Justice League #1
"Born Again"
plot and breakdowns: Keith Giffen
script: Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis
pencils: Kevin Maguire
inks: Terry Austin
letters: Bob Lappan
colors: Gene D'angelo
editor: Andrew Helfer
grade: A-
The initial launch of the new Justice League, and yet the roster was still in transition at this point. Come to think of it, while we see that Dr. Light's addition was a choice made my Maxwell Lord, how the heck did Mister Miracle and Oberon end up on the team? They're just sort of...there.
Obviously, this launch faced serious challenges, including both high expectations from the fan base and an inability to get the kind of core players that the fans were expecting. It's amusing how the issue pretty much acknowledges the expectations surrounding this new team in-story:
And, of course, Giffen's answer is to not even try to meet those expectations. Better to offer something completely different from what came before with absolutely no pretense of trying to be everyone else's Justice League.
While Giffen and DeMatteis' writing is brilliant in its comedic interplay and rich characterizations, Maguire's art really rounds out the package, delivering characters who look surprisingly realistic and grounded as opposed to resembling the icons readers were used to seeing on the comic book page. Had this been written ten years later, it could have been done through the lens of Maxwell Lord launching a reality television series. It absolutely has that irreverent and grounded feel about it.
As for the characters themselves...
Batman is clearly being more closely aligned with the Frank Miller Year One and DKR characterization by this point. This is not the friendly and sometimes even humorous Batman we just saw in Legends.
His frank and abrupt nature forces the team into shape when their natural state is nonproductive chaos.
And there appears to be some acknowledgement of a reboot for Batman (though even editor Denny O'Neil hadn't drawn any real parameters around this) as the following panel seems to suggest that Batman's never served on a superhero team before.
You'd think his time with the Outsiders would have come up here, otherwise.
Guy Gardner, while functioning as the primary agent of chaos and instability for the team, is actually its most solid foundation from a creative standpoint. His combative nature keeps pulling rich characterization out of everyone around him, giving us a better chance to know who they are, what makes them tick, and exactly what principals they hold dear that Guy has just walked all over.
Blue Beetle continues to provide comic relief as a character who, like Guy Gardner, wants to be taken more seriously but, unlike Guy Gardner, is too polite to cause a scene about it.
Dr. Light is the sort of everywoman of the team in the sense that she's the only one who feels a bit ordinary and believable, wanting nothing more than to make a difference in the world, all while second guessing herself at every turn in the most humorous of ways.
Oberon is a polite, respectful, ambitious, and somewhat star struck gentlman who is genuinely overwhelmed to be calling himself a member of the Justice League, and yet he lets Guy get the best of him far more humorously than anyone else on the team. Watching Guy get taken down by someone less than half his size had to be one of the most priceless moments in this story.
Captain Marvel's youthful idealism, delivered with such straightforward approval in Legends, is openly mocked here to hilarious effect, and Maguire's work on Marvel's facial expressions absolutely takes the cake.
Martian Manhunter provides the gravity that breaks up the lighthearted nonsense the other characters bring to the table. It's frankly surprising how much pathos Giffen, DeMatteis, and Maguire are able to give him amidst the laugh-out-loud comedy that pervades the rest of the issue.
And, together with Batman, they serve as the elders guiding this group of raw cadets towards greatness.
Black Canary once again fails to establish much of a personality beyond being someone who gets offended by Guy at every turn. Frankly, I'm disappointed that Giffen and DeMatteis couldn't find more to do with her.
Maxwell Lord provides an enigmatic centerpiece to the team, having planned the conflict that delivers their first public victory by the end of the issue. I find it fascinating that, over at the Superman office, Helfer was overseeing Marv Wolfman and Byrne transforming Lex Luthor into a corporate raider, and here we see the other side of that CEO coin. Both Luthor and Lord are brilliant, cunning, and unscrupulous, but whereas one makes a perfect villain for the late 1980s, the other is a sort of anti-hero, creating good for his own ends. A fascinating contrast across Helfer-edited offices, to say the least.
Dr. Fate ends up neither being a true part of the team nor a true part of this story -- he just assembles the team and then disappears.
And
Mister Miracle remains the one member of the team who is totally and utterly a non-entity in this issue. He's just there, not really doing or saying anything of any importance. He guesses the terrorist they are about to take down is carrying a real bomb when Batman asks him; that's about it. In fact, he's the only member of the team who is given absolutely no role in the big rescue/battle at the UN.
What is this guy doing in the Justice League if Giffen and DeMatteis don't even seem to have a use for him yet?
In terms of the plot, no time is wasted on establishing the idea that in the global world of the 1980s, a Justice Leage of
America no longer makes sense. Maxwell Lord is clear about removing the last part from the team's name, we're given a member (Dr. Light) who is a UN delegate for another nation, and the big battle actually occurs at the United Nations. This team is going to forge its identity on an international level.
Finally, it's worth noting that the previous Justice League is still acknowledged here, and this time with more dignity than in
Legends #6, though the details are still avoided for the sake of making this a clear jumping-on point for new readers.
Important Details:- First meeting of the new Justice League
- First public appearance of the Justice League, which concludes with mixed results when the media draws conclusions about the villain's suicide at the end possibly being staged by Batman.
- Maxwell Lord (1st appearance) is secretly manipulating the team from afar, though they do not know about him yet.
Minor Details:- Wow. Batman opted to let a terrorist kill himself over fighting him and taking him in against his will. That's damn
dark, even moreso than anything that we saw in DKR or Year One, and certainly more dark than anything Collins or Barr were writing in the Batman titles at the time.
- Seriously, what are Mister Miracle and Oberon doing on this team?
Plot synopsis:
Set at the previous Justice League's headquarters, the team arrives for their first meeting while being heavily covered by the media, Guy makes his bid to run the team, Batman puts him in his place several times, and the team is called out to for its first mission: to rescue the new Dr. Light from terrorists who have taken over the United Nations. The team succeeds with some precise coordination from Batman, all while Maxwell Lord observes and gradually reveals to the reader that he set the whole thing up. In the end, the media continues to speculate and debate about the quality and integrity of the new team, calling into question the suspicious suicide of the lead terrorist right after Batman engaged him. A great first outing that serves up comedy, character, and even a little unexpected substance in an effort to totally subvert fan expectations for a new Justice League and also establish its new international scope. There are many questions left unanswered (some that I worry will never get answered...coughcoughseriouslywhatisMisterMiracledoingontheJusticeLeaguecoughcough), as well as a few teasers to keep us reading, but generally speaking, it does everything as well as a new Justice League launched under these circumstances and with these expectations attached to it possibly could.
