Comic Info
Comic Name: Justice League (Volume 1)/Justice League International (Volume 1)/Suicide Squad (Volume 1)
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis
Artist: Kevin Maguire/Keith Giffen/Bill Willingham
# of Issues: 8
Release Date: 2008
Justice League International (1) #10
Reprints Justice League (1) Annual #1, Justice League International (1) #8-13, and Suicide Squad (1) #13 (June 1987- May 1988). The threat of the Manhunters has come to Earth and the Justice League finds itself teamed with heroes and Green Lanterns to stop the Manhunters’ plans. Maxwell Lord’s origins are revealed as the JLI questions who is pulling their strings. Plus, a political prisoner situation in the Soviet Union has Waller’s Suicide Squad going head-to-head with Lord’s JLA.
Written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, Justice League International—Volume 2 is a DC Comics superhero team-book. Following Justice League International—Volume 1, the collection features art by Kevin Maguire, Keith Giffen, and Bill Willingham. The series continues under its new Justice League International title but also contains Justice League (1) Annual #1 which was released before the title change. Issues in this collection were also collected as part of Justice League International Omnibus—Volume 1 and Justice League: Born Again, Wonder Woman: The Many Lives of Maxwell Lord, and Suicide Squad Volume 2: The Nightshade Odyssey.
I like Justice League International. It is one of the “fun” 1980s DC books in a time when the gritty realism of the ’80s was at its peak. Despite this, the JLI didn’t take itself seriously at all, and for that reason it works…but it is also a mess.
The series has great kismet between the team members but due to the roll out as Justice League, the switch to Justice League International, and the big Millennium crossover, it feels like the series has yet to really get traction. The actual interactions between characters work, but the bigger stories still struggle.
Justice League International (1) #11
The Millennium story doesn’t really stand on its own (and Millennium itself was rather confusing), but after years, I still really don’t get the whole Maxwell Lord-computer story which is self-contained. It is confusing and poorly executed and the fact that Lord is the team’s leader creates problems since it isn’t entirely clear what is going on with him (even when they try to clear it up).
It is followed by a so-so crossover with Suicide Squad which launched at the same time as Justice League. This crossover makes a lot of sense because the JLI and Suicide Squad are supposed to be opposite sides of the same coin, but what doesn’t make sense is that since Suicide Squad is a secret “team”, the Justice League who doesn’t know this don’t seem to be asking the right questions. It is a weird, stuttered two issue crossover that further gets bogged down by the involvement of Red Star and the Soviets who seem to just push the story along.
Despite these criticisms and the fact that the series is so hodgepodge at this point, I still enjoy reading Justice League International. I wish Giffen and DeMatteis would strengthen the storylines (or would have brought someone in to do that) while they stuck with dialogue and scripting…it would have made an entertaining book much more solid. Justice League International—Volume 2 is followed by Justice League International—Volume 3.
Related Links:
