I am going to read JLA (Morrison 1997 all the way to Flashpoint)

[whiterabbit]

Grant Morrison really saved the Justice League during the 90's. Their members were forgettable and yawn inducing before Grant Morrison said he wanted the big seven to shake things up. Yes, blue Superman is used after the first story, but it doesn't last forever. He was just trying to make his stories feel like they were in-line with the other writers books.

His stories were so good that when Bruce Timm and Paul Dini launched the Justice League cartoon they actually drew inspiration and followed Grant Morrison's first JLA story. Over every other possible story they could've used. Just be aware how the Justice League does hit some bad parts if you do read 1997-2016... It's bound to happen. Dwayne McDuffie's run is pretty terrible.

[Forever Knight]

Also been rewatching the JL Animated series for the first time in like 5 years, alongside this read. Bruce Timm is God.

[Forever Knight]

The Obsidian Age is now!

also, how is the Winick Green Lantern run?

[BatmanJones]

The Obsidian Age is now!

also, how is the Winick Green Lantern run?

Loved the Obsidian Age. Didn't think much of Winick's run on really anything DC. It was all okay, but nothing special.

Someone warned you above about the upcoming McDuffie issues. They read like pure genius compared to the James Robinson run that directly preceded them. Avoid Robinson's JLA and Cry for Justice at all costs. Worst. Comics. Ever.

[Trey Strain]

Just do it one time and see if it makes money. If it does, then keep doing it. In not, then stop. But I bet it would.

[James Hunter]

Loved the Obsidian Age. Didn't think much of Winick's run on really anything DC. It was all okay, but nothing special.

Someone warned you above about the upcoming McDuffie issues. They read like pure genius compared to the James Robinson run that directly preceded them. Avoid Robinson's JLA and Cry for Justice at all costs. Worst. Comics. Ever.

I'll agree that CRY FOR JUSTICE left a lot to be desired (to be polite) BUT I didn't actually think Robinson's JLA was bad (it was certainly better then Austen's or Claremont's, surprisingly in the latter case!)

Cheers.

James.

[Forever Knight]

What's so bad about those JLA runs you guys mentioned?

I see some Crime Syndicate stuff coming up, which I am excited for.

[BatmanJones]

What's so bad about those JLA runs you guys mentioned?

I see some Crime Syndicate stuff coming up, which I am excited for.

In Cry for Justice the writing is embarrassingly bad and someone seems to actually cry for "Justice!" a few times per issue. The art is nice.

In Robinson's JLA the writing is still bad but now it has competition for badness in Bagley's art.

This was a time at which DC was interfering FAR too much with JLA and wouldn't let Robinson have all the characters he wanted and then McDuffie took over and they wouldn't let him have ANY of the characters he wanted. His last issue was a major meta-screw you to DC. They deserved it.

Why? They were trying to manage their top title from the editorial office. Without knowing so (since it is a delusion that pros come here to steal ideas) they were employing The Trey Stain method. Never mind the heart, the soul, never mind the writing or the artists, give me editorial mandates! Because if Trey has an editorial idea it is the OBVIOUS idea and if you have a different one it OBVIOUSLY won't work.

[James Hunter]

What's so bad about those JLA runs you guys mentioned?

I see some Crime Syndicate stuff coming up, which I am excited for.

CRY FOR JUSTICE completely destroys the character of Roy Harper and glorifies death (at least to an extent0. The reason for the split of the team never really made sense either.

I liked Robinson's main JLA however. I was always thankful he put Dick Grayson in his League an basically did a graduating team of Titans as the JLA. (sorry if that's too spoilerific!)

Cheers.

James.

[dancj]

In Cry for Justice the writing is embarrassingly bad and someone seems to actually cry for "Justice!" a few times per issue. The art is nice.

I know yours is the popular opinion, but personally I hated the art in Cry for Justice, but found the story (after the bad first couple of issues) to be really enjoyable.

[BatmanJones]

I know yours is the popular opinion, but personally I hated the art in Cry for Justice, but found the story (after the bad first couple of issues) to be really enjoyable.

I can identify with being on the outside wrt public opinion: Identity Crisis was my favorite JLA story ever.

[John Venus]

Loved the Obsidian Age. Didn't think much of Winick's run on really anything DC. It was all okay, but nothing special.

Someone warned you above about the upcoming McDuffie issues. They read like pure genius compared to the James Robinson run that directly preceded them. Avoid Robinson's JLA and Cry for Justice at all costs. Worst. Comics. Ever.

In Cry for Justice the writing is embarrassingly bad and someone seems to actually cry for "Justice!" a few times per issue. The art is nice.

In Robinson's JLA the writing is still bad but now it has competition for badness in Bagley's art.

This was a time at which DC was interfering FAR too much with JLA and wouldn't let Robinson have all the characters he wanted and then McDuffie took over and they wouldn't let him have ANY of the characters he wanted. His last issue was a major meta-screw you to DC. They deserved it.

Why? They were trying to manage their top title from the editorial office. Without knowing so (since it is a delusion that pros come here to steal ideas) they were employing The Trey Stain method. Never mind the heart, the soul, never mind the writing or the artists, give me editorial mandates! Because if Trey has an editorial idea it is the OBVIOUS idea and if you have a different one it OBVIOUSLY won't work.

James Robinson's JLA run happened after McDuffies. However, Cry for Justice came out during his run.

What's so bad about those JLA runs you guys mentioned?

I see some Crime Syndicate stuff coming up, which I am excited for.

Well, since you asked.

Robinson's 'Cry for Justice' was one of those stories that tried to do 'proactive heroes' thing. It was hated mainly because in it's conclusion it blew up Star City, killed off Lian Harper and drove Roy off the edge. In the subsequent aftermath we got some awful issues where Roy called Donna a slut, started doing drugs, brutally murders a super villain, sees the ghost of his dead daughter, starts doing drugs, is implied to have killed a bunch of drug dealers with a cat, oh and he tried to have sex with Cheshire but could not get it up. It's all done with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Cry for Justice also implied that Hal had a threesome with Huntress and Lady Blackhawk which did not sit well with the fans of those characters (it was OOC and done to prop up Hal as this male stud) and it had Prometheus brutally murdering several minor level heroes including the gay hero Tazmanian Devil (there were so few gay heroes that killing even a minor one like him was enough to upset LGBT fans of superhero comics).

Robinson's lineup was a theoratically interesting; promoting Titan characters like Starfire, Donna Tory and Dick Grayson to League status while also including minor characters like Congorilla and Jade in it's roster but I was so pissed off over CfJ that I never bothered to read it. The largely negative reception it got did not help either.

As for Dwayne McDuffie, you are better off reading everything BUT JLA run. His JLU episodes were good, he wrote several Teen Titans episodes that managed to fit into the quirky odd ball style of the show, he worked on the Static Shock cartoon, helped to create Milestone comics, wrote JL: Crisis on Two Earths, did some solid work for Marvel, etc, etc. At the time when he got the JLA gig, he was coming off the success of his JLU work but he was hampered by editorial interference. He was forced to tie into all the events DC was doing at the time from Salvation Run to Final Crisis. There was also a huge deluge of events in the characters solo titles, Superman was going to leave earth because of the 'New Krypton' story line, Batman RIP and his 'death' in Final Crisis was imminent, Flash Rebirth was being planned, the GL titles were in preparation for Blackest Night, etc, etc. So McDuffie tried to focus on minor characters like Vixen but even then he was forced to cut his arc short because of a Vixen mini series. Then he tried to tell stories with Roy (couldn't because CfJ was happening) and Hawkgirl (the Kendra Saunders version) but at the time DC wanted to kill off Kendra in FC so McDuffie tried to work his way around it by trying to use her death to tell a story about Roy but then DC changed their mind so she was set to die in Blackest Night instead. However, the art for the issue was already done so McDuffie was forced to rewrite the dialogue completely for that scene.

At the time, McDuffie would answer fan questions and he would politely answer each and every one of them. However, one fan site compiled all of his answers into one page and you can see the level of obstruction he was facing as well as his ever growing frustration with DC. When one fan finally asked him if he enjoyed writing JLA despite all the obstruction, he replied 'No, I don't'.

You can still read his JLA run and he is good at writing dialogue and character interaction but like I said he's done other work that's worth reading. I think the roster was one of the best but its shame that DC couldn't let a good writer really go at it.

[goof]

Just for fun only read the Batman parts.

[Forever Knight]

Gonna miss Kyle, Plastic Man, and J'onn, Really like the Obsidian Age story.

Which era of JLA do you guys say was best? Morrison to Crisis, Post Infinite Crisis to Flashpoint, or New 52?

[BatmanJones]

Gonna miss Kyle, Plastic Man, and J'onn, Really like the Obsidian Age story.

Which era of JLA do you guys say was best? Morrison to Crisis, Post Infinite Crisis to Flashpoint, or New 52?

Morrison's era started in 1996 I believe, which was about 11 years AFTER Crisis. So Morrison to Crisis isn't a thing.

I will always love the Satellite League best, which predated Crisis. I especially love it when contemporary creators tell stories about this most classic iteration of the League. Identity Crisis is the best example but there are others.

This is my order for favorite JLA runs:

1. 1960-1985: The first appearance of the League through the Satellite years. JL Detroit took a dump on that history just by being mediocre and adding characters that never would have been JLA material in Vibe and Gypsy.

2. The Waid/Kelly stuff that directly followed Morrison's iconic run.

3. Morrison's run. (Would be much higher but I really have an issue with Porter's art and it made these great stories hard for me to enjoy.)

4. New 52 (started very slow then picked up pace until the climax of Darkseid War). This is the first time JLA has truly had a great superhero writer AND great artists (Geoff Johns with Ivan Reis and Jason Fabok mostly but also a bit by Mahnke).

5. Original, post-Crisis JLI (Not for the bwahaha sitcom junk but for the amazing art by Kevin Macguire).

Although JLA is my all time favorite title and forever has been, apart from the above runs there's not much there. And certainly there is NO reason to pick up the JL title DC's putting out now. It actually manages to be the worst of all the Rebirth books I'm reading and I'm reading all but three. Bryan Hitch should not be writing comic books. I still pick it up out of habit but when I finish an issue I can't remember one thing about it. It is that dull.