ratcreature | stumbling in the dark

I tried to look into the Justice League comics, that is post-Crisis but before the current JLA series, to see what prior JL incarnations there have been, and whether any look interesting, etc. and I didn't even get as far as to look up which titles there were before becoming confused. I knew that at one time the team split into Justice League Europe and Justice League America, but what is this Justice League International? And is there more than one of those? And something with the issue numbers is confusing, too.

* Some research (mostly here and here) later. *

Okay, so in 1987 the series started as "Justice League", the members seem to have been: Batman, Martian Manhunter, Black Canary II, Captain Marvel, Dr. Fate, Blue Beetle II, Guy Gardner, and Mister Miracle.

Then with #7 still in 1987, it became "Justice League International", and there were some changes to the team, Captain Marvel and Dr. Fate quit, Captain Atom, Booster Gold and someone named Rocket Red with various, probably significant, numbers ("Rocket Red #7"? "Rocket Red #4"?) join. That series lasts until issue #25. Then it became "Justice League America" in 1989 but the issue number continue with #26, and the new "Justice League Europe" starts as its counterpart and lasts until #50.

Then in June 1993 the "Justice League Europe" starts to go by "Justice League International" but the issue numbers also continue, that being the reason why the issue numbers of the series called "Justice League International" don't match, but go only from #7-25 and #51-68, which are really two different series/teams. In June 1993 another series/team starts, the "Justice League Task Force" and I'm not sure how that team relates to either of the others (but looking at the descriptions that one has Nightwing in it).

As an aside, these various Justice League teams start to look as complicated to keep track of as the gazillion of different X teams and titles from Marvel...

So basically it's like:

               JLA
JL --> JLI --<         
               JLE --> JLI
                      \?
                       JL Taskforce

Anyway, the new "Justice League International" lasted till September 1994, so I guess Zero Hour had an impact on it? I'm still not sure how the "Justice League Quarterly" title that ran from 1990 to 1994 fits into it. Both the JL Taskforce and the Justice League America series lasted summer 1996. Then in September a "Midsummer's Nightmare" started the lastest JLA series with the Justice League in its current configuration.

I still have no clue which (if any) of these might be worth reading. (I mean, do I really want to know about the numbered Red Rocket guys?) The one comforting thing is that I don't really have to worry about it yet, because I for now I can catch up on the current series first, if I want more Justice League, and that series seems to be straightforward enough, if you don't look at the ton of available specials.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Justice League that you are concerned with are all fun stories written during a dark and moody time in comics. I am a huge fan of these and have almost all of them. After Breakdowns, a huge 15 part epic that set up for the writers coming on the Justice League Europe and America teams, the Europe stories were not quite as good but again I have them because I'm a completeist. JL Quarterly was like the Unlimited titles Marvel sold where it had self contained stories by the likes of Mark Waid umongst others and JL Task Force was a covert ops group with variable members up until Zero Hour where they became a training ground for younger JL members(Ray,Triumph,Gypsy...). G Gordon Godfrey was a henchman for Darkseid who was trying to mentally defeat the heroes ala Job from the bible, and Legends is a really good read so if nothing else pick that up it's only six issues. Oh yeah Extreme Justice was a title started in 94 meant to be an Image comics inspired take on the Justice league led by Captain Atom, and i liked it but mainly because I like Captain Atom. Unfortunately some of the plot points towards the end where left dangling, like Max Lord being a robot, and eventually ignored by current DC editors because they said no one read them but I did and so I was angry to say the least about that comment. You can usually find huge lots of these runs on Ebay for real cheap like once upon a time with quarter bins, oh how i long for those days. Oh yeah the rocket red thing, they were Russia's answer to superheroes and there was a group of them only known by numbers the Jl had to accept one to get UN funding and he turned out to be a traitor and they replaced him with the other. Here is the breakdown, no pun intended, of the titles Justice League 1-6, Justice League International 7-25, Justice league America 0,26-113, Justice League Europe 1-50, Justice League International 51-68, Justice League Task Force 1-16(covert ops style),0,17-37 (training) and Extreme Justice 0-18, and Justice League Quarterly ran concurrent with these titles 1-17. These comics were great and they had some of the most insanely funny things ever like the Batman vs Guy Guardner one punch fight, the entire Justice League Europe in a french class, give them a try it can't hurt except maybe your sides and funny bone. My name is Lewis and I happened upon this several year old blog and thought I would argue for one of my all time favorite set of series and I hope you read this and check out some or all of it and what i've said helps and makes sense I'll check back later

Thanks for this overview. I've read some of these since I first posted this entry, though not all of them. Eventually I got somewhat disgruntled with DC due to its ongoing, perpetual crossover "Crisis", and that made me less inclined to find and read older comics too.

Also here it is harder to find them in single backissues, since they come with additional taxes if sellers even ship outside the US, and there is the international payment hassle, and so on, and the older issues sold here in comic stores generally don't come cheap.

I didn't pick up on you being in another country. let me know where you are and what issues from this run you might be interested in or I can post what I have doubles of and if you are interested we can probably work something out Lewis

Thanks, that's a nice offer, but I currently don't read as much DC as I did when I posted this. I just meant to explain why my reading wasn't all that completist. In the end I read more of the (then current) JLA title that started in 1997 because they were also collected in trade paperbacks and thus more accessible for me, and of the older ones mostly picked up the earlier JLE for Animal Man (whom I really like as a character), and I found JLE quite fun to read. So I agree with you there.

ok well happy reading that is what comics should be about and not over priced 'collectorism' have a good one

stumbling in the dark

Justice League I E A etc

Re: Justice League I E A etc

Re: Justice League I E A etc

Re: Justice League I E A etc

Re: Justice League I E A etc