What are your Top 5 favorite Justice League runs/stories?

[Bored at 3:00AM]

The jury's still out if Scott Snyder's current "What if the 70's Challenge of the Superfriends cartoon had a baby with the 2000s Justice League cartoon and then drank way too much Red Bull" run will be one of the greats, so I figure it's time to take a trip down memory lane to see which Justice League runs and stories still hold up as among the very best.

Here's my list:

1) While not technically a Justice League story as much as a Justice League origin, or pre-origin, Darwyn Cooke's simply beautiful DC: The New Frontier remains one of my all time favorite tales of the DC characters, with virtually all the core JLAers getting some of the best characterization and art I have ever seen. I must have read and re-read this series a few different times by now and, each time, my appreciation for what Cooke accomplished grows. Even the truncated animated movie has grown on me, despite the concessions it had to make in order to squeeze it all in to a very brisk running time.

2) Morrison & Porter's JLA is still the high-water mark for Justice League runs as far as I am concerned. Morrison managed to distill all the crazy, over-the-top craziness of the original Silver Age stories, push them up a notch, then combine them with the more nuanced and complex characterization of modern superhero comics. There are just so many goodies in here, from Superman fighting an angel, to the best damn depiction of Starro (well, aside from Snyder's Dude-Bro Starro--RIP, bro), to the arrival of Meggedon. The series only gets better the further away I get from DC's shameless over saturation of the brand they committed during the late 90s because they literally had no other ideas.

3) Giffen & DeMatties Bwa-Ha-Ha League may have overstayed its welcome by a couple of years, but there's no doubt that this take on DC's greatest superhero team is the glue that held the shakey Post-Crisis DCU together. Without these loveable band of goofballs keeping everyone from taking the DCU too seriously during the late 80s, I honestly don't think the DCU would have come out worth reading about. The grim n' gritty nonsense ushered in by Watchmen & Dark Knight Returns would have swallowed up all the joy, fun and silliness that is the DCU's lifeblood and we would have been left with a DCU that nobody had much affection for anymore. Thankfully, the JLI crew kept the heart of the DCU going by steadfastly refusing to take itself too seriously by reminding everyone to laugh.

4) Alan Davis's JLA: The Nail. This Elseworld tale has it all. It's a sprawling epic in which Alan Davis plays with the entirety of the Satellite Era and more without having to worry about breaking anyone else's toys because he was working within a deviously clever alternate reality that was nearly identical to the mainstream DCU, but with one notable change. Davis's slight tweaks to certain costume designs are also gorgeous and the story is a well-constructed celebration of the classic Bronze Age DCU.

5) Overall, I was so disappointed in Brian Meltzer's Justice League of America run (which would include the much-maligned Identity Crisis), but I must admit that there are simply so many great tiny details and characterizations during his run that all the terrible plots, fumbled ideas and outright stupid notions his writing suffered from don't seem as important to me anymore because I simply adore the stuff he got right. Ralph's line about Ollie wearing that stupid hat to cover up his bald spot, the entire Hal-Roy-Dinah relationship, the Vixen/Roy one-shot with Gene Ha, and that gorgeous #0 issue that spanned the entirety of the League's history have stuck with me so strongly that I am willing to forgive Meltzer's many, many misteps.

What about you guys? What are your Top 5 Justice League runs/stories?

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Right there with you on your top 4 (in whatever order) but my number 5 would easily be JLA: Year One by Waid, Augustyn and Kitson. It really made me appreciate characters like Barry Allen and Aquaman and made me particularly annoyed by what was done to the former since Flash: Rebirth. Beautifully classic art too.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Right there with you on your top 4 (in whatever order) but my number 5 would easily be JLA: Year One by Waid, Augustyn and Kitson. It really made me appreciate characters like Barry Allen and Aquaman and made me particularly annoyed by what was done to the former since Flash: Rebirth. Beautifully classic art too.

Ha! JLA: Year One was going to be my #5, too, but I changed my mind at the last second and gave it to Meltzer's horribly flawed, but also brilliant JLA run instead. As much as I love Waid & Kitson's stuff, some of Meltzer's stuff just sticks out for me more, despite all the warts

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Ha! JLA: Year One was going to be my #5, too, but I changed my mind at the last second and gave it to Meltzer's horribly flawed, but also brilliant JLA run instead. As much as I love Waid & Kitson's stuff, some of Meltzer's stuff just sticks out for me more, despite all the warts

Fair enough. And you're not wrong. I thought his whole run was an abject failure overall (not an Identity Crisis level failure but a failure nonetheless) but, man, there were some excellent aspects to it. The two issues you point out, in particular.

But I find Meltzer a very weird writer in general. His Green Arrow story arc, Archer's Quest, was generally really good because even if the plot itself was somewhat so-so at times, the characterization was on-point and the whole thing just had tons of heart. Everything else, though, is a mix of mediocrity and really powerful extremes in good and bad that really colour his work. His JLA could have been just mediocre but was elevated by some exceptional moments that just made the mediocre aspects seem worse by comparison, while Identity Crisis had a few decent moments in a mediocre storyline but its bad parts were so howlingly awful that it's impossible to remember it as anything but a hideous crime against good taste that singlehandedly ruined DC comics for years. Even after all these years, I still think he has potential as a comic book writer but he seems incapable of getting out of his own way.

[Jim Kelly]

Name five favourite runs of the Justice League? Super easy, barely an inconvenience.

1. Mike Friedrich/Dick Dillin/Joe Giella JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Nos. 86 - 99 (1970 - 1972). Most favourite story: "Where Strikes Demonfang?" issue 94.
2. Gardner Fox/Mike Sekowsky/Bernard Sachs or Sid Greene THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD Nos. 28 - 30, JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Nos. 1 - 63 (1960 - 1968). Top story: "The Riddle of the Robot Justice League," issue 13.
3. Steve Englehart/Dick Dillin/Frank McLaughline JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Nos. 139 - 150 (1976 - 1977). Best story: "The Origin of the Justice League--Minus One," issue 144.
4. Keith Giffen/William Messner-Loebs/Bart Sears et al JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE Nos. 1 - 28 (1989 - 1991). Greatest story: "No More Teachers' Dirty Looks," issue 6.
5. Len Wein/Dick Dillin/Dick Giordano JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Nos. 100 - 114 (1972 - 1974). Hit single story: "A Stranger Walks Among Us," issue 103.

Don't get me wrong, I also enjoyed the early JUSTICE LEAGUE issues by Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire/Gordon--but there was something about having the Justice League in Europe and the way Bart Sears drew those issues that tickled my funny bone the most. And, of course, I liked the work by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter (with John Dell III inking) on JLA--even if I never understood what was going on--but not enough to put that in the top five.

[dancj]

Morrison's JLA was great - especially Rock of Ages, Earth 2 and World War III.

Agreed on Giffen's run too. It did drag a bit at the end, but for the most part it's fantastic. I'd love it to be fully reprinted in those nice fat TPBs DC do a lot these days, but they might need to redo the dialogue on the Gerard Jones issues first.

Waid is up there as well. I really liked Tower of Babel and Divided We Fall.

Identity Crisis is up there with the best JLA for me, but Metzer's run on JLA was quite poor.

New Frontier was merely okay for me, but with pretty art - and The Nail had a weak story but also lovely art.

[caj]

Justice League is probably my all-time favorite comic book over any other. There's been highs and lows over the years, but these are definitely my favorites:

1. Justice League of America - Steve Englehart/Dick Dillin - #139-146, 149-150
2. JLI/JLA/JLE - Keith Giffen/JM DeMatteis/Keven MacGuire/Adam Hughes/Bart Sears
3. Kingdom Come - Mark Waid/Alex Ross
4. Justice - Alex Ross/Jim Krueger/Doug Braithwaite #1-12
5. Justice League of America - Len Wein/Dick Dillin #100-114

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Justice League is probably my all-time favorite comic book over any other. There's been highs and lows over the years, but these are definitely my favorites:

1. Justice League of America - Steve Englehart/Dick Dillin - #139-146, 149-150
2. JLI/JLA/JLE - Keith Giffen/JM DeMatteis/Keven MacGuire/Adam Hughes/Bart Sears
3. Kingdom Come - Mark Waid/Alex Ross
4. Justice - Alex Ross/Jim Krueger/Doug Braithwaite #1-12
5. Justice League of America - Len Wein/Dick Dillin #100-114

Ooooo, I can't believe I forgot Justice....that was a good one.

....nah, I still gotta give it to Meltzer. There are just too many moments I love like Black Canary methodically taking apart an evil android to figure out its weak point, then telling Hal, who proceeds to wipe out the entire army of them in one move "Ring: Sling."

[Adset]

i was a 90s kid, so it's the morrison run. growing up i didn't think much of the jla; i remember being confused about their involvement in the death of superman storyline, in the why are these nobodies in this story? sort of a way. so when morrison launched jla it was pretty groundbreaking -- for me, anyway. i still adore the first 100 issues or so of jla, spanning morrison, waid, and kelly.

i thought the metzler relaunch was a mixed bag. it wasn't terrible, it was just... there. but he did give us a jla/jsa reunion, and tried reintroducing the legion. it had its moments.

the johns new 52 justice league was much better upon a re-read; the first half is still largely forgettable, but i thought the back half (starting around forever evil) was downright decent.

going back and reading a bunch of silver age justice league of america and getting into the satellite era has long been on my to-do list, but for now nearly everything on my jla top 5 list is within a 20-year window.

1. jla (1997)
2. jla: year one -- i flat out ignore the new 52 retcon, this is the origin of the justice league. fight me.
3. dc one million -- does this count? probably not, it should likely be lumped into the morrison run as it was his baby. but i'm doing it anyway. this remains my all-time favorite dc crossover.
4. jla: the nail -- this blew me away when i first read it. BADLY need to find the time for a re-read. is the sequel any good?? i remember purposely NOT buying it because i didn't want to spoil the original.
5. justice -- i read this several years after it came out, coincidentally right after watching most of the old super friends cartoon. it was a fun ride.

[Lightning Rider]

Would Kingdom Come count here? It's probably my favorite story period but are we making a distinction between an encompassing story involving the DCU and stories in which the league is functioning together?

[Jim Kelly]

Something I realized when looking at this question is that most writers haven't stayed on the Justice League for very long. I think the longest runs have been Giffen & DeMatteis, Conway and Fox. Admired writers like Wein, Englehart and Morrison didn't actually have a very long run on the team. Which is surprising.

[Lee Stone]

1. JLI/JLE by Giffen/DeMatteis
2. JLA by Conway
3. New Frontier by Cooke
4. JLA by Fox
5. JLDetroit by Conway and DeMatteis

[caj]

Would Kingdom Come count here? It's probably my favorite story period but are we making a distinction between an encompassing story involving the DCU and stories in which the league is functioning together?

You may have a point, but I considered Superman's group (consisting of Wonder Woman, Power Woman, Red Robin, Green Lantern, Flash, and others) as the Justice League of that period.

If so, I would then add Justice League of America #161-165 (the Zatanna/Sindella story) by Gerry Conway/Dick Dillin as it's replacement.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Would Kingdom Come count here? It's probably my favorite story period but are we making a distinction between an encompassing story involving the DCU and stories in which the league is functioning together?

I included New Frontier because it prominently features Hal, J'Onn, Barry, Diana, Clark and Bruce as its main protagonists immediately prior to the formation of the original JLA, so I think Kingdom Come, which is very much a story about Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman's relationship to the larger DCU wouldn't really qualify as Justice League story as much. The Flash and Green Lantern don't really play a large role--do they even have any speaking lines? J'Onn and Aquaman each only appear once. I dunno, it seems like more of a Trinity story that features the League than a proper Justice League story.

However, your mileage may vary.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Something I realized when looking at this question is that most writers haven't stayed on the Justice League for very long. I think the longest runs have been Giffen & DeMatteis, Conway and Fox. Admired writers like Wein, Englehart and Morrison didn't actually have a very long run on the team. Which is surprising.

Juggling that many characters and coming up with threats credible enough to challenge a group like that can't be easy