I’m a little behind, so sue me. But in a way, reviewing the last two parts of this storyline together makes more sense, since they finish up the story, but remain somewhat non-sensical separately.
The plot, in short: after escaping Hell, the Super Buddies find themselved back on Earth. Well, except that it isn’t actually our Earth. It’s a parallel Earth, with counterparts to many characters (or is it? Some of the characters believe that the artifact that sent them to Hell in the first place is just twisting their imaginations in creative ways). One thing I noticed right off the bat is that the covers for these last two issues are far and away much better than the others. The cover for #8, for example, shows the alternate version of Mary Marvel (though, curiously, the interior art is a little more risque: the cover shows Mary’s lightning bolt as yellow, while the inside art makes it clear that there’s no material there at all). And who can resist a cover showing a giant-sized parallel Earth version of the former Green Lantern G’nort, as #9 does?
Obviously, after the seriousness of the last issue, we get a healthy dose of comedy here, combined with the type of soul-searching characterizations that made the old 80s series shine. While Mary, Guy and Power-Girl fight the S&M versions of Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel, the rest of the gang fights parallel versions of Max Lord, Booster Gold, Metamorpho, and Ice.
Some of the gags do fall flat: Blue Beetle gets amnesia in issue 8 for no apparent reason other than to make some not-so-funny observations, and the Guy/Power Girl bickering can get a little tiresome, but I really can’t be that mean to a comic that eventually ends up with a trio of superheroes hiding out in a giant dog’s fur, dodging child-sized lice. You know, even typing that sentence make me smile: this comic reminds me of the weird Red Kryptonite stories in the old Superman comics.
The story ends a little abruptly, with Dr. Fate stepping in to bring our heroes back, but each one of them ends up having learned a lesson or two about themselves or each other. Too bad DC had to go ruin it. I’d take one issue of Giffen’s Justice League over the bazillion Infinite Crisis crossover issues.
Reviews of the Previous Issues
- Justice League Classified #7
- Justice League Classified #6
- Justice League Classified #5
- Justice League Classified #4
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