A review by tbr_the_unconquered
JLA, Volume 1 by Grant Morrison
3.0
Until recently the best memory that I had of about the JLA was Bruce Timm’s excellent animated series that aired almost a good decade ago in India. It started off with a bang with all the key A-team players (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Martian Manhunter and Aquaman) battling forces too large for a single hero. It was immensely exciting seeing that the almighty costumed heroes did have chinks in the armour which could be exploited by the right kind of antagonist. And also that together they could bring down apocalyptically huge threats. Then along came Justice League unlimited and the series went to mud in no time. A few crack, elite heroes were replaced with a trainload of bland and ridiculous characters : they flew, they swam, they teleported and you could not throw a stone without it hitting a superhero. In simple plain English : it was boring ! From what I gather, this was the premise from which Grant Morrison began his run on JLA with DC comics. The story idea that Morrison pitched was to bring awesomeness back into the fold into JLA and he was only going to use the A-team for the purpose. Going by the first book in the volume, he has done a commendable job at it.
This is the JLA team getting back together after a brief period of being left to their own. Which means they have to learn to work together again – effectively. Being larger than life heroes, there are egos that big to contend with too and sometimes they just don’t gel too well. These teething problems are slowly ironed out over the course of the book. It is interesting that there is intense verbal sparring between Flash and Green Lantern both of whom are new to their roles, Superman is in the process of rediscovering himself (and also becomes an electromagnetically charged…something for a while), Batman is more of a consultant who keeps dropping in and disappearing while it is left to Wonder Woman and the Manhunter to run the ship. Over the course of the book, they slowly evolve into a very effective unit which combats aliens, rogue angels and other such misfits. Having been written in the 90’s, some of the story arcs seem rather tasteless now but Morrison has a good way of keeping cliff-hanger endings to episodes which makes it a good page turner.
Note : All you aliens, don’t you ever make the mistake of underestimating Batman as just another puny mortal. Superman does not call him ‘The most dangerous man on earth’ just for nothing ! Unless you want your collective posteriors handed back to you, keep this in mind.
This is the JLA team getting back together after a brief period of being left to their own. Which means they have to learn to work together again – effectively. Being larger than life heroes, there are egos that big to contend with too and sometimes they just don’t gel too well. These teething problems are slowly ironed out over the course of the book. It is interesting that there is intense verbal sparring between Flash and Green Lantern both of whom are new to their roles, Superman is in the process of rediscovering himself (and also becomes an electromagnetically charged…something for a while), Batman is more of a consultant who keeps dropping in and disappearing while it is left to Wonder Woman and the Manhunter to run the ship. Over the course of the book, they slowly evolve into a very effective unit which combats aliens, rogue angels and other such misfits. Having been written in the 90’s, some of the story arcs seem rather tasteless now but Morrison has a good way of keeping cliff-hanger endings to episodes which makes it a good page turner.
Note : All you aliens, don’t you ever make the mistake of underestimating Batman as just another puny mortal. Superman does not call him ‘The most dangerous man on earth’ just for nothing ! Unless you want your collective posteriors handed back to you, keep this in mind.