Basic Justice League Poll

Well of course the quintessential JLA member is the Martian Manhuzzzzzzzz... sorry! Fell asleep due to massive dullness.

I kind of like the idea of Superman in the JLA as it leads to things like that scene in Morrison's JLA where Green Lantern and (I want to say Flash but I think it might be Green Arrow) are speaking in hushed terms about him, which of course he can hear. But then in general I'm fairly gay for Morrison's Superman. In other hands this is the sort of thing that leads to every single "Am I a hero?" story in Kyle Rayner's first few years.

ace Martian Manhunter:
Giffen/DeMatteis JLAEIOU
Darwyn Cooke (JLA pre-history)
that Gerard Jones/Barreto series was alright
some 1950s mainly-a-human-cop story I read in a b&w Australian reprint comic bought from a school fete in 1983

I've read some of those Giffen issues, they're not bad, but they're not the JLA - I kept thinking "Why couldn't you have just written this enjoyable knockabout stuff with other characters/the same characters in a different book?". Though I understand that for some people this is the definitive run.

Cooke and Jones/Barreto yes! But still possibly overbalanced by the immense dullness of MM's recent solo series.

Nearly Martian Manhunter since it's a JL poll and I have fond memories of the eighties league, but judged on their own merits the Flash has to take it - solely for those incredible twelve issues of Morrison/Millar, which blew everybody away in the middle of snoresome Mark Waid (leading to even more boring Geoff Johns! Jesus Christ, the fact that by their very nature the Flash's adventures have to disobey all laws of physics to make even the most basic sense should make them LESS boring, not MORE!)

Oh well, too late, I've voted now. Flash wins on huge potential that has since been wasted.

I've read some of those Giffen issues, they're not bad, but they're not the JLA - I kept thinking "Why couldn't you have just written this enjoyable knockabout stuff with other characters/the same characters in a different book?".

Because Giffen/DeMattheis had been put in charge of the Justice League. Their initial plan was "duh, let's get the big guns!" but turns out they were all busy being revamped at the time.

I can understand the "that's not the real Justice Lague" position but, frankly, the JLI stuff is better than 90% of JLA comics (even the silver age stuff is pretty zzz when stacked against the rest of the Showcase canon.) I went for Martian Manhunter; I like the character and he's the only one where the JLA is really an essential part.

Better to have asked that question of VIBE Andrew.

You should read a solid run (any six-ten issues of JL/I/A between 1 and 51) AF, you'll get a better feel than random issues. Although I freely admit that "enjoyable knockabout stuff" is pretty much exactly all I want from superhero comics, there is a LOT of taking the characters seriously in amongst the LOLs.

Oh, but I don't want any of that :) I want the big hitters, and appropriately sized menaces: Superman wrestling a bull-headed angel while the simple presence of the heavenly host's attack craft sets San Francisco on fire! And so on. But this is obviously due to the Morrison run being the first one I saw, and the contrast with the Meltzer rubbish these days. I will go and check that stuff out, yes.

I read the first book collection of that JLI collection and thought it was pretty meh, so Andrew may be right on this one.

It takes a while to find its tone, and it gets distracted by a crossover quite early on too - in memory it started getting 'good' just AFTER the end of that first JLI collection: the "Moving Day" story which is Giffen and DeMatteis realising they *can* actually just spend a whole issue on a superhero sitcom piece.

But it's still an acquired taste and I don't know how well it's aged.

yeah I thought about saying between 14 and 51...the second book is definitely not the best starting place.

there's plenty of appropriately-sized menaces too! Batman goes undercover as Wayne -- Bruce Wayne, five supervillains who killed their entire world come through a dimensional rift, there's a punch-up on Apokolips with a thousand parademons, Martian Manhunter almost destroys his own soul fighting a giant red guy who's trying to eat the JLA's faces, a sentient island gets the hump when two Leaguers build a casino on it and it floats away into the Pacifi... okay, that one might not appeal to you.

x-post - said crossover is in the second collection.

I think Moving Day is the last one in the first book, and it's definitely the same feel as The Sound Of her Wings in Sandman - "oh THIS is how we do this;" finding the tone that makes it different from other books, but still not having refined the approach.

Is this the run with the really overwritten JMD dialogue?

Yeah, but it usually works? Unlike really, really overwritten solo DeMatteis dialogue, where he's going too far for profundity and hits it once in a career, he goes too far for lols here but gets them a good 70% of the time.

(Also lots of the dialogue is Helfer/Giffen/DeMatteis rather than just DeMatteis.)

Adam Hughes on a regular monthly comic, though! Has that ever happened before/since?

The Maze Agency was monthlyish, wasn't it?

The Crossover (with Superman and the REAL Green Lantern on the Manhunter Planet?) issue was actually good WE ARE SUPERHEROES SAVING THE UNIVERSE stuff, while also quite true to the established tone of the book.
Don't trust me though, I'm emotionally involved with, um, my one constant friend from ages 10-14.

Also, I totally voted for Aquaman.

You know, JLI had a pretty great run in the art department (up until Breakdowns, @ least) -- twoish years of Kevin Maguire, a year or so of Adam Hughes, & Ty Templeton filling in the blanks here & there (tho it took me a while to get w/ TT's particular style). And some of Mike McKone's early work as well!

If I can't vote for Elongated Man, I ain't voting.

Oh -- forgot about the odd issue / annual drawn by Bill Willingham! YMMV wrt classifying his artwork as "great", of course.

Re the Giffen/dM JLI, does anyone remember the short-lived JLI Quarterly they did? Particularly issues 3 and 4, which were perfection. One was about the super-crap Injustice Society or some such group (no heroes in the story at all), and their knockabout screwball attempts to pull of some heist involving thinly disguised Scientologists. The other was about some of the JL going to that parallel world which some of the heroes came from, trying to save it, and accidentally destroying it.

it ran for over four years, not that short-lived! 1, 3 and 4 may have been the only good issues though. (1 wasn't great, but was important for continuity since it showed what Booster was doing when he quit the League; #2 was a very disposable Scarlet Skier story. Even the backups in #4 started to lose it, with DeMatteis allowed to write solo about the true deep emotions of the Leaguers, with dialogue redundant to what he got to put into an actual story in the main book. The short strips about Power Girl's cat were okay though.)

That Morrison/Millar Falsh run must be due to be collected, hopefully. I mean if they did an Aztek trade...

There's a trade announced, but with no pagecount - the price point makes it seem likely it's only the first four to six issues.

I voted WW just because I've been kind of intrigued by her lately, not for any role she has in JL.

Perhaps I'm simply very very lonely.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Now I'm wondering if poor Batman'll even get a vote

He's been sort of in the doghouse ever since he won the ILC favourite characters poll and everyone went "wait, no!"

I voted for him! He rocked the house in Morrison's JLA and punched out Guy Gardner in the Giffen run, what's not to like? Also he may or may not not be dying.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

pfft sympathy vote

Six votes for the Flash! Barry or Wally, I wonder...