Waiting for the Trade - JLI

Waiting for the Trade

by Bill Miller

 

Justice League International: Volume 1 – The Signal Masters

by Dan Jurgens, Aaron Lopresti and Matt Ryan
collects Justice League International 1-6.

Why I Bought This: This was the third of my first three New 52 samples on Cyber Monday. In this case the original comedic JLI series is the only DC book I ever bought off the racks on an issue by issue die-hard basis, so a relaunch of that title is something I would of course be interested in.

The Plot: The United Nations decides it needs a Justice League of its own that it can control so they hand-pick a team of international heroes just in time for them to deal with an emerging cosmic threat.

Chapter 1 – We see the UN select the team’s membership: Booster Gold will be leader and classic JLI members Fire (of Brazil), Ice (of Norway), Guy Gardner and Rocket Red (Russia) are back along with Vixen (Zimbabwe), August General in Iron (China) and Godiva (United Kingdom). Meanwhile in Peru some UN scientists fall into a hole in the ground. Back in the U.S. the UN gives the JLI the Hall of Justice (looking exactly as it did in Superfriends) set in Washington DC. There are protestors against the building being used by superheroes. The team meets for the first time inside. Guy is his usual jerk-self and leaves in a huff over Booster being appointed leader. Batman shows up and tries to talk sense into Guy as Bats believes Booster can be a fine team leader, but Guy flies off anyway. The team gets the distress call from Peru and heads off in a UN provided jet that Batman sneaks aboard. Despite the UN not approving Batman for the team, Bats says the real Justice League thinks it’s a good idea for the two teams to have a connection. Back in DC some protestors blow up the Hall of Justice. Back in Peru little rock people attack the JLI. The team beats them back only for the ground to break open and reveal a giant robot.

Chapter 2 – The heroes aren’t terribly effective against the robot. When Ice gets injured Booster orders a retreat. While some of the team doubts his leadership, Batman offers a pep talk. Guy sees Ice injured on the news, and heads off to meet up with the team at the ruins of the Hall of Justice. Intel shows three more robots have awoken around the world and they are sending a signal into outer space, which is received by a villain who looks like Galactus carrying an energized scythe.

Chapter 3 – The JLI splits into teams of two to deal with the robots. All of them successfully distract the robots long enough to burrow under them, where they all then meet a horde of the rock people and lose to their numbers. Meanwhile Guy follows the robot transmission signal into space and encounters Scythe Dude, who defeats Guy in one panel.

Chapter 4 – Guy recovers and fights the villain, whose name is Peraxxus, and loses again. Peraxxus teleports the captured heroes to him and reveals his plan, which is to break the Earth down to its component minerals and the sell the minerals on the intergalactic market. He admits the robots predate him, they were built by a long gone ancient alien civilization but he has learned to trace the signal over the years and make use of them for his profit scheme. Godiva, whose power is living hair ala Medusa of the Inhumans, manages to get a laser scalpel off Batman’s utility belt and free everyone. The heroes are mostly on the losing end again until Peraxxus teleports away and activates the robots’ planet disintegration mode.

Chapter 5 – The government tries to nuke Peraxxus ship but of course he has a force field. Guy whips up a space ship for the team with his ring and they charge Peraxxus, who blasts them out of the sky. However it is a ruse and JLI are able to sneak aboard his ship and split up with Batman, Rocket Red and Ice in charge of disabling Peraxxus’s ship, while everyone else takes the fight to him. Peraxxus again decimates the heroes, leaving only Godiva cowering in a corner as she’s been having doubts that she belongs on a team that deals with cosmic threats given her laughable powers. However when Booster is about to be decapitated she steps up long enough to give the others a chance to recover. This time the heroes manage to drive him off, while Red successfully shuts off the ship’s power. Guy’s ring ensures the heroes survive the crash landing. The heroes celebrate their victory as a new mystery foe electronically spies on them.

Chapter 6 – Batman and Booster track down the Hall of Justice bombers, after which Batman returns to the main JLA title. The remaining heroes deal with clean-up from the last mission, while some of the foreigners begin to adjust to life in America. Booster appears before the UN as the team gets officially chartered. The mystery villain from last issue blows something up.

 

Critical Thoughts: I’m very much of a mixed opinion on this. On its own merits it is a fine little superhero story. The team dynamic between these heroes is pretty good, and grows organically throughout the story. There is lots of little character that I didn’t mention in my recap whenever the team breaks into smaller groups. In a lot of ways this book reminds me of West Coast Avengers, which to this day is one of my all time favorite titles (at least the first 41-issues, once Englehart left that title was never the same). Like that title, this one focuses on a bunch of second tier heroes being led by an unproved leader and trying to live up to the name of their universe’s premiere superhero team. I think this book shows a lot of potential to grow.

My two problems with the title have nothing to do with the actual story Jurgerns is choosing to tell, but rather what this book doesn’t do based on the expectation of the name. The original JLI title was far and away the funniest comic book I’ve ever read but there isn’t a joke to be found in this volume. And it begs the question why name this title after the other one, which I assume was pretty popular in its day seeing as it ended up with two spin-off titles, if you aren’t go to try to recapture what made that one popular? I’ll also say as a fan of the original series the lack of Blue Beetle is a jarring absence. When I think of JLI the very first thing I think of is the camaraderie between Booster and Beetle. I know DC killed the real Blue Beetle off awhile ago, but seeing as you just relaunched your universe (in fact this book implies the entire original JLI series never happened with the exception of Guy and Ice briefly dating) then there is no reason not to bring Ted Kord back and let the alien teenager from the Brave and the Bold cartoon pick another name.

Also that Chinese Superhero has the worst name ever. Seriously couldn’t they just call him Iron General or really anything less awkwardly worded?

On the positives I should also say the art looks very good throughout.

 

Grade: B-. This is a fine start to a new title, but if you are buying this based on memories of the original series it is not that at all.