Category: dc comics

Justice League International Volume 1 (2009)
reprinting Justice League v1 #1-6, Annual 1
Written by Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis
Art by Kevin Maguire and Bill Willingham

In the wake of the Crisis and Legends, a new Justice League must be formed. However, this new team won’t be made up of the classic roster (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, et al.). Instead, anonymous invitations are sent out to a more eclectic group of superheroes: Blue Beetle, Mister Miracle, Black Canary, Doctor Fate, Captain Marvel, Doctor Light, Guy Gardner, with stalwarts Martian Manhunter and Batman rounding out the mix. Their mysterious benefactor Maxwell Lord has designs on the Justice League refraining from being a simply America centric group, instead, he imagines the team going worldwide. The biggest obstacle in getting them there is making sure they don’t kill each other.

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Justice (2012)
Written by Jim Kreuger & Alex Ross
Art by Doug Braithwaite & Alex Ross

The Justice League of America is the greatest team of heroes on Earth. Their roster includes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and many more. And up until now, they have been the defenders of the weak. Suddenly, across the globe villains like Lex Luthor, Captain Cold, and Poison Ivy offer up help the downtrodden, particularly those with disabilities and people living in the third world. They do more for these people than the League has ever been able to and public opinion begins to turn on the heroes. Batman learns The Riddler has ransacked the databases of Wayne Enterprises and is armed with dossiers on every Leaguer. A psychic assault comes from Gorilla Grodd who incapacitates Aquaman. Meanwhile, Brainiac is constructing a plan that will destroy the heroes for good.

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JSA by Geoff Johns Volume 2 (2018)
Written by Geoff Johns with David Goyer
Art by Stephen Sadowski, Phil Winslade, Carlos Pacheco, Steve Yeowell, Buzz, Javier Saltares

The Justice Society is ambushed by their nemesis Johnny Sorrow and his new Injustice Society. The team is fragmented, and each villain targets a specific hero. Jay Garrick, the original Flash, is confronted by his long thought dead arch-enemy Rival. Count Vertigo seeks revenge against Black Canary who is out on the town with Doc Mid-Nite. Shiv has a score to settle with the Star-Spangled Kid. In the midst of this chaos, a new ally is forged, and Hawkgirl suddenly recalls her past-life as Shiera Hall and her lost love Hawkman. The JSA ends up across the galaxy on Thanagar heralding the return of the winged wonder while they battle the devilish Onimarr Synn. After a brief tour of duty in Our Worlds At War, the team finally settles down with a Thanksgiving dinner with the Justice League only to have it interrupted by global hell as the Seven Deadly Sins are unleashed. This leads to the return of two deadly enemies for both heroic teams.

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Day of Judgment (1999)
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Matt Smith

The Spectre has been present in the DC Universe since the 1940s, the wrath of God bound to a human soul in the form of Jim Corrigan. Corrigan has died, and the Spectre is loose giving into the rage without a human check. Etrigan the Demon sees an opportunity and frees fallen angel Asmodel to help him claim the Spectre. They are successful, and Asmodel begins to use this new power to inflict his anger on Earth. The Justice League find themselves up against a force they may not be able to stop. Cue the Sentinels of Magic, a team of the DC Universe’s top sorcerers, witches, and magic users. Their goal is to find a human spirit that could provide the needed constraints on the Spectre, and they will find it in the most unlikely of people.

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The Kingdom (1999)
Written by Mark Waid
Art by Ariel Olivetti, Mike Zeck, Jerry Ordway, Mark Pajarillo, Brian Apthorp, Matt Haley, Frank Quitely, and Barry Kitson

In 1996, DC Comics published Kingdom Come, a four issue prestige mini-series under their Elseworlds banner. Elseworlds was an imprint that DC would use to tell “imaginary” or What If? style stories. Kingdom Come stood out from the pack because it’s painted art came courtesy of Alex Ross, an artist who first made his mark with the fantastic Marvels mini-series. Ross co-wrote Kingdom Come with Mark Waid and delivered a story set approximately thirty years in the future to examine how an elderly Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman dealt with a world that was becoming increasingly darker and more violent. Fan reaction was through the roof, and DC wanted to capitalize on the ongoing buzz around this brief story. So, they decided to greenlight The Kingdom.

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DC One Million (1998)
Written by Grant Morrison (with James Robinson, Ron Marz, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning)
Art by Val Semeiks (with Peter Snejbjerg, Howard Porter, Bryan Hitch, Butch Guice)

In a burst of power, the Justice Legion of the 853rd Century appears before the modern day JLA. This team of the future explains they have come to hold down the fort while Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and the others travel into 853rd Century to herald the return of Superman Prime who has been in a self-imposed exile within the sun for millennia. The teams swap places with the JLA rookies (Steel, Zauriel, Plastic Man, Big Barda, Orion, and Huntress staying behind). As soon as the original team departs, all hell breaks loose. The android Hourman releases a nano-virus that was secretly programmed into him and Vandal Savage nukes Buenos Aires. It becomes clear this whole hero exchange was turned into a plan to destroy hope in the galaxy and transcends the present and future.

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Genesis (1997)
Written by John Byrne
Art by Ron Wagner

The power levels of Earth’s metahumans has suddenly begun to fluctuate and send the planet into chaos. It’s revealed that the Godwave is responsible, a force of energy that was born at the start of our universe and is now retracting back to its origins, The Source Wall. This means the denizens of New Genesis aid our heroes against the forces of Apokolips. Darkseid seeks to harness the power of the Godwave for his nefarious purposes. So what we have are a bunch of heroes crowded into different rooms and then confusing action set pieces.

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The Final Night (1996)
Written by Karl Kesel
Art by Stuart Immonen

An alien woman named Dusk arrives on Earth with a warning: The Sun-Eater is coming. The Sun-Eater is a biological weapon that has gone rogue, consuming the core of a solar system and destroying the orbiting planets as a result. It has arrived in our system, and it will take the combined efforts of the DC superheroes plus Lex Luthor to do something about it. Helping out is a group of time-displaced Legionnaires who can recall bits and pieces of historical data about the Sun-Eater. The planet begins to freeze over as the heroes’ efforts appear to be for naught, with some of them believing these are their last days together. However, help comes in the form of a very unexpected figure and will begin a journey to redemption.

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