This week I picked DC Comics Justice League International(JLI) Annual #3 by Keith Griffen and J. M. DeMatteis. One reason I chose this title is I will probably be a little Marvel-centric for the next few videos and I wanted to throw a little love to the die-hard DC Fans.
And you have to be a die-hard DC fan for this one, at least the main story. Around the World with the JLI takes up 33 pages of this book and nearly nothing happens. The story opens on the beautiful Pacific island of Kooey Kooey Kooey where a character named Herb is trying to convince his chief to allow the JLI to have an embassy on their island as a way of keeping the Soviets and Americans from attempting to establish a base there because Kooey Kooey Kooey is strategically located. What its strategic importance is, we aren't told. We are only told we are somewhere in the South Pacific.
Herb is the uptight sort while the chief likes to make dumb jokes and tell Herb to lighten up. The chief thinks inviting the JLI to have a base on the island is a bad idea as it will attract super villains, aliens, inter-dimensional monsters, and reporters. Herb tries to assure the chief that the JLI are very busy and will probably only visit the island rarely.
The chief takes it under consideration and after a couple of pages, decides to send Herb to speak to the JLI and offer them an embassy on the island. Herb is suddenly, "Why me?! I don't want to leave the island, it's so nice here! I spent four excruciating years at Brooklyn University," and I'm sighing in frustration because we just spent 2 or 3 pages of Herb arguing for and then worrying the chief will turn his proposal down. Don't make a suggestion if you don't want to take the lead on it, or have someone in mind to take the lead on it!
Next we cut to the JLI headquarters where the JLI have been summoned to go on a tour of all the JLI's embassies in different countries around the world for reasons that are never completely explained. Blue Beetle isn't happy because he has a hot date. Booster Gold jibes him that it is with Beetle's Aunt Millie being allowed out of the home for the weekend. It isn't funny and as the book progresses nearly every member of the JLI makes an Aunt Millie joke that is just as unfunny.
The whole feel of the book is like that of a 1970s Saturday Morning Cartoon and I could practically hear the lame laugh track in my head as bad joke after bad joke is made. If I wasn't reading this book to make a video, I would probably have put it aside forever.
As you see in my video the cover looks really fun and it shows snapshots of JLI members having fun in different countries around the world. Guy Gardner was even shown on the cover even though he, Batman and somebody called Captain Atom are excused from the tour, although Captain Atom makes an appearance later in the story.
The whole story is about Herb trying to catch up with the JLI who are always one location ahead because, I guess in 1989 they had no means of communication.
The artwork is the only redeeming quality of this story, the faces are especially well drawn and convey emotions extremely well. But in the end it is 33 pages of bad jokes, anti-adventure, and unhappy characters.
The backup feature is called The Man I Never Was (also by Griffen and Demateis), on the other hand, is 8 pages of pure comic book joy. This is a story that features Martian Manhunter, aka J'onn J'onzz, who is seeking to avenge the death of his former partner and comes to Gotham to start pushing around low-level mob guys hoping to shake up the higher-ups in the organization because he believes his partner was killed for investigating the mob. Martian Manhunter is soon joined by Batman because nobody beats up low-level hoodlums in Gotham without Batman's permission!
The great thing about this story for a not very long time DC fan such as myself is that this gives the reader deep insght into J'onn J'onzz's character. I think all the stuff I've read with J'onn J'onzz is the post-Identity Crisis stories and the little bit he was in Injustice: Gods Among Us, and none of those stories really go into his character that much. Probably Brightest Day is the story I've read with the most character building for Martian Manhunter but I don't think I had any idea he worked as a cop for a few years. But the way Griffen and DeMatteis let you into J'onn J'onzz's head is by having him focus on Batman and all the trauma and Bruce Wayne experienced as a boy and while J'onn J'onzz is telling us about Batman we are learning about J'onn. It is really quite inspired story telling. I'm not sure what happened with the main feature but these eight pages and the cover art are worth the price of the whole book.
If you happen to pick this book up or remember it from back in the day, let me know what you think in the comments section down below. And please support this blog by visiting my YouTube channel Super Comic Fun Time! and liking and subscribing, and if you are planning on shopping at Amazon, please consider using my affiliate link here which links right to Amazon's Comic Books and Graphic Novels and shop from there.
You can even pick up a copy of Justice League International Annual #3 if you so desire. I do think the back up story is well worth the read if you can find it for a good price and not have to pay more in shipping than the price of the book.
This book also looks like it will be a part of the upcoming Justice League International Omnibus Vol. 1 which is due out on October 17, 2017. Based on my reading of this Annual #3, I don't feel compelled to get this volume, but if you are a fan from this time or you know there are much better JLI stories than this, maybe there are a lot more gems scattered out throughout this omnibus. If you are a reader back from the day or a fan of this era of comics, let me know what you think because I really did like, no love the back up feature in this annual. Comment below or on my video, link up above.
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