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Justice League International Vol. 4

April 20, 2009 | Trades

Justice League International Vol. 4
Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Ty Templeton, Kevin Maguire
DC Comics
$27.99/$24.99 US (Hardcover)
**** (out of five)
One team of Justice Leaguers is a laugh riot. Two ought to be enough to cause milk to spray from noses far and wide.
The fourth volume collecting the classic late-1980s tales of the humour-infused adventures of Justice League International, written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis and illustrated by Kevin Maguire and award-winning Canadian artist Ty Templeton, opens up with the aftermath of the colossal DC Universe crossover, Invasion, which revealed that League CEO Maxwell Lord, previously unbeknownst to him, was a meta-human, too.
While the invasion did nearly kill Max and many of the rest of the globe’s super-humans, it also afforded the cunning businessman a chance to network with some of the world’s greatest heroes. The result is a new team in the successful spin-off series, Justice League Europe (and the renaming of JLI to Justice League America). Hopefully the collected editions of that series aren’t too far behind this one.
There are yucks aplenty as boorish Green Lantern Guy Gardner finally convinces naive teammate Ice to go on a date with him (one that features a triple-x movie and a super-villain’s nervous breakdown) and as readers get a look inside Blue Beetle’s mind (think women, lots of women), but the action isn’t bad either as a brainwashed Beetle becomes a deadly foe for his fellow Leaguers and a weapon stolen from a god ends up in very dangerous hands.
Still one of the most brilliant mainstream fusions of action and comedy in comics history, Justice League International truly stands the test of time.