• Donna: This was fun. Dick, and I’m so glad I got to do it with you.
• Dick: Me too. It’s been a blast, Don. But all things must end.

The JLA have been busy since they defeated Eclipso. They fought hundreds of robots who were being controlled by the Construct. Batman deduced that the battle was a distraction while the Construct controlled Kelex primed the weapons in the Fortress of Solitude to detonate. They also intervened in the Saturn-Thanagar War and helped J’emm stop the Thanagarians using Titan as a bridgehead for an invasion of Earth. Jade used the Starheart to boost the Titan colonist telepathic abilities whilst Congorilla exposed traitors within Jemm’s forces.

The Justice League are gathered aboard the observation deck of the Watchtower satellite. Supergirl breaks the news to them that she is leaving to concentrate on her poorly neglected private life and education. Donna agrees with her sentiment and tells the team that “Guys, I just don’t feel like it anymore.” Their encounter with Eclipso exercised her inner demons and she now wants to rediscover herself. Jesse Quick, who had got her powers altered during the fight with Eclipso, is quitting to concentrate on her pregnancy and family.

Congorilla considers that it is finally time he follows-up a debit of honour to find Dominic Mindawe (the deceased Freedom Beast) a successor and maybe turn the heroes of Africa into a new superteam. Starman decides to return to Opal to rest and heal from injures he sustained while fighting Dark Opal during Mordu and Sorcerer’s World’s invasion of Gemworld.

Batman surprises the others by agreeing their desire to step down. For his part, he is increasingly pulled towards Batman Incorporated and suspects that he may soon become Nightwing again. Batman tells them that “the next incarnation of the J.L.A. can be someone else’s problem.” He and Donna are the last people to teleport off the Watchtower and turn the lights off as they go.

• Unseen cases: Construct/Robot, “Saturn-Thanagar War”, “the Battle for Gemworld”.
• Jesse Quick is pregnant and can now fly at superspeed.
• The Justice League has been adjourned.

• Preview: Newsarama exclusive preview
• Coverage: Bleeding Cool That Meta Textual Finale To James Robinson’s Justice League Of America

This is very bitter-sweet end to the current Justice League. We all know by now that a new incarnation of the League, written and drawn by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, will be appearing within a few weeks, but this issue teases us with the stories that we could/would have read if the current James Robinson run had continued. The Construct/Robots battle looked okay, but I was really intrigued by the possibilities of the Thanagar-Saturn War and the Battle for Gemworld.

Mart Gray of Too Dangerous For a Girl laments that:

And this issue we see the kind of cosmos-shaking direction in which Robinson may have taken them, accompanied by mouthwatering artwork. You know, we just may be missing a classic JLA run by a classic creative team.

Tony Guerrero of Comic Vine notes that “the chips were always stacked against” this League once the Johns/Lee League was announced. That’s the League with the characters that (it seems) James Robinson wasn’t allowed to use. Poet Mase from IGN sums up a lot of people’s feelings for this issue when he says it’s like the last day of high school:

Remember how everyone was pretty happy, excited about the future, and a little sad to be saying goodbye? That’s pretty much what you’re going to get in issue #60 of Justice League of America.

Harleyquinnhawkgirl, also on Comic Vine, notes that “No one can say that this team was not unique”. Some people loved it, some people grew to like it, others never really got over the exclusion of the iconic founders. Doug Zawisza of CBR says that James Robinson “should be proud” of what he accomplished here.

Many of these stories include elements and themes that Robinson has been seeding throughout the DC Universe since he started writing for the Superman franchise a few or more years ago. You can’t help feel that he, as an expert on DC’s long history, has the most to lose as a writer in the new post-Flashpoint world. However, we do know that The Shade maxi-series kicks-off in November so it will be interesting to see how many references to Robinson’s JLA work survive.

Jesse Quick’s pregnancy is set up here and I hope, I really hope, that DC allows her and Hourman to remain together after Flashpoint. Their inability to keep their character’s together (cough, Lois and Clark, cough) or their characters’ kids alive is bordering on the pathetic so I really hope that Jesse and Rick get to be the exception. Especially is that rumoured James Robinson JSA series materializes.

The Verdict

Page 1. Robo-Octo-Ape was a character that James Robinson created for Superman #689. He was defeated by Mon-El, Doctor Light, and Rising Sun.

Page 2-3. That’s a lot of robots. Starting top left are the multi-coloured Red Tornado variants from “The Tornado’s Path”, Brad Melter’s opening arc on this volume of the Justice League’s adventures. Scattered around are the rest of the Red Tornado’s family from the  2009 Red Tornado mini-series. The big red robot is Red Volcano (centre-left), behind him Jesse is punching the Red Torpedo, the smaller red robot at the bottom of the left-centre page is the Red Inferno.The Red Tornado himself could be the one just above Starman’s hands.

Coming into the page on the left is a Manhunter android and the giant robot coming up from the bottom is Captain Marvel’s enemy Mister Atom. The text references Bozo the Ironman who is an old Quality Comics character (he’s the one being torn apart by Cyborg). His son “Gonzo the Mechanical Bastard”, was the villain in Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters and was created by Grant Morrison. He could be the figure getting blown apart by Jade.

The various incarnations of the GI Robots (as seen in issues of Justice League: Generation Lost) are scattered around the bottom-right. Stood amongst them is the Doom Patrol’s Robotman. The other Robotman, the Golden Age one referenced in the text, is the grey robot between Amazo (top-right) and the green teddy-bear robot coming on the right of the page.

Jesse Quick is kicking the head off of L-Ron from the JLI and Super Buddies series. The Texan with the telescopic arm holding Jade’s ankle is the Duke of Oil (an old Outsider’s villain). Scattered around the image are various members of Will Magnus’s Metal Men. Tin and Gold are above and below the Manhunter. Copper is approaching Jade. Iron and Lead are just above Donna. Mercury and Platinum aren’t visible, however, there is some red splatter around where Starman is firing so Mercury could have just been blown to pieces.

There is an orange android with her back to us inthe  bottom-left of the page, her identity isn’t clear, but she could be Mechanique – a pastiche of Maria from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis who appeared in the All-Star Squardron.

I haven’t got a clue about the Green Teddy Bear robot.

Page 4. Kelex was introduced back 1980s as the caretaker of the post-Byrne era Fortress of Solitude. He was based on the Kryptonian robots seen in John Byrne’s Man of Steel #1 so I rather like the symmetry of him appearing for a final time before the post-Flashpoint Universe. Make of his destruction what you will.

Page 6. Supergirl mentions college or exploring deeps space. She started university as Linda Lang at the end of her current series while the solicitation for her post-Flashpoint series seem to suggest that she’s been in space or is otherwise newly arrived on Earth.

Page 7. Diana (Wonder Woman) approached Donna about forming this version of the League back in Justice League of America (vol. 2) #38 (December 2009). She talked about establishing her photography studio in issue Justice League of America (vol. 2) #49 (November 2010).

Page 8-9. Jesse’s father is the Golden Age speedster Johnny Quick. It is a variant of his costume that she’s been wearing since Flash: Rebirth. Johnny was distinct from the Golden Age Flash in that he could fly as well as just run at superspeed. The Squid God was Syththunu from “Eclipso Rising”. During “JLA: Omega” Jesse was constantly moving at superspeed to keep the entire population of Washington DC out of the reach of the Omega Man. Her husband is Rick Tyler, the current JSA’s Hourman. His father is Rex Tyler, the original Golden Age Hourman.

Jade came back to life in Blackest Night #8. The interplay with her brother came from the “The Dark Things” JLA/JSA crossover.

Page 10-11. Thanagar is the Silver Age Hawkman’s homeworld. Jemm was a character created as a stand in for the Martian Manhunter. In the early 1980s DC were working on a spin-off Martian Manhunter mini-series, but DC changed their minds and had series altered before publication to feature a new, but unrelated character called J’emm. The Thanagarians and Saturnians appeared in Superman: World of New Krypton. Titan is the homeworld of Saturn Girl from the Legion of Superheroes. The colonists mentioned here were planted by Mon-El during James Robinson’s run on Superman, they were a colony saved from Brainiac’s spaceship at the same time that Kandor was saved.

Page 12. Congorilla is fighting one of the Faceless Hunters from Saturn.

Page 13-14. Freedom Beast (Dominic Mindawe) is the successor to the old B’wana Beast character. He was introduced in Animal Man #13 by Grant Morrison and killed off by James Robinson in Justice League: Cry For Justice #1 (September 2009).

Batman Incorporated is Bruce Wayne’s initiative to create a series of Batman sanctioned vigilantes around the world. The Batman of Africa is Batwing. He first appeared in an issue of Batman Incorporated and he will appear in his own Batwing series written by Judd Winick.

In earlier interviews James Robinson talked about a planned storyline which would have introduced the Justice League of Africa featuring Vixen. She left early in his run and the intention seems to have been to follow-up her activities. The characters that Bill mentions, “Shanty Saint, Ghost Fury, Princess Knife, Science Whiz Gulliver Sotinwa”, are presumable characters from that aborted plotline.

Page 15. Gemworld is the homeworld of Amethyst, it is divided into areas ruled by different houses that are each named after a particular gemstone – Dark Opal is the badguy. Mordru took over Sorcerer’s World in the Captain Atom second feature in Action Comics written by Robinson.

Page 16. Dick Grayson’s predecessor as Batman is of course Bruce Wayne. He recently returned to being Batman and that means there have been two Batman wandering. Post-Flashpoint Grayson is back as Nighting in a new series written by Kyle Higgins (Gates of Gotham) and Wayne is back as the sole Batman.

This is then the point where we flashed to at the end of Justice League of America (vol. 2) #59 (Sept 2011).

Page 18. The Starheart’s Emerald City was heavily damaged in the Rise of Eclipso. Jade is also a photographer, she and Donna were shown discussing getting an apartment or studio together in issue Justice League of America (vol. 2) #49 (November 2010).

Is it my imagination or it Congo Bill breaking the forth wall and talking for James Robinson here:

Page 19. Another piece of meta-textual comment. Donna appears to be MIA post-Flashpoint and DC execs have been cagey about where she has gone. This either sets up that disappearance or comments upon it.