Issue Credits

Writer

Geoff Johns

Penciller, Cover Penciller

Jim Lee

Inker, Cover Inker

Scott Williams

Colourist

Alex Sinclair, Hi-Fi, Gabe Eltaeb

Letterer

Patrick Brosseau

Cover Colourist

Alex Sinclair

Variant Cover Penciller

Greg Capullo

Variant Cover Inker

Jonathan Glapion

Variant Cover Colourist

Fco Plascenia

Assistant Editor

Darren Shan

Editor

Brian Cunningham

Quotes

Wonder Woman: CREATURES OF EVIL! BACK TO HADES!Flash: Uh… wow.Green Lantern: Dibs.

Synopsis “Justice League Part Three” (22-pages)

Previously: It is five years ago and Earth’s newly emerged superheroes are feared by a populice who cannot yet tell them apart from the supervillains. Matters begin when Gotham City’s Batman and Coast City’s Green Lantern find themselves fighting the same winged mechanical-demon. Together they follow-up the possibility that it is an alien creature by questioning the alien Superman in Metropolis. A misunderstanding leads to a brawl and Green Lantern calls in the Flash to back them-up. The four heroes have only just got their personal misunderstandings sorted when a box they seized from the first monster starts “pinging”. A massive teleportation portal suddenly opens and a hoard of identical creatures poor through. A second portal simultaneously opens in Detroit’s STAR Labs severely injuring Victor Stone, the son of Silas Stone, the scientist who had been studying another of the alien boxes.

Diana, the Wonder Woman from a society of immortal Amazons, had decided to stay in Man’s World after escorting USAF pilot Colonel Steve Trevor safely back from his crash-landing on Paradise Island. Her arrival and her eagerness to battle monsters has played into the general hysteria surrounding the emerging super-humans. She had been a guest of Trevor’s military superiors at the Pentagon, but Diana goes AWOL to investigate sighting of a flying monster. Along the way, she discovers the delights of “ice cream” from a young child. However, their conversation is cut short, first by Steve Trevor, and then by a third portal that opens up over Washington. Diana yells “But this is a fight. Excellent! Leave them to me.”

Other portals have opened across the world. In Detroit, the monsters have flown off with most of the occupants of STAR Labs. Dr Silas Stone and his colleagues, Sarah Charles and Thomas Morrow, are left behind to try and save the life of Silas’s son. Victor’s body is still smouldering with some unknown energy as the scientists get him into STAR Lab’s Red Room – the store house where Silas keeps the alien and superhuman technology that he has recovered from around the world. They hurriedly replace Victor’s damaged body parts with promethium skin grafts, motors, and nanite regulated biology in a desperate bid to rebuild him before his entire biology is consumed by the alien energy. Victor’s mind races as he makes contact with the technology that is becoming part of his body. Through the chaos and pain he sees the nightmarish face of the demons’ master.

In Metropolis, Batman, Green Lantern, the Flash, and Superman are still battling against the invading hoard. They also notice that the demons are carrying away rather than killing their foes. Wonder Woman’s arrives to join them after followed her hoard from Washington to Metropolis. The growing band of heroes continues to follow the demons to the edge of the ocean, but a booming sound signals that another gateway has opened. A massive alien fortress appears in Metropolis harbour. The onlookers barely have time to contemplate its arrival, before a green-and-orange clad Aquaman climbs out of the harbour and tells them “They were in the water too.”

Text piece: The Secret History of Atlantis by David Graves.

Continuity

• Steve Trevor is Wonder Woman’s Pentagon Liaison.
• Thomas Morrow and Anthony Ivo worked for STAR Labs in Detroit at the time the Justice League formed. Morrow participated in the creation of Cyborg.

Commentary

• Editorial Changes: Darren Shan replaces Rex Ogle as the Assistant Editor (who has left for DC for a job with Harry Potter publisher Scholastic) and Brain Cunningham replaces Eddie Berganza as Editor.
• Final coloured cover: Alex (*sinccolor) Sinclair’s Deviant Art page

Opinion

The third instalment of the new Justice League sees the introduction of the post-Flashpoint Wonder Woman and Aquaman. This series feels like it’s really getting into its stride. Mart Gray says this issue provides a “solid mix of story advancement, characterisation and action”, while the Heretic calls it “pretty hefty”, and Erik Norris (IGN) says it delivers on the promise of being “DC’s blockbuster action title”. Even CBR, which called last issue “weak”, says that the creative team have “found their groove” with this third issue.

I find the Wonder Woman’s first meeting of the other heroes rather telling. Back during the 1980s reboot she popped-up to punch a robotic dog (another Darkseid plot) in Legends, but vanished before Superman could ask who she was. This Wonder Woman smashes straight into the middle of the combat, and for that matter the banter, and doesn’t feel the need to demurely runaway afterwards. She is also younger than we’ve seen her portrayed in the past and Diana still has a chip on her shoulder about being treated as a child by the other Amazons. She is in wonder of some aspects of Steve Trevor’s world, but she’s not naive about evil or about the possibility of monsters. This Diana has the enthusiasm for the fight that her older, normal DCU version has tempered with experience and the knowledge that a peaceful approach is usually the better choice (if available).

DC have been hunting for a persona for Wonder Woman for years and this one fits as well as any other they’ve tried. The Perez version was very regal, but over time had evolved into something almost untouchable and perfect. Gail Simone’s post-Infinite Crisis version brought a greater breadth to the character and actually showed a woman who was able to enjoy her work at times. The version presented here extrapolates that version further and shows an inexperienced Wonder Woman who is as eager to wade into battle as Hercules ever was. She isn’t unrecognisable, but there is certainly a long road between this character the more mature version we’re use to.

Minhquan Nguyen picks up on the apparent youthfulness of the character’s dialogue:

…it should come as no surprise how the interaction among the “Leaguers” (since officially, they’re not a League of anything just yet) feels almost like the banter you’d expect more from the Teen Titans or Young Justice.

The comparison works well as these guys (except for the Batman) don’t yet have that focus which experience beings. However… I’m sorry, but this Hal Jordan is such a jerk. Desite Andy Hunsaker saying Hal’s “douchebaggery is at a minimum” Hal’s comment about Wonder Woman (“Dibs”) is undeniably crass (even by the low stands he’s set himself in this series). I didn’t mind the jerk version of Hal (and even defended it in the first two issues), but the joke is starting to wear rather thin. I’m beginning to wonder if they haven’t swapped Hal out of Guy Gardner.

Jim Lee’s art is great as ever. The opening Wonder Woman sequence reminded me a lot of John Byrne’s style and his run on the character – particularly the camera angle on the second page. However, there are a number of inconsistencies in the way Wonder Woman is drawn. Her face changes quite a bit from panel-to-panel and she goes from wearing heals on page three to wearing flats on page four. I’m not sure why this issue need three different colourists, but the final work isn’t discernible from Alex Sinclair’s usual high-standards.

This is really comes down to the group of four male heroes treading water with even Superman’s stunts had beginning to feel routine. Its Wonder Woman’s scenes that carry the issue and give a boost away from the all-boy-club we’d had so far.

The Verdict

Characters

Feature Characters

The individuals soon to be known as the Justice League

• Aquaman (Arthur Curry. First appearance in this series. )
• Batman (Bruce Wayne. Billionaire playboy turned costumed vigilantie. Last appeared in Justice League (vol. 2) #2. )
• Flash (Barry Allen. A CSI in Central City. Last appeared in Justice League (vol. 2) #2. )
• Green Lantern (Hal Jordan. Test pilot and interstellar lawman. Last appeared in Justice League (vol. 2) #2.)
• Superman (Clark Kent. Reporter turned alien superhero. Last appeared in Justice League (vol. 2) #2. )
• Victor Stone (High-school football player. Heavily injured by energy from the Detroit Boom Tube. His father, T.O. Morrow, and Sarah Charles try to save his life with cybernetic devices from STAR Labs’ “Red Room”. Last appeared in Justice League (vol. 2) #2. )
• Wonder Woman (Diana of Paradise Island. An Amazon warrior. First appearance in this series. )

Villains

• Darkseid (Behind-the-scenes. First post-Flashpoint visuals in Cyborg’s vision. )
• Para-Demons (lots of them) (Appear in Boom Tubes across the world to abduct people. Last appeared in Justice League (vol. 2) #2. )

Other Characters

• Orr and his men (Security team at the Pentagon assigned to watch Wonder Woman)
• Raquel (a young girl who introduces Wonder Woman to ice-cream)
• Sarah Charles (Intern at STAR Labs, Detroit. Last appeared in Justice League (vol. 2) #2. )
• Silas Stone (Head of STAR Labs’ superhuman research programme. The father of Victor Stone. Had to watch his wife die. Last appeared in Justice League (vol. 2) #2. )
• Steve Trevor (Colonel in the USAF. Assigned to Wonder Woman as her Pentagon liaison.)
• Thomas Morrow (Robotocist at STAR Labs, Detroit. First post-Flashpoint appearance.)

Cameos

• Anthony Ivo (Scientist at STAR Labs, Detroit. Mentioned as one of those abducted by the Para-Demons. )

Annotations

Page 1. It looks like the West-borough Baptist Church are protesting at Wonder Woman in the DC Universe.

Colonel Steve Trevor is Wonder Woman’s Lois Lane. He first appeared alongside Wonder Woman in All-Star Comics #8 (Dec 1941). His exact purpose in her stories has changed over the years, but he is generally her excuse to become a superhero. In most tellings he’s a US pilot who crash lands on the Amazon’s mythical island home and has to be escorted back to Man’s World. Wonder Woman accompanies him and uses her Amazonian powers and skills to fight evil.

Mister Orr, first name unrevealed, is the man in charge of the troops who Steve Trevor is talking to. He is a mysterious black-ops mercenary who appeared in Jim Lee’s run on Superman and in the Lex Luthor: Man of Steel mini-series working for Lex Luthor. He was responsible for the creation of a couple of generations of OMAC prototype and general nastiness.

Page 2. Wonder Woman was created by psychologist William Moulton Marston All-Star Comics #8 (Dec 1941) in response to the apparent lack of female role models in the nascent comic book industry. Marston is famous as the inventor of the lie-detector – an invention that he invoked by giving Wonder Woman a Lasso of Truth which compels people to tell no lies. The Lasso also drew on Marston’s more colourful theories about how it was women’s place to pacify men via the bonds of love. Those pacifying bonds are made manifest by the Lasso, but were played up to such a degree that early Wonder Woman comics are known for having a certain bondage/domination subtext. The flavour of those early stories didn’t survive past Marston’s death and DC’s desperate attempts to make Wonder Woman appear as non-threatening (to men) as possible.

The character languished for decades until George Perez completely restarted her history with Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #1 (Feb 1987). The latest relaunch by Brian Azzarello and Chiff Chiang is part of the New 52 and stays pretty true to the Perez version of the character,. It nevertheless draws on a more Earthy and horror based version of the Greek myth than the toga-wearing academic version used in the 1980s. A subtle development since the 1980s has been the evolution of Wonder Woman’s approach to lethal force as compared to that of her equals in the DC Universe. Her mythological origin gives her a parallel as a monster killer like Hercules. She sees nothing wrong in beheading monsters like Medusa or even humans like Maxwell Lord when she considers them to be monsters. Its not something she does casually or even frequently, but her willingness to cross that line puts her diametrically at odds with Batman.

Diana is asking about a Harpy. In Greek mythology a harpy was a monster who had the torso and head of a woman and the limbs of a eagle.

Page 4. Wonder Woman’s mother would be Queen Hippolyta. Steve Trevor is Wonder Woman’s Pentagon Liaison.

Page 5.

Wonder Woman’s moral willing to use lethal force is externalised here by her carrying of a sword. This particular shape is, in keeping with the origin’s of Diana’s society, an ancient Greek design as used by Hoplite infantry. It is similar to the fantastic replicas created by Windlass Steelcrafts.

Page 6. Two long-standing DC scientist super-villains are revealed to have been working at STAR Labs, Detroit at the time of Darkseid’s attack. The first is Professor Ivo, the inventor of Amazo, who is carried away by the Para-Demons. The other is T.O. Morrow who is the creator of the Red Tornado and his siblings.

Page 10-11. A little bit of an oddity here. Superman is shown using the truck as a weapon as he dismembers the Para-Demons. Its fairly graphic and obvious that Superman is killing these things left-right-and-centre. However, it isn’t entirely clear whether they are alive. They have teeth and spew a blood-like liquid when mangled, but they also show machine-like interface surfaces when parts are hacked off (e.g. the one at Wonder Woman’s feet on page 16).

Page 12. The question is posed: if Morrow and Stone shouldn’t be in the Red Room, who should? I can’t help but question the link between Morrow in the Red Room and the eventually emergence of the Red Tornado.

Page 18. The transformation of Victor Stone into Cyborg. Promethium is a metal from the original run of Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s New Teen Titans. It was a metal which had miraculous abilities to absorb energy. Nanites are tiny machines which operate inside individual cells. They are an important part in the mythology of Star Trek’s Borg and somewhere along the line made the jump into DC’s Cyborg. Grafting cybernetic parts, even if they really existed, onto a real person would take hundreds of hours of delicate surgical procedures, but we’re shown here that Cyborg’s creation was as much battlefield expedience as it was a deliberate plan by his father.

Page 19. The first glimpse of the New 52 Darkseid:

Page 22. The first appearance of the New 52 Aquaman and they appear to have recruited him from the 1970s (nice sideburns).

Page 24. The Secret History of Atlantis text-piece. Its author David Graves was mentioned in last issue’s text piece where Amanda Waller asks if Steve Trevor has ever heard of Graves. In the week of this issues publication DC’s official Twitter channel post the tweet:

@DCComics Signing of THE JUSTICE LEAGUE: GODS AMONG US by superstar author David #Graves is canceled.

Page 25. “South Orange” is in New Jersey. The first lending date of this book, Dec 2006, is five years ago and is contemporary with this story. However, the copyright date at the bottom shows this book was actually first “published” ten years ago.

Page 26. Graves other books allude to “real” world paranormal cases. “The Yonaguni Pyramid” is in the waters off of Japan. Kaliasa is a temple to Shiva cut into rock in India. The Belmez Faces appeared in a house in Spain.

Page 28. The Graves Foreword name checks two other specialists: Dr Stephen Shin and Dane Dorrance. Dorrance is the leader of a team of divers and explorers called the Sea Devils. Shin is a new character who is mentioned here first and appeared several weeks later in Aquaman #3. Aquaman reluctantly consults Shin about a newly appeared subaquatic race, but he also tells Mera that Shin has become obsessed with finding Atlantis. Shin’s obsession started after he was consulted on the young Arthur Curry’s developing aquatic powers.

DC has released the variant covers for Justice League #1. There are two different covers,  the normal one by Jim Lee and a variant by David Finch. To confuse matters more each of those covers also appears as two-variants. The Jim Lee version has a blue background on the normal issue and a yellow background on the combo-pack issues (the one containing the voucher for a digital copy). The Finch cover is a 1:25 variant. I really can’t say I’m taken with the Finch cover, they all look so grumpy. I prefer the smiling image from Ivan Reis ‘s NYCC poster.

All of them the covers now show Wonder Woman without any leggings. Putting aside the sexism issue, I just don’t think it looks right. The redesigns had been done to make the League looked more team-like, but they are now making WW look less like the other characters (who all have full-length leggings).

The colouring doesn’t help. The original WW costume had blue-shorts and red-boots. In reality we know that it’s a completely unrealistic outfit, but we are so used to it – because its been there for 70-years – that we don’t usually think about it. This new WW costume with its black-shorts and black-boots is, in my thinking, enough of an alteration to break that 70-year blind-spot and make us realise how odd it actually looks. It also doesn’t help that we’ve had the JMS full-length leggings in place for a year or so. If you’ve read Wonder Woman #613 you’ll have seen both WW costumes side-by-side and neither of them looks wrong. Yet this hybrid version just doesn’t work as well as either the classic or the previous version.

I feel a similar way on Superman’s costume. The segmentation of the suit doesn’t bother me so much as the change in colouring on the belt and trunks. Look again at Superman’s new costume and you’ll see that he’s still wearing trunks as that part of his suit, they are still outlined by a segmentation line. As a defined area of his costume it still exists. That red-belt just clashes against so much blue. Red-and-yellow against blue or red-and-black against blue works because the three colours create a balance, but just red on its own looks garish.

Issue Credits

Writer

Judd Winick

Penciller

Fernando Dagnino

Inker

Raul Fernandez

Colors

Hi-Fi

Editor

Brian Cunningham and Rex Ogle

Cover Artist

Dustin Nguyen

Variant Cover Artist

Aaron Lopresti

Variant Cover Colors

Hi-Fi

Quotes

Max: Ivo, we have got to improve the security on this @#$% ship.

Max: Geez, Michael, did you think threatening me was actually going to end this?Booster Gold: No. I was hoping I’d have to beat you like a damn dog first.Max: Now you’re talking.

Synopsis “Caught”

Previously: It has all come down to this – the final confrontation between the manipulative Maxwell Lord and his former allies in the Justice League International. Via the Blue Beetle the JLI have learnt that Max has been building an android powerful enough to destroy Wonder Woman (despite most of the world not remembering who she is, who Max is, or that she ever killed Max). The last-minute assistance of Power Girl and Batman (Bruce Wayne) leads them to Wonder Woman moments before hundreds of OMACs fill the skies.

Maxwell Lord is racked with pain as the signal awakening the OMACs is channelled through his mind. Ivo had warned him about the pain, but their plan appears to be working. Millions of OMACs appear in the skies all over the world and begin searching for Wonder Woman. They have no record of her DNA or appearance, but they don’t need that as they zero in on a known signal – Skeet’s scanners. The JLI and Wonder Woman turn and try to fight, but Skeets flees as he detects one of Max’s teleportation portals. The heroes try to get out of its way, but it sucks them and Wonder Woman through. Most of the OMACs follow leaving the JLI’s heavy hitters – Power Girl, Batman, and Captain Atom – behind in New York.

Fire, Ice, Beetle, Booster, Rocket Red and Wonder Woman are transported to Los Angeles where they see New Checkmate decloak in the skies above them. They don’t have time to react before Max drops his big surprise. A super-powerful OMAC variant calling itself “OMAC Prime”. It speaks with Max’s voice, but is autonomous and tells them that Max thought his voice would “creep you all out a bit.” It refuses to take the fight to a non-populated area and gleefully tells them that “I’m going to kill Wonder Woman right here!!” They throw their energy beams and super-strength at OMAC Prime with little effect. Booster breaks away from the battle and blows a hole in New Checkmate. He then challenges Max to a fight. Meanwhile, as OMAC Prime starts replicating the JLI’s powers as it beats them.

Opinion

We’ve had two quite-wordy, character heavy issues and now its time for some arse-kicking. That isn’t to say we don’t get some great character moments – Skeets turning into a coward (kinda explains why he isn’t always around) and Booster starts his confrontation with Max. However, the rest of the issue is a running fire-fight with the OMACs and the newly arrived OMAC Prime. IGN’s Jesse Schedeen complains that the “humor and banter are subdued”, but that fits the severity of the situation.

Lets start with OMAC Prime. This entire storyline — all Max’s plans, stolen technologies, alliances, and whatnot — has been building towards the biggest badass android of all time. That’s a massive sell and a very hard one to live up to. CBR’s Doug Zawisza and Heretical Jargon’s Heretic calls it a “cheap [..] knockoff ” of Amazo (ouch). This OMAC looks like a tooled up version of the CRASH android from Power Girl. Certainly it’s sense of humour would appear to be the same. OMACs are usually shells built over innocent people so I wonder who, if anyone, is inside of OMAC Prime.

There are a lot of very positive reviews for this series, but I find CBR’s Doug Zawisza’s review of this penultimate issue interesting. He says:

I know there are fans of this series, and I have tried to dig into this series more than a few times over the twenty-some issues to this point, but it just doesn’t offer much substance to the story for me. All of the characters here have moved on to other places, become different characters, but here they keep hitting the same beats over and over again.

That isn’t the series I’ve been reading as these characters have been shown to have moved on. The former reunions (Formerly Known as the Justice League, “I Can’t Believe It’s Not the Justice League) were indeed like that, but Judd Winick has taken care to integrate Booster’s maturity, Fire’s Checkmate work, and Ice’s post-death trauma into the book.

I also don’t think this is a series you can really dip into and out of. Brightest Day has been far more episodic than Generation Lost. It has needed to tell very distinct, encapsulated stories in order to keep its different threads compartmentalised. Generation Lost hasn’t needed to do this and that makes it feel more coherent as a whole. I think the entire series benefits, but it also means that when individual issues are read in isolation they aren’t necessarily as interesting as they could have been. Its just my opinion, but I think reading Justice League: Generation Lost has to be an all or nothing affair.

Wonder Woman’s addition to the group seems appreciated. Inside Pulse’s Grey Scherl says that

Diana is a nice visual addition to this title, [Fernando] Dagnino does a a really nice job with her new costume, and again with the fighting, her style comes across uniquely.

While the Heretical Jardon’s Heretic added that

Finally, the new Wonder Woman felt like…well…Wonder Woman!  She had all of that gusto and power behind her character while still retaining a lot of the new characteristics given to her by Straczynski.

One issue left to wrap this all up. Should be interesting.

The Verdict

Characters

Feature Characters

Justice League International

• Blue Beetle (Jamie Reyes, appeared last issue)
• Booster Gold (Michael Jon Carter, appeared last issue)
• Captain Atom (Nate Adam, appeared last issue)
• Fire (Beatriz DaCosta, appeared last issue)
• Ice (Tora Olafsdotter, appeared last issue)
• Rocket Red (Gavril Ivanovich, appeared last issue)

Villains

• Maxwell Lord (appeared last issue)
• Professor Anthony Ivo (appeared last issue)

Supporting Cast

• Skeets (Booster’s flying robot, appeared last issue)

Guest Stars

• Batman (Bruce Wayne, appeared last issue)
• Power Girl (Karen Star/Kara Zor-L, appeared last issue)
• Wonder Woman (Diana, Amazon Princess, appeared last issue)

Annotations

Page 1 – Max makes a mistake – he calls Professor Ivo “Dr Ivo” a couple of time in this issue – academics tend to be pissy about such things. We also learn that Max has been using his mind control on Ivo.

Page 2 – OMACs are people. The OMAC virus is based on technology from a future incarnation of Brainiac (B13) and will remain dormant within a carriers cells until activated by a control signal. Originally that signal came from the Brother Eye satellite, but that was destroyed and Max is now using his own Mind Control power as the signal. Upon activation the OMAC virus takes control of the carriers body and encases them within a super-strong armoured shell – an OMAC. It’s the perfect weapon for fighting superheroes as it can match their abilities, but the innocent person trapped inside stops the heroes from using lethal force in retaliation.

Mart Gray points out that there is not letter listed for this issue.

Page 5 – Ice seems to have acquired a shirt or jacket from somewhere – I can’t imagine an ice goddess would need such a thing.

Page 10 – The ball-like delivery method parallels the CRASH android’s containment vessel seen in Power Girl.

Page 20 – An Ivo built android that replicates other meta-humans powers — OMAC Prime contains Amazo technology, which I suppose shouldn’t be too much of a surprise given its maker.

Issue Credits

Writer

Judd Winick

Penciller

Joe Bennett

Inker

Jack Jadson, Ruy Jose

Colourist, Variant Cover Colourist

Hi-Fi

Letterer

Swands

Cover Artist

Dustin Nguyen

Variant Cover Artist

Kevin Maguire

Editor

Rex Ogle, Brian Cunningham

Quotes

Blue Beetle: Truth is, I’m still learning about this thing. My whole superhero-ing gig is a work in progress.Fire: Get in line.

Power Girl: Batman remembers Max Lord.Booster Gold: You do?Batman: I do.Booster: Thank. You. God.

Synopsis “A good new, bad new sort of thing”

Previously: The Justice League International were at their lowest ebb. Maxwell Lord had killed the Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes) and had framed Captain Atom for the murder of hundreds of people. Booster Gold, who had grown into the role of the group’s leader, was forced to admit that “We’ve Lost!”. However, that was before he discovered that Beetle wasn’t quite as dead as they thought…

The Blue Beetle awakens to find his friends crowding around him shouting “You’re alive!” The bullet Max shot him with didn’t penetrate his armour, but it did fracture his skull and cause internal bleeding. His armour reacted by placing him in a healing stasis state until it was safe to revive him. Once the excitement has died down Beetle explains to the others that he downloaded files from Max’s computers whilst he was being held captive. Max has manipulated their battles with Checkmate to make the UN organisation appear incompetent and dangerous. Then, after the UN rescinded Checkmate’s mandate, Max stepped in and seized control of their remaining  assets.

Power Girl arrives with the Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Beetle explains to everybody that Max has been building a powerful android designed to kill Wonder Woman. However, history has changed around her and only whose people whose memories have been insulated against such changes remember who she originally was. Booster, Captain Atom, Fire and Ice still remember her, but Power Girl, Rocket Red, and Blue Beetle have never heard of her. Luckily Batman also remembers who Wonder Woman is and tells them that they can find her in New York City. Batman He has heard of a string of Amazon murders and is certain that they will bring Wonder Woman into the open. They meet her on a roof top, but she only recognises Batman from the media and refuses to flee with them while somebody is killing her Amazon sisters.

Meanwhile in New Checkmate, Max tells Anthony Ivo that their machines will have to work perfectly as there is no more time for more tests. Max is strapped into a machine and energy starts pouring through him. Ivo is all for cancelling the run, but Max orders him to press forward. Max’s mind control had once wiped the memories of almost everybody on Earth, but this time around he’s acting as a control signal to activate thousands of OMACs and order them to converge upon Wonder Woman’s location.

Opinion

It is the beginning of the end for Justice League: Generation Lost as the focus of Max’s plan is revealed. It was a fun issue and was really the integration of everything that had happened in Power Girl and this series so far. CBR’s Doug Zawisza calls it a ” transitional issue that helps straighten things out” while Inside Pulse’s Grey Scherl calls it “the last calm issue before the last two issues promise to do all kinds of big shit and leave this book ending with a bang.” A couple of reviews noted that the issue felt short, this was in part because it had to reiterate every plot and make sure everybody was in the same place ready for the conclusion.

The big development if you haven’t been reading Power Girl is the arrival of the elder Batman. He’s always had this same affect in the old JLI comics. The title was fun/funny, but Batman was handled seriously. Sure, he might have got in on the jokes once or twice, but his presence always lent the group a sense of credibility that might have otherwise been lacking. The same goes here. Batman shows up and the tone instantly changes from reactive to proactive. That’s not to say that the JLI couldn’t have done it on their own, but Batman is there to provide a classic short cut through several issues worth of running around. It’s a great moment, but I slightly regret that it undermines the regular cast. They’ve struggled all these weeks only to be told that they’ve just been following Max’s road map and here comes Batman to tell them what they should actually be doing.

The art is great. Very interesting art choice with Batman. We haven’t once seen his eyes.  love the reaction of the JLI to Jaime being alive, in particular the “put me down” sequence felt like something out of the original JLI comics.

The Verdict

Type	Site	Reviewer	Original Score	Equivalent
	Grand Average		76.9%	3.8
Digital Comics	Comixology	121 ratings	4/5	4.0
Comics Portal	Comic Book Resources	Greg McElhatton	3.5/5	3.5
Comics Portal	Comic Vine (Staff)	Tony Guerrero	4/5	4.0
Comics Portal	Comic Bulletin	Sunday Slugfest (3 reviews)	3.2/5	3.2
Comics Portal	IGN	Erik Norris	8.5/10	4.3
Magazine	Crave Online	Andy Hunsaker	7.5/10	3.8
Magazine	Fandom Post	Chris Beveridge	B+	3.5
Magazine	Under The Radar	Kyle Lemmon	7/10	3.5
Community	Comic Vine	Av of 9 reviews	4.1/5	4.1
Community	iFanboy	1405 pulls	4.1/5	4.1
Reviews Blog	A Comic Book Blog	Wayland	90%	4.5
Reviews Blog	Captain Bloggington	Wade Christian	4/5	4.0
Reviews Blog	Comic Book Movie	Destroyer	8/10	4.0
Reviews Blog	Heretical Jargon	The Heretic	10/10	5.0
Reviews Blog	Inside Pulse	RJ Schwabe	8.5/10	4.3
Reviews Blog	Major Spoilers	Stephen Schleicher	4/5	4.0
Reviews Blog	Multiversity	Brian Salvatore	6/10	3.0
Reviews Blog	RazerFine Review	Alan Rapp	4/5	4.0
Reviews Blog	Weekly Comic Book Review	Minhquan Nguyen	B	3.0
Character Site	Batman News	Andrew Asberry	8.5/10	4.3
Character Site	Batman on Film	Chris Clow	A	4.5
Character Site	Gotham Knights Online	Brendan	5/5	5.0
Character Site	Captain's JLA Homepage	Jason Kirk	3.5/5	3.5
Character Site	Superman Homepage	Ralph Silver	5 (art) & 5 (story)/5	5.0
Character Site	World of Black Heroes	worldofblackheroes	3.5/5	3.5
Reviews Portal	Comic Book Resources	Doug Zawisza	2/5	2.0
Reviews Portal	IGN	Jesse Schedeen	6.5/10	3.3
Community Site	Comics Vine	3 Reviews	5 & 3.5 & 3/5	3.8
Community Site	iFanboy	500 pulls	3.9/5	3.9
Reviews Blog	Heretical Jargon	Heretic	8/10	4.0
Reviews Blog	Inside Pulse	Grey Scherl	8.5/10	4.3
Reviews Blog	Comics Per Day Reviews	Timbotron	Average	2.0
Reviews Blog	Boosterrific	Boosterrific	5/5	5.0
Character Site	The Captain's JLA Homepage	Jason Kirk	3.5/5	3.5
Reviews Portal	Comic Book Resources	Doug Zawisza	3/5	3.0
Reviews Portal	IGN	Dan Iverson	7/10	3.5
Community Reviews	Comics Vine	3 user review/s	4.67/5	4.7
Community Reviews	iFanboy	498 pulls	4.2/5	4.2
Character Site	Boosterrific!	Boosterrific.com	4/5	4.0
Character Site	The Captain's JLA Homepage	Jason Kirk	4/5	4.0
Reviews Blog	Comics Per Day Reviews	Timbotron	Fair	3.0
Reviews Blog	Inside Pulse	Grey Scherl	8/10	4.0

Characters

Feature Characters

Justice League International

• Blue Beetle (Jamie Reyes, appeared last issue)
• Booster Gold (Michael Jon Carter, appeared last issue)
• Captain Atom (Nate Adam, appeared last issue)
• Fire (Beatriz DaCosta, appeared last issue)
• Ice (Tora Olafsdotter, appeared last issue)
• Rocket Red (Gavril Ivanovich, appeared last issue)

Villains

• Maxwell Lord (last appeared in Justice League: Generation Lost #20)
• Professor Anthony Ivo (last appeared inJustice League: Generation Lost #19)

Supporting Cast

• Skeets (Booster’s flying robot)

Guest Stars

• Batman (Bruce Wayne, last appeared in Power Girl #21)
• Power Girl (Karen Star/Kara Zor-L, last appeared in Power Girl #21)
• Wonder Woman (Diana, Amazon Princess)

Annotations

Page 1 – Jaime was kidnapped by Max in Justice League: Generation Lost #16 and shot while trying to escape in Justice League: Generation Lost #19.

Page 4 – The Reach armour that Jaime wears is ridiculously advanced – these guys even held the Green Lantern Corps to a draw so I can believe that it’s sophisticated enough to do as he described. What will be interesting is that it has now set the bar for just how hard he is to kill.

Page 5 – Max: “We’re playing an audible here, Tony” – An audible is American football slang for a command or play tactic called out at the last moment in response to changing events on the field.

Page 6 – The beak in at Checkmate Castle occurred in Justice League: Generation Lost #7 and Justice League: Generation Lost #8. Checkmate lost their UN sanction in Justice League: Generation Lost #17.

Page 8 – After Power Girl left the JLI in Tokyo she went back to try and convince Dick Grayson (the Batman that she’d been working) that Maxwell Lord was real. Dick had managed to throw off Max’s mind control twice, but the psychic weight of it kept overwhelming him. In Power Girl #21 Power Girl decided that the only way to prove that Lord existed was to prove that Ted Kord (the second Blue Beetle) did not kill himself. Ted had been murdered by Lord, but everybody (including Dick Grayson) had been made to believe that he committed suicide.

Power Girl exhumed Ted’s coffin and arranged to for Dick preform a second autopsy (for a Batman evidence trumps hypnotic suggestion). Dick got squimish, but the sudden arrival of the elder Batman (Bruce Wayne) forced his had.

Bruce Wayne remembered Maxwell Lord and worked Dick through the autopsy showing him conclusively that Ted Kord could not have killed himself. Bruce and Power Girl then left Dick to phone around the JLA, JSA, and everybody else while they went to help the JLI.

Page 9 – The blood transfusion that Max is referring to occurred in Justice League: Generation Lost #1. Whenever he uses his mind control power it causes a nose bleed. He had to take special precautions when pushing his power over the entire world and almost killed himself.

Page 10 – The OMAC experiments were in the Chicago facilities found in Justice League: Generation Lost #11. The kryptonian clones refers to the clone Divine and the Antarctic cloning lab discovered by Power Girl in Power Girl #18. The tests on the Metal Men were in Justice League: Generation Lost #11. The genetic trials at Cadmus were shown in Power Girl #20 and resulted in the Creature Commandos shown in Justice League: Generation Lost #16.

Page 11 – Ah, Wonder Woman. It’s complicated and her storyline has yet to wrap in her own title yet. I covered the basic details in my annotations to Justice League: Generation Lost #15. When Newsarama interviewed Judd Winick they asked him why some members of the JLI remember Wonder Woman, but everybody else doesn’t. Winick replied that:

I’ll tell you, and it’s the truth. I was going to cover that in the comic, but I just would have had to force it in there. There was no organic place for someone to scratch their head and say, “Hey, I wonder why we remember Wonder Woman and no one else did?” I wanted to get it in there, but it never quite worked, and I hope the story hasn’t suffered for it.

So as a footnote to the story, for those that are reading this, Max made the JLI able to remember him, wanting them to chase him and do his bidding and help him take down Checkmate, as they will learn in unfortunate detail in the next issue — Beetle knows and will lay it on them. And the same mechanism that Max used to spare them from forgetting Max has kept them in the loop on Wonder Woman as well. The anomaly that surrounds Wonder Woman didn’t work on them. It’s just as simple as that.

Which basically comes back to a quip Giffen made in the introduction to the first JLI trade. He pointed out that the answer to every question about events in the JLI series was ultimately “Max did it.”

Page 12 – The gag with the faux Wonder Woman costume is funny enough, but it this issue appeared during the week that the Wonder Woman costume from the new TV series was first reveals and was picked apart by the internet for not being quite right.

Page 13 – Batman: “The power of the White Lantern restored my memory. All of it.” I originally thought that this was odd as Bruce Wayne wasn’t resurrected by the White Lantern? He was never dead, just displaced in time when Max did his mind control thingy and Wonder Woman’s history mutated. However, he did meet the now living Boston Brand in Brightest Day #14 during Brand’s quest to find a new ring-bearer for the White Lantern power ring. Brand thought Batman was the chosen one so he forced the ring onto him. Batman briefly became a White Lantern and through the ring he became aware of all those who had been resurrected.

It’s clear that for the majority of his time whilst wearing the White Ring that Batman isn’t in control of his action and the White Lantern is speaking through him to Brand. However, at the end of the issue we see this scene.

It appears that the White Lantern is now the cosmic get out of continuity free device.

Page 14 – Batman mentions dead Amazons. In Wonder Woman’s reconstructed history the Amazons were defeated by an unknown malefactor and Queen Hippolyta was killed. The survivors and the infant Diana escaped to Mansworld. She was raised by them in secret, but the unknown bad-guy has continued to hunt the Amazon survivors.

Page 15 – WW: “You’re Batman, right?” I don’t know how the timing works out, but Wonder Woman has previously only met Superman.

Page 17 – As a Brit I was amused to see the Gherkin (30 St Mary Ave, City of London) behind the man and boy in London. It’s rapidly become one of the most iconic buildings in London.

Page 18-19: Previously Max used the Brother Eye satellite as a command-and-control interface for the OMACs. It appears that the machine he’s built with Professor Ivo is now augementing his natural mind control/telepathy so that he’s replacing the central functions which Brother Eye once oversaw.

Issue Credits

Writer

Judd Winick

Penciller

Joe Bennett

Inker

Jack Jadson, Ruy Jose

Colourist, Variant Cover Colourist

Hi-Fi

Letterer

Swands

Cover Artist

Dustin Nguyen

Variant Cover Artist

Kevin Maguire

Editor

Rex Ogle, Brian Cunningham

Quotes

Maxwell Lord: What the @#$% do you mean, “Who is Wonder Woman?!”

Booster Gold: I’m sorry that Max framed you and I’m sickened and horrified that that piece of crap murdered a thousand people on this road to whatever the @#S% this road is — BUT, YOU DON’T GET TO KILL HIM!

We are the good guys, Nate. And sometimes being the good guys sucks. Sometimes it means you’ve gotta eat it for a while until you’ve won. And the future is malleable! I know that better than anyone. You changed things just by coming back from whatever mass hazard, post-apocalyptic, cranky Power Girl version of Earth you got puked up on!

But, no! You don’t get to kill Max Lord! We capture him and he gets stuck in a concrete hole with 85 power dampers strapped to every appendage — and he rots there! But before we do that — I’M GOING TO BEAT EVERY LAST LOVING @#$% OUT OF HIM. And you are not going to deprive me of that! Got it!?!

Synopsis “Tomorrow Is Today”

Previously: Maxwell Lord, the corrupt ex-Checkmate and JLI director, was killed by Wonder Woman when he refused to release a mind controlled Superman. The White Lantern/Life Entity later resurrected Max and obliged him to murder the superhero Magog. Max’s life is now his own again and he has turned his attention back to the woman who killed him. Captain Atom has become aware of a potential war-torn future created by Max’s murder of Wonder Woman.

Max’s reaction to hearing that neither Professor Ivo or any of his underlings have heard of a “Wonder Woman” ranges between mania and depression. Nevertheless, he presses forward with “The Plan” and orders his underlings to find her.

Despite having just returned from a devastated future caused by Max’s murder of Wonder Woman Captain Atom finds himself  the prime suspect for Magog’s murder. Atom is all for killing Lord, but Booster talks him down and insists that they are still the good guys. They will find and stop Maxwell Lord, but they will take him alive. Their conversation comes to a halt when they come to the same realisation as Max – that the rest of the world (including Rocket Red and Blue Beetle) have never heard of Wonder Woman.

The four male heroes suddenly find themselves under attack by robotic gun men. Booster’s force field saves them, they then return fire and blow a hole though the wall of their Headquarters. They then see that they are surrounded by an army of J.A.K.E troopers and the Creature Commandos. Meanwhile, Ice and Fire have been discussing Ice’s recently recovered memories in the medical bay when they  come under attack by a separate group of J.A.K.E troopers. Ice freezes them, but not before Fire receives a gunshot wound to the stomach.

Continuity

• Ice’s real mother and younger sister (Nikolina) are living in New Zealand.
• Only Captain Atom, Booster Gold, Fire, Ice and Maxwell Lord remember that there was ever a Wonder Woman.

Opinion

This is an issue I thing we all needed; one that makes sure everybody is on the same page before we all go bounding off again. It’s something they’ve done a couple of times in the series. The twice monthly schedule makes this work as it gives the creative team the luxury of these occasional time outs without seriously hurting the pacing of the series. The revelation of Wonder Woman’s disappearance (or otherwise) adds pace this talking heads piece.

So much for my theory that it was Max behind Wonder Woman’s changes. Still it was amusing to see the characters meta-textually running around trying to figure out WTF is going on with Diana’s history. Most reviewers enjoyed that, but a couple questioned when it happened – the original style Wonder Woman appeared in the opening few issues so the change to the JMS continuity must have happened at a specific moment during this series.

The reappearance of the Creature Commandos was also unexpected, although I’m not entirely sure if this is the originals (who recently returned in the Superman titles), their out-of-continuity Project M-Alpha successors, or an entirely new batch.

This issue was one of the highest rated on the stands this week. Grey @ Inside Pulse pick’s Booster’s dressing down of Captain Atom as his highlight of the week.

Booster Gold tears Captain Atom a new one, and delivers one of the most awesome speeches I’ve ever seen come out of the character. [...] It’s an ironic moment when the man most famous for shilling his name out to any endorsements he could come across is the one giving a lecture in heroism, and what it means to be a hero.

This issue was also rated as iFanboy’s Pick of the Week.

Dan@IGN sums this series up when he says it “tells a single, focused and well-paced narrative whereas its sister title [Brightest Day] tells a rambling, jerky series of disconnected vignettes.” Yet that focused narrative twists what could have or should have been a fairly-linear hunt the black hat into a deadly espionage thriller. Doug@CBR rightly says that the expected plot of this series is now “off the path” and “into the wildflowers”. He concludes that

What happens from here is going to change some of these characters permanently.

I think he’s right, but I worry that “permanently” may mean that one or more of these characters won’t be alive come the final page. They’ve already killed a recently well known B-list character (Magog) so all bets are off as to where this ends.

The Verdict

	Site	Reviewer	Original Score	%
Reviews Portal	Comic Book Resources	Doug Zawisza	3.5/5	70
Reviews Portal	IGN	Dan Philips	8/10	80
Community Reviews	Comics Vine User Reviews	Ave of 4 review/s	4.25/5	85
Community Reviews	iFanboy	468 pulls	4.5/5	90
Character Site	Boosterrific!	Boosterrific.com	4/5	80
Reviews Blog	Comics Per Day Reviews	Timbotron	Good	80
Reviews Blog	Inside Pulse	Grey Scherl	8.5/10	85
This Site	Captain’s JLA Blog	Jason Kirk		70%
		Grand Average		80%

Characters

Featured Characters

Justice League International

• Blue Beetle (Jamie Reyes, last appeared in issue #13)
• Booster Gold (Michael Jon Carter, last appeared in issue #13)
• Captain Atom (Nate Adam, appeared last issue)
• Fire (Beatriz DaCosta, last appeared in issue #12)
• Ice (Tora Olafsdotter, last appeared in issue #12)
• Rocket Red (Gavril Ivanovich, last appeared in issue #12)

Guest Stars

The Creature Commandos

Villains

• Maxwell Lord (last appeared in issue #13)
• Professor Ivo (last appeared in issue #11)

Supporting Cast

• Skeets (Booster’s flying robot, last appeared in issue #12)

Guest Appearances

• Superman (flashback to “Sacrifice”)
• Wonder Woman (flashback to “Sacrifice”)

Annotations

Variant Cover: The new style Wonder Woman appears on Adam Hughes variant cover, but does not appear inside this issue. The old style Wonder Woman only appears in the first two-page flashback.

Page 1-2 - This flashback is to the events of a story called “Sacrifice” that span out of The OMAC Project #3 into Superman V (vol 2) #219, Action Comics #829, Adventures of Superman #642, Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #219 before rejoining The OMAC Project #4. At the time The OMAC Project, Adventures of Superman, and Wonder Woman were written by Greg Rucka.

In Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1 it had been revealed that Maxwell Lord was actually an anti-metahuman villain who had usurped Batman’s spy satellite Brother Eye. He also used his mind control power to turn Superman into his personal enforcer – Superman believed that he was attacking Doomsday, Brainiac, and Darkseid when he was actually attacking his fellow Justice Leaguers. Wonder Woman confronted Lord and, as shown here, broke his neck to free Superman.

There is an art mistake in the bottom two panels on page one. Wonder Woman sliced Superman’s throat by using her razor sharp tiara (notice that she isn’t wearing it past the third panel) and not the Xena-like boomerang as shown in these panels.

“When fate brought Max Lord back from the grave” happened in Blackest Night #8 when he was resurrected by the White Lantern Entity to fulfil part of its larger plan. For his new life he was obligated to arrange for the Kingdom Come future war to be averted. He did this in issue #13 by murdering Magog. He is now free to focus on his own plans. However, Captain Atom has seen that Max is responsible for his own future war – a separate one from the KC conflict – that was precipitated by his murder of Wonder Woman.

Page 3 - Wonder Woman… it’s complicated. When JMS came aboard as the writer of Wonder Woman he effectively rebooted her title and launched a brand new, contemporary origin and costume. However, those around her are aware that history has changed. From Wonder Woman #600…

The Amazon’s are now a secret society, hiding in the shadows of Man’s World, as they evade the forces ranged against them. Diana is their Princess and defender, but as yet hasn’t gone public as a superhero called Wonder Woman. That’s why Max can’t find her.

Page 4 - “The Irony” is that Max used his own mind control power to do something very similar – to make most people in the world forget that he ever existed – in issue #1.

Page 6 - Cadmus is the Cadmus Project, the federal genetics research facility from the Superman comics. It’s the same one seen in the recent two-part opening episode of Young Justice.

Page 7 - This is a flashback to issue #13. Max had brainwashed Magog into fighting Captain Atom. The Captain managed to break Magog free, but Max personally intervened and forced Magog to commit suicide. However, Max made sure that what people actually saw – or more correctly what they thought they saw – was Captain Atom killing Magog. Max then detonated Magog’s lance forcing Captain Atom to absorb the radiation (which is why only a 1,000 people were killed and the radiation then vanished). It was shown in issue #14 that, as side-effect of absorbing that radiation,  Captain Atom was bounced 121 years into the future where he observed a bleak future caused by a war Max had started in the present day.

Page 8 - This isn’t a headquarters that we’ve seen before. Presumably this is another of the defunct embassies like the New York and Potsdam embassies they’ve used earlier in the series. The “Great Victoria Desert, Australia” is a vast area (it’s the worlds third largest desert) in the south-west quadrant of Australia.

Page 10 - Ice is relating events that occurred in issue #11 and issue #12. The fake origin is the one from Secret Origins #33 the “true” origin was revealed in flashback in issue #12.

The Global Guardians were the international superhero group that Fire and Ice belonged to before joining the JLI. In panel 2 they are (left-to-right) Ice (background, I assume), Fire, Bushmaster, the Wild Huntsman, The Olympian, Little Mermaid, Doctor Mist, and Tasmanian Devil (foreground).

Fire’s comment about heroes not always coming from better stock is a reference to her own father who was a secret police agent for the Brazilian government during their military dictatorship. She protected him for years until Amanda Waller threatened to expose her and she turned him over to Checkmate. This briefly came up in issue #3 where she confronted the Black King.

Page 14-16 - Rocket Red and Blue Beetle not knowing who Wonder Woman is becomes significant because it leaves only Captain Atom, Booster Gold, Fire and Ice plus Max himself as the only people in the world – or at least this book – whom remember that she existed. And that’s the same list of people whose minds weren’t wiped by Max in issue #1.

Page 15 - Booster is looking at archive DC cover artwork. Michael Turners Supergirl from Superman/Batman #13, J.G. Jones Vixen from Justice League of America (vol 2.) #4, Adam Hughes’ Power Girl from JSA Classified #1, and a picture of Krypto. Strangely, just in the top corner, you can see a picture of the old style Etta Candy – Wonder Woman’s 1940s comedy sidekick.

Page 19-20 – The Creature Commandos were co-created by the original JLI co-writer/scripter J.M. DeMattheis for Weird War Tales #93 (November 1980). They were a cross between the Dirty Dozen and Universal’s movie monsters. You really don’t even need to know more more than “horror movie soldiers”. WWT #93 featured the WWII era Creature Commandos who were the product of Project M, the US military’s experiments with arcane magic and cutting edge science.

The Commandos survived the end of the War when they became trapped on an experimental space launch. The telling of how and when they returned to Earth keeps changing. The original Commandos reappeared in the Action Comics #873 (February 2009) when they were rescued from Brainiac’s skull ship by Superman.

They were then shown in Superman #692 (November 2009) as part of General Sam Lane’s stock piling of the United States’ wackier covert projects. Lane’s project was the same group who were responsible for returning Captain Atom to sanity after his time as Monarch so it’ll be interesting to see how he reacts to the Commandos.

Before Lane gained control of it Project M was under Checkmate’s control. It was one of the organisations which assisted in his first resurrection when his brain was transferred out of his android body and into a new cloned body. That leftover android body was refitted by Checkmate to be one of their Rooks as J.A.K.E. version 6.

There is/will be a second Creature Commandos team. They first appeared a 2000 Creature Commandos mini-series. They appeared to be the originals plus an expanded group called Project M-Alpha. That series was set in a possible near future, but the appearance of some of its members here suggests that the Cadmus group are their forerunners. A less sophisticated version of J.A.K.E. was the prototype for the mechanical footsoldiers used by the M-Alpha group.

Booster knows who the Creature Commandos are. His phrasing implies that he’s shared an adventure with the original WWII era group whilst working for Rip Hunter. However, Boosterrific’s annotations confirm that this is his first recorded encounter with them.

Updated: to add JLA/The-99 #3 and Power Girl #19 which were included in DC’s full solicitation.I’ve included Power Girl as it features the JLI on the cover. The League are also mentioned in the Supergirl solicitation.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #52Written by JAMES ROBINSONArt by MARK BAGLEY, ROB HUNTER & NORM RAPMUNDCover by MARK BAGLEY & ROB HUNTER1:10 Variant cover by DAVID MACK

With Washington, D.C. in the hands of The Omega Man and the full extent of his horrific power revealed, the JLA is forced to make a difficult decision. Is there no choice for the World’s Greatest Heroes but to team with the World’s Worst Villains – the Crime Syndicate – in order to save both Earths? How will this desperate action be affected by Ultra Man’s betrayal of everyone. . . and the reappearance of Dark Supergirl?Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.

On sale DECEMBER 22 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US

JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #15-16Written by JUDD WINICKIssue #15 art by JOE BENNETTIssue #16 art by FERNANDO DAGNINOCovers by DUSTIN NGUYEN1:10 Variant covers by KEVIN MAGUIRE

DC’s biweekly JUSTICE LEAGUE event continues!In issue #15, the world blames the Justice League International for the recent Chicago death toll and the death of a hero. As our team deals with the fallout, Captain Atom returns from a dark future with information on Max Lord’s ultimate plan – and Wonder Woman plays a major part in it!In issue #16, the Creature Commandos have attacked the JLI and one of the team lies dying. Meanwhile, Power Girl swears vengeance on the JLI for her friend’s death, but Batman suspects foul play.Retailers please note: : These issues will ship with two covers each. Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.

Issue #15 on sale DECEMBER 8Issue #16 on sale DECEMBER 2232 pg, FC, $2.99 US

JLA/THE 99 #3Written by FABIAN NICIEZA & STUART MOOREArt by TOM DERENICK & DREW GERACICover by FELIPE MASSAFERA

The first-ever meeting between DC Comics’ Justice League of America and Teshkeel Comics’ the 99 continues! Hawkman joins three members of The 99 on a flight to Brazil where earthquakes and devastation suggest the existence of another Noor Stone and another new addition to the 99’s team! Can Hafiz harness the stone’s power before he destroys everything? And why is Firestorm acting so . . . oddly?

On sale DECEMBER 29 • 3 of 6 • 32 pg, FC $3.99 US

POWER GIRL #19Written by JUDD WINICKArt and cover by SAMI BASRI

It was bound to happen what with her participation in JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST – Power Girl relies on the JLI to help her turn her recent fortunes around! But how will that sit with her current teammates in JSA ALL-STARS?

On sale DECEMBER 22 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

The Age of TV Heroes By Jason Hofius and George Khoury – Published by TwoMorrows Publishing – ISBN 978-1-60549-010-6

The first thing to say about The Age of TV Heroes is damn!, that’s a nice cover. Alex Ross renders DC’s four iconic TV heroes – George Reeves (The Adventures of Superman), Adam West (Batman), Jackson Bostwick (SHAZAM), and Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman) – so brilliantly that I suspect it’ll be one of the major selling points for this book.

The remit of the book is very tightly focused – this is a book about live action television superheroes, specifically adaptations of comic book superheroes although a few other series get a mention in the extensive time-line that opens the book. Each subsequent chapter focuses on a particular significant character or property so Adam West’s Batman get’s his own chapter, but George Reeves and Dean Cain’s Supermen share a chapter. Interesting Superboy (The Adventures of Superboy and Smallville) is handled separately from Superman.

For reference the chapters are:

1. A Comic Book-To-TV Hero Timeline
2. Superman/Lois & Clark
3. Batman
4. Shazam!
5. Wonder Woman
6. Spider-Man
7. Legends of the Superheroes
8. Captain America
9. Doctor Strange
10. The Incredible Hulk
11. Swamp Thing
12. Superboy/Smallville
13. The Flash
14. Vampirella
15. The Tick

Yes, you did read that right, there is a chapter on Legends of the Superheroes. There are also three “commercial breaks” focusing on the “TV Hero Movie Show Hosts”, “Salute to the Super Heroes” (the water ski show), and The Greatest American Hero. Some of these chapters are more interesting than others depending on your tastes.

The Age of TV Heroes is full-colour throughout and makes excellent use of contemporary photographs (publicity and candid) and occasionally comic-book artwork. Most of the chapters include quotes from interviews with one or more producers/actors from each show. The writers have also tried to shape the development and decline of each show into a narrative. Together this lifts the book above the usual bargain basement TV history books which are usually too cheap to get the creators’ help/input. That said the over all design of the book isn’t terribly consistent and bounces around from style-to-style each time you turn the page. Yet somehow this style does seem to strangely suit the TV superheroes.

Some of these shows have received more press that others. The pathos and tragedy surrounding The Adventures of Superman means that it’s hard to being much new to the topic. Nevertheless, that chapter does benefit with plenty of quotes from a Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen) interview. The sections on the Legends of the Superheroes and the Salute to the Super Heroes are probably unique in covering these properties in-depth.

Quotes

Superman (about Batman): In all our time working together it was the first time I saw Bruce scared. It wasn’t the aliens. Or the diamonds. Or even the Mach 6. It was just the simple and unavoidable realization that there were bigger things on the planet than him. And that’s what terrified Batman. [...] But as he’s done every day since he was eight years old, instead of being ruined by his darkest and most ruthless fears he embraces them.

Wonder Woman: So we’re on again? Once every year?Batman: That’s fine, Diana. But I think we can do better than that. And maybe even invite a few friends along in the process.Wonder Woman: Did you just say friends?Batman: I meant teammates.Superman: We know what you meant, Bruce.

Issue Credits

Writer

Brad Meltzer

Artist

Eric Wight (pgs 1-4), Dick Giordano (pg 5), Tony Harris (pg 6), George Perez (pg 7), J.H. Williams III (pg 8.), Gene Ha (pg 10), Rags Morales (pg 11), Ethan Van Sciver (pg 12), Kevin Maguire (pg 13), Adam Kubert (pg 14), Jim Lee (pg 16)

Penciller

Luke McDonnell (pg 9), Dan Jurgens (pg 15), Howard Porter (pg 17), Andy Kubert (pg 18), Phil Jimenez (pg 19), Ed Benes (pgs 20-24)

Inker

Paul Neary (pg 9), Kevin Nowlan (pg 15), Dexter Vines (pg 17), Jesse Delperdang (pg 18), Andy Lanning (pg 19), Sandra Hope (pg 20-24)

Colourist

Alex Sinclair

Letterer

Rob Leigh

Cover Artist

Michael Turner, Peter Steigerwald

Variant Cover Penciller

J. Scott Campbell

Variant Cover Inker

Sandra Hope

Variant Cover Colourist

Edgar Delgado

Assistant Editor

Jeanine Schaefer

Editor

Eddie Berganza

Synopsis “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”

The trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, like other groups of Leaguers, have always met independently of the monthly Justice League meetings. Since their first loss (the Red Tornado against the Nebula Man) they’ve met annually to discuss the state of the Justice League.

Together they’ve seen the highs and lows of each other’s lives, including the wedding of Wonder Girl, the formation of the Detroit League, Batman’s excitement at recruiting the second Robin and punching out Guy Gardner, the pain of Superman’s death and Batman’s betrayal by the other Leaguers and the lengths it eventually drove him to. A year ago Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime’s machinations led to a fracturing of the Justice League and a loss of trust between the its members. Now after a year-long sabbatical the trinity come together to begin its reformation.

The yearly meetings continue into the near future. Together they’ll see Hal Jordan’s wedding, Luthor’s vengeance, the death of Jonathan Kent, the marriage of Diana, the discovery of a second Earth, another loss of trust between them, and the ultimate death of the Batman.

Continuity

• Wonder Woman. Batman, and Superman were all founders of the Justice League.
• Superman’s wedding gift to Donna Troy was making sure nobody threatened her wedding.
• Batman was excited about training Jason Todd.

Commentary

Variants

A variant of this issue was given away as part of DC’s package for Free Comic Book Day 2007.

Press Clippings

At the time I quoted Wizard‘s coverage of this issue… According to Wizard #175 the new series of Justice League will be getting an issue #0 issue.

“A year has gone by with these three not together,” said the writer [Brad Meltzer] of the jump after Infinite Crisis. “This is where we get to see them [Superman, Batman, and Woner Woman] re-emerge. This issue allows us to center the universe of the JLA before moving on to the first true adventure of the new team in issue #1.”

The art will be supplied by League alumni Dick Giordano, Luke McDonnell, Kevin Maguire, Dan Jurgens and Howard Porter as well as Phil Jiminez, Adam & Andy Kubert and Rags Morales.

“You have each artist doing their League,” enthused Meltzer. “When you do a jam issue, usually it’s just a bunch of good artists, but this one actually matters and has a reason behind it.”

Meltzer also revealed that the covers for the new series will be supplied by Michael Turner.

Additionally, on the flash forwards Brad Meltzer told Wizard that:

The true reason is because some of those moments are happening. Obviously I can’t say which ones in the future are happening, but there are ones that are absolutely, 100-percent happening. Some of those I stumbled upon and said, “This is what I want to do,” and Dan (DiDio) told me we were actually doing that. And one of them I said, “Can we do this?! And he said, “That’s a good idea, we should do that.”

The only artist DC wouldn’t let Brad Meltzer approach about drawing a sequence was Simone Bianchi.

League History and the Big Three

The first flashback is to immediately after the events in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #9 (Feb 1962), just after the foundation of the Justice League – February 1959 in the pre-Crisis timeline. As originally told Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), the Martian Manhunter (J’onn J’onzz), Aquaman (Arthur Curry), and Wonder Woman (Diana) individually fought alien invaders from the planet Appellax. They then came together to fight a sixth invader (the famous wood alien) and tracked a seventh down just in time to see it defeated by Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Superman (Clark Kent).

Over the years there have been a few adventures retroactively added prior to that invasion attempt, notably the White Martian invasion revealed in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #114 (Dec 1974) and the disappearance of Triumph in Justice League America #92 (Sept 1994), but the Appellaxian Invasion is still regarded as the definitive origin of the Justice League. However, Superman and Batman’s role in the formation of the League was not that great. Their original involvement with the League was played down as their respective editors feared that they would be overexposed. Even in the comic book origin their involvement is separate from the other five heroes – they don’t fight the wood alien.

We now jump forward twenty-five years to immediately after the Crisis on Infinite Earths and DC Comics’s decision to reboot the origins of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. It was retroactively decided that these three had never been members of the Justice League. Superman and Batman were removed because they weren’t considered team players and Wonder Woman because she didn’t appear until long after the League debued. She was replaced by Black Canary for a retelling of the origin in Secret Origins #32 (Nov 1988) (by Keith Giffen and Peter David) and for JLA: Year One #1-12 (Jan — Dec 1998) (by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn) a twelve-part mini-series focusing of the League’s early days.

While the replacement of one Diana with another Dinah worked well within the fictional history it didn’t stop the feeling that many people had that the big three should really have been part of the early League. Over the years the timing of Wonder Woman’s debut has slowly slipped backwards in time and flashbacks show her participating in events she wouldn’t have otherwise been around for. Superman and Batman were eventually reintroduced to the League in John Ostrander’s JLA: Incarnations #2 (Aug 2001). The weight of history was slowly reintegrating the trinity back into League history. This was finally acknowledged in Infinite Crisis #7 (June 2006) when the realignment of the New Earth allowed DC to state (as shown below) that the big-three had been part of the League all along.

The flashbacks in this issue are really about re-establishing the big three’s place within the Justice League and adding Wonder Woman to the popular Superman/Batman dynamic – the rekindling of the World’s Finest. However, the split between Superman/Batman and the other Leaguers goes all the way back to the DCs Golden Age. In the 1940s Batman and Superman were run by one half of the company while the other heroes were predominately run by the other half of the company (at one point they were actually two separate companies). That’s why the World Finest were only ever bit part players in the Justice Society, Earth-Two Superman’s involvement with the Justice Society is as much a retcon as Black Canary’s addition to the early Justice League.

It’s interesting to compare the last JLA series by Mark Waid, Grank Morrison, and Joe Kelly with the original series by Gardner Fox and his successors. The modern series really focused on the big-three, particularly with Superman as the permanent chairman and Batman as the Morrison-esque Bat-god. While in the classic series the big-three were just normal members who served their month as the rotating chairman. Of the three it’s Batman who has the biggest League involvement as it’s Bruce Wayne who bankrolls the team and he even quits to form the Outsiders when he disagrees with the direction the League is taking. By comparison Superman’s involvement with the League is almost passive.

Opinion

The pressure on Brad Meltzer to deliver with this new series was immense. As Wonderfly put it on the Toonzone Forums:

Two years ago, Brad Meltzer tore the Justice League apart in the now infamous Identity Crisis miniseries, and now he begins the process of putting them back together.

He set the bar so high in Identity Crisis that I was afraid he’d have been hard pressed to match it. However, match it he does. This zero issue is arguably the best of his run (baring the Eisner winning Vixen/Red Arrow issue). In Comic Bulletin’s review jam Kevin Brown described the issue succinctly,

Meltzer has written a near masterpiece here. He’s done what damn few writers are capable of doing: keeping all of the continuity relevant and not trying to over explain it. It’s essentially one page of “1960,” one page “sometime in the future,” then one page “1973,” and so on and so forth. At first it’s a little disconcerting, but that has more to do with the wide disparity of artwork presented in this issue. Though once you’re able to fully see what Meltzer is doing, you’re totally sucked into the story.

It’s a marvellous trick using the style of each area. Many liked it, but there were dissenting voices like Adam White who argued that

In each era represented Meltzer portrays each of the Big Three with their various personalities from the histories of their individual books; while he does so accurately, all this does is serve to confuse any new readers and frustrate existing ones because the story lacks any real point.

I would agree that its hard to judge this zeroth issue as it’s a bridging piece between the dissolution of the League during the Infinite Crisis and its reformation next issue. In this context the alternating flash-backs and flash-forwards work well and the different artists are a good match to their eras. I particularly like George Perez’s Wedding of Donna Troy and Kevin Maguire’s One Punch. In general the flashbacks work better than the flash forwards, but the second Earth has certainly got by curiosity peaked.

While the story is essentially about the trio, the real focus of the flash-backs and the flash-forwards are Batman and his relationship with the League. Meltzer gives an interesting spin to the evolution of Batman’s character. His excitement and commitment to the League really makes the Identity Crisis mind wipe much more hurtful. The same sense comes through with his excitement about the new Robin. This is a side of Batman that we rarely see, but the fragility of his feelings sets up his reactions to the deaths of Jason Todd and Superman. Handling loss so badly starts to explain why he pushed everybody away from himself and slowly succumbs to the paranoia that plagued his later pre-Infinite Crisis appearances.

The Verdict

Characters

I’ve been a bit fast and loose with the way I list characters. Murray Ward’s original JLA Index series listed seven categories:

The seven character categories are: Feature Characters, characters to whom the title of the features refers; Guest Stars, characters from other comics who have a major role in the story; Supporting Characters, characters who appear frequently in stories with the feature characters; Villains, the antagonists of the feature characters, Guest Appearances, characters from other comics who have a minor role in the story; Other Characters, characters who do not fall into any one of the five previous categories; and Cameo Appearances, characters who do not actually appear in a story but whose images are seen, for example, in photographs, flashbacks, or reminiscences.

I’ve always tried to follow the spirit of that, but the lines behind what is a Guest Star, Guest Appearance and Other Characters have become blurred. This quote appears above as a reminder to me of what I should be working towards.

Feature Characters

Justice League of America (technically still disbanded)

• Batman (Bruce Wayne)
• Superman (Clark Kent)
• Wonder Woman (Diana Prince)

Villains

• Lex Luthor (splash page flash forward)

Guest Appearances

• Donna Troy (flash back to her wedding to Terry Long)
• Green Arrow I (Oliver Queen, flash forward to Hal Jordan’s wedding)
• Green Lantern Hal Jordan (single-panel flashback & flash forward to his wedding)
• Robin I (Dick Grayson, flashback to Donna Troy’s wedding)
• Robin II (Jason Todd, behind-the-scenes, Batman talks about recruiting him)

Other Characters

• Martha Kent (Superman’s adopted mother, flash forward to just after Jonathan Kent’s funeral)
• Terry Long (flashback at his wedding to Donna Troy)

Cameos

• Aquaman, Atom I, Atom II, Black Canary, Captain Marvel I, Cyborg, Doctor Mid-Nite I, Elongated Man, Firestorm I, Flash I, Flash II, Green Lantern (Alan Scott) Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Hawkman I, Hawkgirl I, Hourman I, Martian Manhunter, Power Girl, Red Tornado II, Sandman I, Spectre I, Starfire, Supergirl II, Vibe, Vixen, Zatanna (single-panel photos or flash forward/back cameos, where not otherwise mentioned above)

Annotations

Pages 1-4: Art: Eric Wight. Flash back 1. Wight began his career in animation, but was enlisted by O.C. writer Allan Heinberg to produce art for a subplot that involved one of the OC’s characters becoming a comic book artist. It was also Heinberg who suggested Wight’s name to Brad Metlzer when he heard he was looking for somebody to duplicate Mike Sekowsky’s style for the opening segment of this issue. It’s implied that the old World Finest adventures are still canon – Superman and Batman know each other’s secret identities and Robin is mentioned despite Batman not recruiting Robin until later in the fictional timeline. These could all be retcons, but it’s just as likely that the flashbacks are being told using the canon that was established when they were set.

Page 5: Art: Dick Giordano. Flash back 2. Dick Giordano was JLA inker during the early 1970s, his professional line lifted many pencillers work and he was the inker of choice for many League covers. His first issue was Justice League of America (vol. 1) #102 (Oct 1972) where the Red Tornado “died” and the issue just before this flashback. It was the League’s biggest story to date and spun out of the League’s one hundredth issue. The Seven Soldiers of Victory were DC’s second superhero team after the Justice Society. In Justice League of America (vol. 1) #100 (Aug 1972) it was revealed that they’d been lost throughout time during an encounter with the Nebula Man. A joint team of the JSA/JLA combined their might to find the missing heroes and to finally defeat the Nebula Man, but the Red Tornado was killed in the conflict. At the time the he was a member of the Justice Society and was not yet a member of the Justice League. The Seven Soldiers team was revived as a connected wave of mini-series by Grant Morrison.

A side effect of adding Wonder Woman back to the start of the League is that it shifts her modern origin back by about five years on the fictional DC timeline. We don’t know what Wonder Woman’s adventures were during that time, but her appearance in the second flashback would imply that some of her pre-Crisis adventures – notably her depowerment as Diana Prince – have been reintroduced to the canon.

Page 6: Art: Tony Harris. Flash forward 1. The Wedding of Hal Jordan. We are not given that many clues about the timing of the flash forwards. The implication is that Hal’s the last one to get married of the old Leaguers. Oliver Queen’s the best man. The bride is blond, but her face isn’t shown. Her skin colour would rule out the Green Lantern Arisia. The caption seems to imply that Clark is left out of the trio for some reason, could a deeper connection been Bruce and Diana be in the works. Joe Kelly and the JLU cartoon played with the idea of attraction between Batman and Wonder Woman, but nothing ever came of it.

Diana mentions Donna’s weddings plural (see below). She also mentions “What Dick did with Harvey” which could mean that Dick Grayson has reformed Two-Face – an allusion to Dick’s recent time with Batman. It matches a similar quip by the Batman of the 851st century during the DC One Million cross-over who says that Batman II reformed Two-Face II.

Page 7: Art: George Perez. Flash back 3. The marriage of Donna Troy (the first Wonder Girl, Diana’s sister) to Terry Long from Tales of the Teen Titans #50 (Feb 1985) recreated here by George Perez, its original artist. This is Donna’s first marriage, her “second marriage” was to the Titan of Myth Coeus. Diana’s mention of Dick not yet surpassing Bruce is a back reference to the first flashback where its implied that Dick has actually surpassed Bruce by managing to reform Harvey Dent, something Bruce recently failed to do at the start of the One Year Later continuity.

Page 8: Art: J.H.Williams. Flash forward 2. Luthor has the kryptonite signet ring. Luthor has two “sons” that we know about. The first was Jerry White, the result of an affair with Perry White’s wife, the second is Connor Kent, the recently deceased Superboy. Superboy was a clone of Superman, but Cadmus scientists couldn’t completely decipher Kryptonian DNA so they used human DNA as a template – Luthor made sure it was his DNA that was used as a template meaning that Superman and Luthor are both Connor’s “fathers.” This confrontation would presumably be Luthor’s revenge against the League for the death of Connor during Infinite Crisis #6 (May 2006) in an alternative future where Conner didn’t come back to life (Final Crisis Legion of Three-Worlds).

Page 9: Art: Luke McDonnell and Paul Neary. Flash back 4. McDonnell was the last penciller of the original Justice League of America series during the end of the Detriot era League and Neary was the inker during Brian Hitch’s short time as JLA penciller. The Detroit League was created by Gerry Conway as an early 1980s relaunch of the Justice League. The satellite was destroyed by an alien invasion (that’s why the trio are meeting in Challengers Mountain) that the League barely defeated because members weren’t able to respond. Rotating chairman Aquaman disbanded the League and reformed it with a handful of old Leaguers and four new heroes – Vibe, Vixen, Gypsy, and Steel II (not John Henry).

At the time of the invasion Superman and Wonder Woman were visiting Earth-Two and confronted Aquaman about the change in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #239 (June 1985). This flash back presumably happens shortly after than confrontation. Batman is referring to Vixen when he mentions “only one of them has has training” as she’s the only one of the four to have appeared before joining the JLA. Diana suggests that Batman helps train them. He turns her down here, but changes his mind in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #250 (May 1986).

Page 10: Art: Gene Ha. Flash forward 3. Shortly after the funeral of Jonathan Kent. This scene is based on a mix of old school Superboy and Superman the Movie. In the original comics both Jonathan and Martha Kent were dead. John Byrne’s reboot kept them both alive whilst the movie series only kept Martha Kent alive. The death of Jonathan Kent would move the comics continuity even closer to the movies. The tunnel was built by Clark as Superboy so that he could exit the Kent Farm without being spotted. This is the first sign that it exists post-Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Jonathan Kent character was still alive when this appeared in 2006, but he died of a heart attack in Action Comics #870 (December 2008).

Page 11: Art: Rags Morales. Flash back 5. The Batcave just after the first appearance of the second Robin, Jason Todd. Diana mentions Donna’s reaction if she ever took on another apprentice, but she’d do that herself years later with Cassie Sandsmark. This scene seems to back up the idea that we’re seeing scenes set in the old continuity as that’s Jason Todd’s pre-Crisis circus costume in the glass case. Pre-Crisis Todd’s origin was a duplicate of Dick Grayson’s circus origin (Detective Comics #526 (May 1983)), post-Crisis he was a just street punk. Todd was killed by the Joker and Batman kept his Robin costume in that case as a memorial. Todd was returned to life as a side effect of Superboy-Prime’s actions in Infinite Crisis.

Page 12: Art: Ethan Van Sciver. Flash forward 4. Paradise Island shortly before the marriage of Diana to an unnamed male. Clark and Bruce are both married. Note the Batman Begins style ribs on Batman’s cape. Diana loosing her immortality by marrying a man is a very pre-Crisis idea, not sure if this has been established post-Crisis. If this really was following pre-Crisis continuity then the only man she could be marrying is Steve Trevor.

Page 13: Art: Kevin Maguire. Flash back 6. The punch that they’re discussing occurred in Justice League #5 (Sept 1987). Batman was leader of the League and Green Lantern Guy Gardner had been constantly undermining his authority. Gardner finally tried to pick a fight, but Batman knocking him unconscious with a single punch.

Maguire was the regular artist on Justice League and illustrates this flashback. If Batman’s pose in the last panel is familiar it’s because its identical to Gardner’s stance moments before Batman punches him. This scene would have had to happen a little while after the real incident as the JLI Embassy(s) weren’t established until Justice League International (vol. 1) #8 (Dec 1987).

Page 14: Art: Adam Kubert. Flash forward 5. Probably the toughest flash forward to decipher. Its a new incarnation of the JLA Satellite, Superman’s alone as Batman and Wonder Woman haven’t turned up. Something has driven a wedge between them again, possibly something Batman’s done. I think the main point of this scene is to tease us with a “New Satellite”. I’m not sure if we’re meant to read something from the Trophy Room, but the items on display are (left-to-right) Aztek’s helmet, a globe (origin unknown), Green Arrow’s arrows, a box of something (wooden splinters from the wood alien?), a Starro fish, an Amazo, Despero’s infamous chessboard, and that looks like Bizarro’s head.

Page 15: Art: Dan Jurgens & Kevin Nowlan. Flash back 7. The Death of Superman. Dan Jurgens was writing and drawing JLA at the time, he brought Superman back into the League after a long absence and tied the title into “The Death of Superman” (which he was also co-writing and drawing). In terms of League history the Death of Superman is important because, in my opinion, it started the slow rot that finally resulted in the franchise being culled and relaunched with the third series. Superman’s tattered cape on the pole is Jimmy Olsen’s iconic photograph and the cover of Superman (vol. 2) #75 (Jan 1993).

Page 16: Art: Jim Lee. Flash forward 6. The discovery of a new Earth. As they note this isn’t the first time they’ve encountered a parallel Earth. The note about the Flash finding the new world is a nod to the first appearance of Earth-Two in The Flash (vol. 1) #123 (Sept 1961). This seems a very generic flash forward, but the League did have their own crossover with the Tangent Universe a couple of years later. It was set-up in issue #16 (Feb 2008) and then followed up by Tangent: Superman’s Reign (2008).

Page 17: Art: Howard Porter & Dexter Vines. Flash back 8. This is a flash back to just after the epilogue to “Tower of Babel” (JLA #43-46 (July — Oct 2000)). Howard Porter was the main artist during Grant Morrison’s JLA and this story (Mark Waid’s first) was the last one he illustrated. Wonder Woman mentions the death of Jason, the second Robin who Batman was so excited about in Flash Back 5. It was his death that prompted the change in Batman’s characterisation to the increasing brutal loner who pushed all of his friends away. His increasing paranoia made him keep secret files on his JLA team-mates. “Tower of Babel” was about those files falling into the wrong hands and the League’s reaction to they’re existence. It many ways it was the first shot in the disintegration of the trio’s relationship that eventually led to the events of Infinite Crisis.

Page 18: Art: Andy Kubert and Jesse Delperdang. Flash forward 7. This flash forward is an homage to Frank Millar’s The Dark Knight Returns setting – a bleak and dark future where Batman went under ground and was forced to fight Superman. Clark mentions he’s glad Diana came back which could be a reference to the split implied in Flash forward 5. Crime Alley, the setting for their meeting, is where Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered.

Page 19: Art Phil Jimenez and Andy Lanning. Flash back 9. The first panel is from Infinite Crisis #1 (Dec 2005) when the trio met in the wreckage of the JLA Watchtower. Panels 3 and 5 are from the end of Infinite Crisis #7 (June 2006) when they decided to each take some time off, Clark had lost his powers, Bruce needed to reconnect with Dick and Tim, Diana went elsewhere, and then meet up again one year later. That skipped year is played out in 52. Jimenez and Lanning illustrated Infinite Crisis. The other two panels are a flash back to the Batcave meeting at the start of this issue.

Pages 20-24: Art Ed Benes and Sandra Hope. The Present. The meeting one year after the last flash back so this is the first meeting after the three “One Year Later” stories by James Robinson in Detective Comics/Batman, Kurt Busiek and Geoff Johns in Action Comics/Superman (vol. 3), and Allen Heinberg in Wonder Woman (vol. 3). The photographs scattered on the table are Supergirl, Captain Marvel, Green Arrow, Vixen, Hawkman, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Red Tornado, Black Canary, Flash, Aquaman, Power Girl, Zatanna, Cyborg. I think the one on the edge next to Zatanna may be the Huntress.

Donna Troy

Donna was originally introduced into the Teen Titans as Wonder Girl, Wonder Woman’s sidekick, in Brave and the Bold #60 (June-July 1960). However, Wonder Woman never had a sidekick in her own comic so Donna was a whole invention by the Teen Titans creators Bob Haney and Nick Cardy. Later creators have tried to reconcile Donna’s origin with the Wonder Woman mythology to varying degrees of success.

Donna was the first of the Titans to marry in Tales of the Teen Titans #50 (February 1985) and to have a child in the 1992 “Total Chaos” crossover. She was already estranged from her husband when he and their son were killed in a car crash in Wonder Woman vol 2. #121 (May 1997). Donna had became too old to be called Wonder Girl and had had a couple of different identities. First as Troia (as an avatar of the mythical Titans) and then as a Darkstar (a group set up by the Controllers in order to compete with the Guardian’s Green Lantern Corps). She has since defaulted back to using her own name and does not use a codename.

Donna’s recent history begins with her dead at the hands of a malfunctioning Superman Robot in 2003′s Graduation Day mini-series. This was the series that was the catalyst which saw Young Justice and the Titans reorganise into the Geoff Johns’ Teen Titans and Judd Winick’s Outsiders. It was explained in 2005′s The Return of Donna Troy mini-series that Donna had actually been reborn as one of the Titans of Myth, a group of immortals connected to the Olympian Gods, who were planning on escaping the impending chaos of the Infinite Crisis. The Teen Titans/Outsiders restored Donna’s memory and freed her from the Titans of Myth’s plans. It was explained that Donna had a unique link to the Multiverse because Dark Angel, an evil duplicate of herself from the first Multiverse, had repeatedly interfered in her past. This explains why Donna’s back story so often seems in flux.

Donna played a significant role during the Infinite Crisis when she used the resources of the Titans of Myth to transport a team of heroes to the centre of the Universe and into the heart of the Rann-Thanagar War. This set-up Starfire, Animal Man, and Adam Strange’s journey home in 52 and the discovery of the 52 Multiverse by the Red Tornado. Donna also became the custodian of the Orb of the Monitor with which she bore witness to the “History of the DC Universe” during the backups in 52. Later on, during the year shown in 52, she briefly succeeded her sister as Wonder Woman. The Monitors of the New Multiverse saw her as an anomaly as the believed that she was meant to have died during the Infinite Crisis (a wrinkle in reality mean that Jade died instead). She went on the run from them in Countdown to Final Crisis with Kyle Rayner (Green Lantern and her ex-boyfriend) and Jason Todd (the formerly dead Robin). She eventually met a another corrupted version of herself:

Once she’d returned from space and the Multiverse Donna rejoined the Titans, but she never felt settled. She described the feeling as,

Sometimes I feel like I was never young. I was saving the world before I could drive. We all grew up so fast. Well, most of us, but from the start , I was always  the adult. The big sister. The den mother. Always looking after everybody else. Always there for them. So why do I feel so alone.

Donna Troy, Titans #20 (Feb 2010) by Mike Johnson

When the monster Genocide (a Frankenstein-like aberration created by the Secret Society) attacked Wonder Woman Donna stood by her side. Psychic feedback from Genocide played on Donna’s fears and she began blaming Diana for her family’s deaths. She fought Diana on the shores of Paradise Island until wakened from her hallucinations. Unfortunately that imbroiled them in a complex powerstruggle between the Gods, the Amazons, and the newly created Olympians (Zeus’s male Amazons). She stood by Hippolyta and Diana’s side when they faced Zeus and forced him to confess his failures (Wonder Woman #36-39, Nov 09-Feb 10).

Donna had been trying to restart her private life by accepting new photography commissions (she was a photographer back when she was married), but her first job turned out to be a trap set by the Fearsome Five. Nevertheless, she rented a new apartment in Miami and began dating again (Titans #20). Donna was present at Animal Man’s house in Cry For Justice #5 when Congorilla and Starman recruited his help. And it was Donna who captured Prometheus in Cry For Justice #6.

Her live was unturned again when the corpses of her dead son Robert and ex-husband Terry were reanimated as Black Lanterns. She was bitten by one of them and began to sense Nekron’s power even before he turned her into a living Black Lantern (Blackest Night: Titans #1-3, Blackest Night #5). And for the record, that undead baby was the creepiest, sickest thing in the entire run of Blackest Night – not even undead Black Lantern Doctor Light came close. Donna was at the Hospital to retrieve Robert’s corpse for reburial when we first see her in JLA #41.

Why does Donna deserve to be in the Justice League? In one way or another she has been a principal in almost every major plot line from her return through Blackest Night. Right now she’s A-list DCU. Donna is obviously standing in for Wonder Woman, but there is a prescient for this. When Hippolyta was punished by being made Wonder Woman (following Diana’s death) she took her daughter’s place in the Justice League. Also, when Artimes took over the Wonder Woman mantle she tried to replace Diana in Justice League America. In the modern comics Donna is Diana’s twin sister, not her younger sister. She is as fast, as strong, and as tough as Diana and she may even be a more rounded person. So she’s a natural and deserving JLA candidate if and when her sister isn’t available.

Burton, of the Original Comics Book Art blog, reports the sale on eBay of several large pieces of stunning Darwyn Cooke (Spirit, DC: The New Frontier) artwork. The piece from which is the above is taken is a large monochrome piece featuring Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman that sold for 2,500 dollars.