While, at the same time, Detective Comics had him alongside Batman and several years younger than he was in the Titans or in the core Batman title.

Continuity was really out the window with Batman at this point.

I doubt it was that well-thought-out. Given the editorial chaos at DC in the wake of Crisis, along with the JL creative team generally not giving a hoot about continuity or history, I imagine the meeting went something like this:

Keith Giffen: Ok, we need someone to be Max Lord's mole in the League. Who's available?
Mike Gold (consulting a memo with many names scratched out and others penciled in): Um...here's one. Booster Gold.
Giffen: Who the eff is Booster Gold?
Mike (squinting): It says here he's from the future. He's got a flight ring and a force field belt.
Keith: Ok, I can work with that. Time for lunch! (zips out the door)
Mike: Wait, it also says he has a robot side...eh, never mind. Wait for me!

So I went back and re-read Booster Gold #1 just for fun tonight, and I was surprised to see just how much JL #4 borrows from that issue. DeMatteis seems to lift a few of Booster's lamer gags directly out of that story, we see that the only thing Booster seems to care about beyond fame and money is membership in the Justice League (a sentiment explicitly echoed in JL #4), and even the brilliant strategy he works out with Skeets to take down the bad guy by the end is closely paralleled by the last minute plan he works out with Blue Beetle in JL #4.

It could all be coincidence, but it really looks like they took some care in how they approached Booster Gold. Thus, I suspect the omission of Skeets was deliberate, maybe because it would make Booster too insular and unlikely to talk to other members of the group.

All that's left is the creator introductions, which you've already reproduced. There is nothing more to add on how this set of characters got together, other than what may be ahead in the comics' letter columns.

But, they're not worried. They have a plan... the super-hero club. If they can just find enough heroes that fit, they can easily dismiss the ones that don't.

COMMENTS ON ISSUE #4

I didn't even know Booster had his own comic when I read this issue. They did a good job of making me like Booster and he's got a nice middleweight power set. I'm with Captain Marvel in liking the costume.

The creative team's straw clutching, nets them a very useful straw that will pay dividends for years. Needless to say, the Blue & Gold team (sort of making their debut here) of the JLI defined the characters for much of DC fandom a lot more than their solo series of the 1980s.

Dr. Light come back! Don't stick me with Fire and Ice!

Batman admits, "But I'm not a reasonable man."

Guy with the "bat ears" in the dark is my favorite gag of the issue.

I will love The Royal Flush Gang forever and ever and ever.

Justice League #5



"Gray Life, Gray Dreams"

plot and breakdowns: Keith Giffen
script: J.M. DeMatteis
pencils: Kevin Maguire
inks: Al Gordon
letters: Bob Lappan
colors: Gene D'Angelo
editor: Andy Helfer

grade: B+


Here are the three pages you've waited through ten reviews to see...







Such a small moment in an issue that is otherwise unrelated to it, and yet it's the moment everyone remembers when you mention the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League. You could even argue it's the most iconic moment of the entire Post-Crisis DCU. Really, there's The Joker repeatedly beating Jason Todd with a crowbar, and there's Superman filming a homemade porn with Big Barda, but what other moment in a Post-Crisis DC title does everyone remember, not for being shocking or just plain awful, but for being awesome?

And you can take it further than that. Earlier in this thread, spoon commented that:



And so I believe it was this moment that permanently cemented comicdom's perception of who Guy Gardner was. Ever since September of 1987, regardless of what titles they've followed, comic fans have understood that Guy Gardner is the obnoxious jerk you just want to punch; not someone teetering on the boundaries of becoming an outright villain.

The same can be said for Batman, who's characterization was all over the place at this point in the Bat Office. This is not Miller's Batman, possessing neither the introspection of Year One nor the sheer joy of violence from DKR, and this certainly doesn't match anything Mike W. Barr or Max Collins was writing at the time. This is a very different Batman we haven't seen before, more powerful in his inaction, commanding fear and respect simply by being in the room, and yet able to move swiftly and with seemingly little effort to justify that reputation when it is challenged. That emphasis upon image is certainly suggested by Year One, but never played out to this extent. And really, it's largely the interpretation that has caught on in the modern day -- Batman with a total badass reputation.

But even more than what this moment did for Guy and for Batman, this thread must concern itself with what the "one-punch" did for the League as a franchise. While the title had been full of fun and funny moments previously, it also strived to tackle some very serious themes that no one seems to recall in hindsight. Issues #2-4 could never have earned the informal label "The Bwa-Ha-Ha League" in their own rite. So, on the one hand, the "one-punch" left a lasting impression on the fandom that this title was primarily funny and irreverent. On the other, all of the reaction to this moment might also have steered Helfer and Giffen more towards the lighthearted and irreverent -- going where the acclaim was. After all, Justice League hadn't been a successful, fan-favorite title for many years now, and both Helfer and Giffen were desperate to change that.

But yeah, when you go back and read it, the rest of this issue is very dark, the "one-punch" moment utilized largely to lighten the tension.


As for the plot itself, I can't say I'm too intrigued by the whole Gray Man conflict. It really does seem out of the League's...well...league. Where's Phantom Stranger to handle an issue like this? It is interesting, though, to see Giffen wandering so thoughtfully into the world of the occult and really developing the characters and governance of that realm in the DCU. This was fifteen months before Neil Gaiman would introduce Morpheus and the realm of The Dreaming in the pages of Sandman.

On the other hand, the final portion of this issue was a bit frustrating to me because I felt I was supposed to have some understanding of who The Creeper is, and I don't. I know that's who Jack Ryder is (and yes, I got the joke two issues back when Maxwell Lord had him filed under "C"), but that's really all I know. I hope Giffen and DeMatteis will make him more accessible to the reader next issue.



Important Details:

- Oberon's back.

- Dr. Fate summons the team but is never actually in the same room with them.

- Some foreshadowing that both Mister Miracle and Captain Marvel are unsure they belong on this team

-Whereas Legends went out of its way to convince us that Captain Marvel had a longstanding reputation among DC's top tier heroes, this issue explicitly conveys the opposite, perhaps reflecting whatever was now being established in the Shazam: A New Beginning limited series.





Minor Details:

- Ever since reading the second part of Helfer's introduction to the League I've been watching more carefully for what DeMatteis adds to Giffen's stories and breakdowns. It's often difficult to tell when DeMatteis' scripts are adding something amazingly fresh or are just reflecting what was already there in the breakdowns or in Maguire's finished art (and there's so much humor and characterization to be found there!), but here's a glaring example of DeMatteis' genius as he inserts a whole other level of comedy to the scene playing out, bringing Captain Marvel into it where he was clearly intended to be nothing more than an on-looker in this scene.





That's all DeMatteis.


Plot synopsis:

Dr. Fate confronts The Gray Man (last seen in issue #2), who reveals his origin and informs Fate that he will use his legion of clones to rob the world of its dreams, Jack Ryder gets word of Dr. Fate's location and decides to go there to take down The League, Batman punches Guy Gardner into submission, Dr. Fate summons the League, they figure out they have fifty two hours before The Gray Men have affected the entire world population, they arrive where The Gray Men are, meet The Creeper, and they see that the town they have come to rescue has been completely transformed somehow.

Just a minor correction to something said above: the Captain Marvel limited series that was underway at this point was not The Power of Shazam but Shazam: A New Beginning, the first post-Crisis reboot of the character's origin. That series was effectively continued in the Captain's short lived solo feature in Action Comics Weekly, but in 1994 The Power of Shazam graphic novel rebooted Cap's origin again and basically removed both New Beginning and the Action Comics stories from continuity.