I freely admit to being a comic book geek. When I was younger, one of my older brothers and I would make the trek to the local store and buy the latest issue of Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth, among others.
During the late 1980s, DC Comics published a new series starring the Justice League. And it was funny. Really really funny. But it was also a great read, with a lot of characterization, action, fun. Written by Keith Giffen and drawn by Kevin Maguire, that version of the Justice League quicky became my favorite.
In 2004, DC brought back the creative team for a mini-series Formerly Known as the Justice League, continuing the rapid-fire jokes and humor. Since success always breeds sequels, a new story arc in JLA: Classified brings back Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Fire, Elongated Man, et al in a brand new adventure.
And, as usual, it is both side-spittingly funny and a great read. And consider that there’s not a lot of physical action going on: the whole issue is exposition, but what wonderful exposition it is. Most comics you can breeze through in a few minutes: this comic takes a little longer.
The basic plot is that the characters (once the Justice League, but now serving justice out of their office in a strip mall) are setting up shop: either finding a place to live, fun stuff to do, or catching up on paperwork. The wife of the Elongated Man, Sue Dibny (who was brutally killed in another DC Comics series last year, but that’s another story (and a bad one at that)) ,discovers that a former supervillain is opening a bar in their strip mall and is furious.
Really. That’s the plot.
But there’s so much more going on: you’ve got Fire and Mary Marvel looking for a place to live . The two characters are total opposites of each other: a world-wise, been-there-done-that supermodel (Fire) and the innocent hero just starting out (Mary Marvel). The dynamic is meant to remind us of the pairing of Fire and Ice back in the original series (Ice being yet another of the sacrifices to the crossover gods in some really bad comic series: funny how the women always get killed in those things).
We also get Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, bickering like an old couple, trading insults, getting into trouble, just like the old days. And, to make it even more like the old days, they run into an old friend at the end of the issue: a former hero we all love to hate: former Green Lantern Guy Gardner.
Reading this comic, it was like I was back in the 80s again (I mean that in a good way). Nice, crisp dialogue, an artist who can actually draw expressions, and a storyline that isn’t just the heroes punching everything. Can’t wait for the next issue.
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 3rd, 2005 at 9:31 pm and is filed under DC Comics, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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