreamslayer, who has inhabited the body of--who else?--Maxwell Lord. Yes indeed, after the destruction of his body back in JLE #19, Dreamslayer's consciousness lived on, searching for an appropriate host body and conveniently settling on Max's comatose corpus. Using his powers of persuasion (which make Max's pale in comparison), Dreamslayer made Uncle Mitch abscond with the Extremist robots to KooeyKooeyKooey; there, Uncle Mitch was forced to return Lord Havok to working order, and now Dreamslayer and Havoc are ready to paint the town red, so to speak. Of course, the League remains blissfully unaware, seeing as they're currently tied up battling Despero--and that battle has so far leveled most of Manhattan, thanks to an ill-conceived earthquake caused by Major Disaster.

Not much else to say this week, I'm afraid. I still don't like Wozniak's art, but I think I'm getting desensitized to it. Robertson's work was strong as usual, although it didn't quite hit the high notes of last issue. Interesting to probably no one, JLE contained a 17-page ad, in comics form, for Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis, and then "Europinion" included this cover credits blurb: "THIS ISSUE'S COVER was computerized by the following programmers: Darick Robertson, John Beatty, and Bob Le Rose." (Remember, L-Ron was supposedly compiling the letters pages; nevertheless, with the advent of digital tools in the comics arena in the years since this was written, "computerized" feels like a poor, misleading choice of words.) No cover credits in "Justice Log," but JLA's cover itself, which offers yet another homage to JL #1, clearly shows the initials of Chris Sprouse and Bruce Patterson.

I think "Breakdowns" is wearing on me. Only three weeks to go...

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, #58/34, #59/35, #60/36


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

60 WEEKS WITH THE JUSTICE LEAGUE: Week 55

Justice League America #55
Oct. '91
Breakdowns Part 5
"Bialya Blues"
"Breakdowns" continues, courtesy of Giffen, DeMatteis, Wozniak, Patterson, Lappan, D'Angelo, Dooley & Helfer. (Okay, we admit it--we couldn't think of any funny credits this month. Readers who subscribe only for the funny credits should contact our subscription department for an adjustment. They can use a laugh.)

Justice League Europe #31
Oct. '91
Breakdowns Part 6
"Things Fall Apart"
Giffen
Jones
Robertson
Beatty
D'Angelo
Schubert
Dooley
Helfer


... And just like that, "Breakdowns" seems to break down. Story-wise, JLA is a fine piece of work, although it feels curiously like it ought to be the last chapter in this crossover. Sumaan Harjavti plays his hand, exposing the Queen Bee's mind-control infrastructure and snapping the Global Guardians out of their collective, brainwashed stupor. (Oh, and it turns out that all this time, the dude wearing Jack O' Lantern's duds wasn't the real Jack. Convenient, or just confusing?) Then, when the Queen tries to flee the country, Harjavti kills her, and by issue's end is being hailed as Bialya's new leader. Meanwhile, Camus exposes Heimlich (who this issue is named Rolf, although two issues ago he was Kurt, but I digress), sending the U.N. into yet another emergency session. Too bad the art makes all of this as hard to decipher as possible; these pages look like the worst that Marvel comics had to offer back in the early '90s, with some downright awful layouts that do their best to confound rather than guide the reader's eyes.

There are also a few lettering mistakes from Lappan that really pained me to see. While I'm still not sold on Schubert's work for the League, this issue of JLE features his best lettering yet, and furthermore, Robertson and Beatty's art is (for the most part) outstanding through all 22 pages. Even when Robertson decides to get creative with his layouts, they're still a pleasure to behold and easy for the eyes to follow.

Unfortunately, JLE fails miserably in the story department. As if it weren't enough that we're in the sixth chapter of a 16-part League crossover event, the plot here also ties into the DC-wide "War of the Gods" storyline, resulting in roughly half the book being wasted on a portion of the team fighting Thor, Baldur and Loki (but not the Thor, Balder and Loki you're thinking of). Perhaps most egregious, as a result of the "Armageddon 2001" storyline that ran through all of DC's annuals in '91, Captain Atom is now (apparently) dead, but all we get to signify the passing of this book's team leader is a cursory reference.

Ultimately, only a few pages actually advance the overall "Breakdowns" storyline: First, Despero (predictably) escapes after battling Khunds in the depths of space, and now (predictably) he wants revenge (again) on the League; and the U.N. revokes the JLI's charter, leaving uncertain the fate of the JLA and immediately disbanding the JLE. Somehow I doubt next week's installment here at the D.D. will be much cheerier...

In other League news, L-Ron here officially takes over duties on both books' letters pages, but the execution leaves much to be desired. Most interestingly, "Justice Log" had to be printed following page 6 of the story proper in order to accommodate two painful double-page spreads. (At the opposite end of the interesting scale, L-Ron lets slip that Green Lantern #18 will be a "Breakdowns" crossover. Yeesh.) "Justice Log" and "Europinion" also accidentally run the wrong cover credits--blame it on the robot--so here I'll put things in their proper order. For JLA, it's "Sprouse by Chris pencils, Patterson by Bruce inks, Le Rose by Bob colors ... Oops, circuits got a little crazy there." And for JLE, it's "pencils by Darick Robertson, inks by John Beatty, colors by Bob Le Rose." Finally, in a sign of the awful things awaiting the League following JLA #60, the letters pages include this ballot:

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, #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.

60 WEEKS WITH THE JUSTICE LEAGUE: Week 30

Justice League America #30
Sep. '89
"Teenage Biker Mega-Death"
Keith Giffen - plot
J.M. DeMatteis - script
Bill Willingham - pencils
Joe Rubinstein - inks
Bob Lappan - letters
Gene D'Angelo - colors
Kevin Dooley - asst. ed.
Andy Helfer - ?

Justice League Europe #6
Sep. '89
"No More Teachers' Dirty Looks...?!"
Once again Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Bart Sears, Pablo Marcos, Bob Lappan, Gene D'Angelo, Kevin Dooley and Andy Helfer (as "Uncle Charely" [sic]) present a tale of profound psychological insight, philosophical depth and extraordinary inanity!


Well, it's all downhill from here, dear readers. At long, long last, we've hit the halfway point. Huzzah!

First up, in JLA, the Huntress joins Fire, Mr. Miracle and Big Barda in combating the nameless punk--a member of the street gang "Slash Grinders"--who misappropriated Barda's Megarod in the last issue. And, well, that's pretty much the story. The rod itself eats away at the punk and finally blows his head off, but not until after 18 pages of fighting. Finally, at the end, Maxwell Lord Jedi-mind-tricks Huntress into joining the League.

As the letters' page reveals, "[Huntress] is officially in part-time." (The good ol' "Justice Log" also offers up these cover credits: "Kevin Maguire-pencils, Joe Rubinstein-inks, Bob Le Rose-colors.") The issue is penciled by a young Bill Willingham, whose work is hit or miss, but when he's on, he's on, and I wouldn't mind if he had to fill in again somewhere down the line.

In JLE, Captain Atom has enrolled his team (save Ralph, who already speaks the native tongue) in a French class. To celebrate the occasion, Power Girl decides to look like Mick Jagger--or is that Madonna?

As luck would have it, the Injustice League--last seen in JLI #23 and since relocated to Paris--has enrolled in the very same class. One can imagine how this all wraps up.

All told, it's a great romp in keeping with JLI's humorous spirit. It seems my early fears that this title would take itself too seriously were unfounded, and thank goodness for that; otherwise, the next 30 weeks could be a bumpy ride, indeed. Check you brakes for the downhill slope, and be here next week for:

Advertisers, take note: More Airwolf, please!

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, #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, #59/35, #60/36


Airwolf panel (from an Acclaim ad) copyright Universal Studios, Inc., Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. and Nintendo of America, Inc. All other images this post copyright DC Comics. Original text copyright Jon D. Witmer/The Danger Digest.