1485 ( )

Starts off as a sequel to Grant Morrison's JLA: Earth 2 before taking a left turn and becoming something far less interesting.

The new big bad, the Omega Man, is a generic "death incarnate" type and the writer pulls out a lot of familiar tricks to try and make him seem more than that: rendering Superman useless, having characters narrate 'the story of how they died'. None of them have much of an effect and most of the time the characters are just hitting each other.

The characters' speech is so stilted it might as well be delivered on top of a mountain ("But, Batman... that makes you a coward"). For the most part it veers between sententious monologues, Valley Girl call outs and quips that aren't funny ("Your soul, my feast," "Hate to disappoint but my soul doesn't have a whole lot of meat on it. It's more an amuse-bouche." That's not a joke, it's a line written by someone who knows what jokes look like but doesn't understand why they're funny).

Eventually someone presses a button and the baddie goes away. I was glad it ended. ( )

So, the TPB starts with almost every new member of the JLA happy. In the comic book world (or soap world or TV show world) happiness is never good for the characters, although what happens next is a good story even if it isn't happy.

The CSA, Crime Syndicate of Amerika, is on the JLA's earth. As is a third Earth's Green Lantern. The CSA is up to no good at all. Eventually they managed to bring into being a being a bad guy named Omega Man, and whew is he a bad bad guy.

I didn't think I would like the new JLA. I'm a big fan of a lot of the main characters like Superman and Bruce's Batman and Wally West's flash (or Barry), and none of them are on the team (Supergirl, Dick's Batman, and Jesse Quick are there). But, as the TPB went on I more and more liked the interaction between this team. Especially the Donna Troy, Jade interactions, those were really cool. A lot of authors/plotters sometimes forget that these characters are people too, not just heroes and so, not all of their conversations have to be about taking down the next big bad. ( )