Justice League Book Club Week 11: A New Era for A New Year

This was my first time reading the New 52 justice league series, and I’d say I kind of liked it. Wonder Woman surprised me quite a bit, she was very war-like and cold in this representation. I have been reading Perez’s run where she seems a lot warmer and more focused on connecting humanity. It is an interesting take on her, not sure if I love it yet. I watched a lot of the movies and tv shows before actually reading DC comics, just because there was not many stores around with a steady supply. My favorite moment was between Batman and Green Lantern, when Batman steals his ring, thought that was funny. I also was a fan of the scene where Aquaman is introduced.

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Hi, @turtles_are_cute and welcome! :slight_smile:

Diana is a bit hard-edged in the early issues of the series. Do remember that she’s not yet fully acclimated to man’s world though, so it takes her a while to warm up and become the Diana we all love. My favorite moment of her’s was “Ice cream is wonderful”. Ice cream is indeed great, but her enthusiasm for it was a neat little moment that I enjoy every time I read the issue.

Re: Green Lantern and Batman, I love Hal’s reaction to Batman upon first seeing him: “Batman? You’re real?!”

Thanks for joining in. Hope to see you around more! :smiley:

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Funny enough, I actually just got the deluxe hardcover of the first twelve issues of this book using the Amazon gift card I got for Christmas (along with a bunch of other great hardcovers). So needless to say I’ll be reading this from this awesome paperbook. :smiley:

And here’s the rest of the books I got:

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I had read the New 52 league before, but it was fun to read these issues again.
I have been into comics since the early 70s, although I stopped collecting in 1993 and only started reading again upon joining DC Universe a bit over a year ago.
I think my favorite moment was when Batman encouraged Cyborg so that he could shut down the boom tubes and stop the invasion.

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Something neat early on I saw in my collected edition is an interesting foreword by Dan Didio, which reveals some stuff about this book I hadn’t heard before.

Firstly, Geoff Johns and Jim Lee decided to do a project together partly from being fans of each other’s work, but also to show that they’re able to do creative roles while still doing their new duties as part of DC Entertainment that they got at the time. They apparently went back and forth on a bunch of different potential books, before deciding on a book that would have had a little bit of all the characters they thought of doing together in the Justice League.

A big detail was that apparently, this project came to be before the New 52 revamp/reboot was thought up, and their run was initially going to be in the original Pre-Flashpoint continuity, with a slightly different and expanded team. They talk about how you can see it in one of the promotional artworks done for the book, which Didio specifically mentions new characters like Element Woman and Lady Luck.

He also mentions that Jim Lee had already worked on a “beautiful two-page spread that had to be discarded.” Sadly though, said spread doesn’t appear in the collection! I wonder if they ever showed it anywhere…

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On the costume discussions, these suits in this series aren’t my favorite, but I don’t hate them. Ironically, I feel like the best redesigns I’ve seen for these characters are some of the ones that were abandoned for this project, especially this take on Superman:

There’s also a really neat pencil sketch of Diana’s initial pants design that has some cool details, but I can’t find it on google images. I don’t remember seeing it on the initial backmatter for these issues either. Sad.

Speaking of Wonder Woman…

Yeah, she definitely feels more like Red Sonja than Wonder Woman in these initial issues. I did have a thought when I was reading #3 today and saw the bottom panel shown:

“I grew up on Paradise Island where I was treated like a child my entire life. But this isn’t Paradise Island and I’m not a child anymore. I’m done with people telling me what to do.”

To me I think this best informs what this take on Diana is going for. This is a younger Diana – if I remember right, it’s said somewhere she may be as young as 18 or 19. This is a teenage rebellion Diana, a young, vigorous woman in the prime of her life, trained in combat but never actually been in combat. Raised her whole life in paradise, she doesn’t know first hand the cost of war and the true value of peace.

So, looking at it that way, it definitely feels like a valid take on the character. I just kind of wish they played more with that concept, maybe gave her an arc of dealing with innocents lost and learning that while there is a thrill in combat, there is also a duty as well.

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I absolutely loved this run and along with Injustice is what got me back into comics after a long break. Gosh was it painful having to witness those first couple of trades from rebirth JL. Literally some of the worst comics and certainly JL comics I’ve ever read. The only parts of this run that I’ve revisited since it came out was DarkSied Wars and it held up so I’m hoping this will also.

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Also funny enough… I also got an Amazon gift card for Christmas and I bought The Justice League and Unlimited all on DVD and have some leftover on it… Will see maybe how much it might put a dent into getting a hardcover as well… :thinking: :smile:

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  • Is this your first time reading the New 52 Justice League series?

Nope – read it as it came out and a few times since then.

  • Were you into DC, or comics in general, prior to the August 2011 launch of Justice League?

Yep. I think I started reading monthly comics on the regular around…Infinite Crisis, give or take? I think around this time when the book and the New 52 in general came out…while I can see the argument against doing the wide continuity reboot it did, I do think the DC line at this time needed a shot in the arm, something big and bold to kind of kick the dust off and do some different stuff with these characters. The era wasn’t perfect – what era was? – but there’s definitely some good stuff that came out of it, including this run.

  • What was your favorite moment from this story?

Hmm…there’s a good amount to choose from.

As a Batman stan, I have to call out some of his good moments. While stuff like pulling the ring of Hal’s finger was hilarious and badass, what I liked were his more human, amicable moments. The big ones being him calming down Superman after getting in a fight, revealing his identity to Hal to get him to get the group to work together, saving Superman, and inspiring Cyborg in how to shut Darkseid out.

Outside of that…Vic becoming Cyborg and his transformation was cool, very effective and creepy, felt like a monster movie origin in a way, with a little Eldrich madness in the parademon stuff for flavor.

Aquaman getting the sharks to chow down on some parademons was chef’s kiss.

And overall the Darkseid fight was really well done. I liked how all the heroes were involved and played a role in defeating him, made him feel like a true, genuine threat.

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I got mine for like 35 dollars, if that helps.

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Oh… Hello there again Justice League Book Club! Tally-Ho! :grin: :wave: :sunglasses:

Ah, this week’s reading… :face_with_monocle:

I had a lot of fun with it. I enjoyed the story and the art by Jim Lee… :astonished: :star_struck:

When I looked into the series I saw I had read #50 at one point and it got me thinking about why… :thinking:

And then I remembered! It was actually one of the first comics I read on DCU as I saw it was mentioned in one of the captions to start reading Rebirth. :sweat_smile:

Oh yes very much into DC prior to August 2011. :clark_hv_4:

I would say I was hooked as a young, young ajm08g watching Batman, Superman, Justice League The Animated series. And around the time of 2011 I believe I was figuring out how to deal with the airing of the final season of Smallville… Was more a watcher of DC content, but always wanted to get into reading comics and happy to have that chance now for the past 2 years and hopefully for many more. :smiley: :+1:

Well… I found to like a lot of moments and could probably narrow it down to 1 for each issue. :nerd_face:

Justice League (2011-) #1 Moment

Batman taking GL’s ring was also pretty funny. :joy:

Justice League (2011-) #2 Moment

Justice League (2011-) #3 Moment


This actually reminded me of Batman V. Superman when Diana was thrown back by Doomsday and smiled for the fight. :wonderwoman:

Justice League (2011-) #4 Moment


Thank you Mr. Jim Lee for this shot. :shark: :ocean:

Justice League (2011-) #5 Moment

Justice League (2011-) #6 Moment

Thank you Very Much Mr. Jim Lee for this shot! :star_struck:

Okay and now looking at all them again… Maybe the moment from 6 might be my favorite… :sweat_smile:

And… For the bonus points for 13 and 14… :grin:

Justice League (2011-) #13 Moment


I didn’t know what to think when I saw this… :flushed: :grimacing:
But it definitely was a moment! :open_mouth:

Justice League (2011-) #14 Moment


This was also quite unnerving… :fish: :eyes:

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Woah. :astonished:

Didn’t realize how much time it took to put the rest of my other post together… :sweat_smile:

But this does help! Thank you. :sunglasses: :+1:

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I’m sorry, all I can think of is you reading on your tablet like:

:rofl:

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:smile:

That is funny. I think I was too much in shock from seeing Cheetah’s bite being able to be effective against Superman’s skin. :fearful:

Overall this sums up well everything during that moment for me though. :sweat_smile:

And thankfully Superman returned to normal later. :superman_hv_4:

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I should also add that the inkers did a phenomenal job as well! :sunglasses: :+1:

What also added to my enjoyment was possible Easter Eggs while reading. :egg:

Some I thought were from these moments. :thinking:

A Nod For Future State

From the cover of Future State I thought it was interesting Superman was in chains and maybe in the Future State story they might reference this time above.

A Nod to the Original JLA

And… When GL had his arm in a construct cast I was reminded of the time when GL did that in (I believe it was) Superman (1986-) #82 as a result of GL’s fight with Mongul. :gl_hv_2: :superman_hv_4:

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The chains thing I think is more of a reference to an iconic cover of Superman breaking through chains.

Image

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Oh nice! :sunglasses: :+1:

Whoops. I meant for instead of from Future State. Unless they had The Flash run to the future and back, then in would be a nod from Future State… :rofl: :flash_hv_1:

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Funny you mention the Origin DE, as I might be getting it for my birthday. Looks like a rad hardcover.

Your other books are great too. Definitely some solid reads there.

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Geoff Johns did an excellent job over the length of the series and this was my favorite title from the New52.

  1. Read them as they came out. What a time, all roads open, Cyborg in the team for the first time since Super Friends, and all new first meetings.

  2. 1975, my first comic was Justice League of America #118.

  3. favorite moment?

try again Barry

As it turns out, this was my least favorite arc of the entire series.

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I absolutely agree. It was a cause for celebration every time a new issue of Johns’ Justice League came out.

Prior to the debut of The New 52, Justice League was my absolute most anticipated wave 1 book, and it never disappointed.

Prior to The Darkseid War, the debut arc was my favorite.

However, once TDW began, that quickly became my favorite arc of the New 52 JL series, and still is, today. It’s great from start to finish.