DC Retroactive: Justice League America – The ’90s 1 (October 2011)

Bringing Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire back for a “final” return to their Justice League works quite well. Even though DC’s historically challenged calling them an nineties team–weren’t they the quintessential eighties team?

The issue’s incredibly complex and layered–everyone gets a subplot, except Martian Manhunter, who just gets the unintentionally funny lines. Giffen and DeMatteis plot it like a sitcom episode. They have a couple running jokes; both work well. They’re even able to get all the foreshadowing the ominous future events to be amusing.

Maguire’s best work, besides being able to fit so many characters into panels, is his rendition of the drunken parademon whose presence kicks everything off. There’s just something stunning about a somewhat mystical character so realistically rendered.

All the dialogue is great, all the jokes connect. It’d be the best Retroactive title but its pedigree is too high to compare to the other ones.

CREDITS

Apokolips No!; writers, Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis; artist, Kevin Maguire; colorist, Rosemary Cheetham; letterer, Carlos M. Mangual; editors, Chynna Clugston Flores and Jim Chadwick; publisher, DC Comics.

DC Retroactive: Justice League of America – The ’80s 1 (October 2011)

Conway goes out of his way to remind the reader this Justice League isn’t the real Justice League. It’s the eighties Detroit League no one likes.

But then his script presents this team overcoming a lot of odds not just to save the day, but to save the kids on a school trip to visit their headquarters. Just because the Detroit League is a dumb idea, it doesn’t mean the scene-by-scene execution is going to be dumb.

More than any other Retroactive title, in fact, this one has me wanting to check out the old issues. I assume Conway didn’t have the same negative take on the team when he was writing them originally.

All in all, it’s a good issue.

The Ron Randall art isn’t great, but Randall knows how to tell a story.

It’s fine, though way too unnecessarily negative about itself. Conway should have some pride.

CREDITS

Siege; writer, Gerry Conway; artist, Ron Randall; colorists, Carlos Badilla and Tony Avina; letterer, Carlos M. Mangual; editors, Chynna Clugston Flores and Jim Chadwick; publisher, DC Comics.

DC Retroactive: Justice League of America – The ’70s 1 (September 2011)

So Andy Smith can do a mediocre superhero comic. His faces are a little unfinished, but his figures are fine. Gordon Purcell, on the other hand, is—from what it looks like—regularly working on Archie? Purcell handles the “real” part of the story, which involves the JLA going to Earth-Prime (the “real” Earth, pre-Crisis, where superheroes exist in DC comic books).

Bates does a great job with the script, which gets dense with dialogue, but always moves. I was a little confused over the villain’s plan—it involved Adam Strange and the Zeta Beam—but it’s a good script. And when it’s the Smith art, the flashback story feels like a glossy, somewhat overproduced but still well-done issue. But I couldn’t stop wondering why Purcell during his pages… seventies Justice League didn’t look like Archie.

That problem aside, it’s an excellent issue. Bates does fine work.

CREDITS

Enter Justice League Prime; writer, Cary Bates; pencillers, Gordon Purcell and Andy Smith; inkers, Jose Marzan Jr. and Smith; colorist, Carlos Badilla; letterer, Wes Abbott; editors, Chynna Clugston Flores and Jim Chadwick; publisher, DC Comics.