Justice League of America #255 - Oct. 1986

Zatanna in the fight of her life!

The Story: "Rising" by Gerry Conway, Michael Ellis, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. When we saw Zatanna last, she was a captive of the mysterious Adam, who seems to be the god-like figure in a cult that Zee's friend Sherri is a part of.

Zatanna is tied down a grimy mattress, which a tough-looking nurse watching over her. She dreams(?) she is talking to her late father, the master magician Zatara.

Zatanna and Zatara squabble over what is real and what is not, and Zatanna starts to recall the events leading up to where she is now.

She sees herself on the yacht, sees her friend Sherri, except she remembers events as different than what we saw last issue. Instead of getting hit on the head, Zatanna remembers it as:

She then remembers being put under Adam's creepy operating machine, which he wants to use to steal Zatanna's genetic code, so he can become one of the Homo Magi.

Zatara leaves her with promise that she won't be hurt again, which wakes Zee up. The nurse sees this and tries to ply her with more tranquilizers, but Zee uses her magic powers to throw the woman across the room and free herself from her constraints.

Zatanna, as she is escaping, runs into Sherri, and then is blasted by Adam, dressed in a costume befitting a would-be demi-god. He uses his powers to trap Zatanna in some magical bonds.

Zee managed to hit her JLA signal device, but Adam is powerful enough to "see" the signal arrive at JLA HQ, where the team regroups and heads out to find Zatanna.

Meanwhile, John Jones. P.I., works on the murder case he's been framed for, which leads him to the real culprit--the woman's husband's mistress, who claims it was he who "made her do it."

The adulterous husband loses control and fires a few slugs into John, which of course doesn't hurt him. What does is when the force of the bullets knock him into a fire raging in a fireplace! The man and woman leave Jones to die.

Later, we see the JLA arrive at the building where Zatanna is. But when they get there, she's waiting there for them, telling them it was all a false alarm:

To be continued!

Roll Call: Batman, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: This is Gerry Conway's last JLA issue. Too bad it was such an ignominious end--after almost eight uninterrupted years of writing the World's Greatest Superheroes, DC yanked Conway off the book in the middle of a story.

Also--I don't know who this Michael Ellis guy is. I assume its some form of pseudonym, since this is Ellis' only DC comic book credit. Weird that this credit would appear on Conway's final issue, with Ellis credited for the script, as if Conway needed help with that.

I find the sequence of Zatanna trying to recall what happened truly disturbing. Maybe I'm reading into it, but Zee's prone position in the second panel I posed, surrounded by faceless, threatening men, has a dark, disturbing subtext to it, only exacerbated by the fact that Zee is stripped naked and has her body violated by Adam's creepy machine.

Again, maybe I'm reading into it.

Justice League of America #254 - Sept. 1986

The final battle with Despero--will the new Justice League be up to the task?

The Story: "Desperate Climax" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. Picking up from last issue, we open on Batman, grimly staring into the Fire of Py'Tar, trying to figure out a plan.

Despero experiences another agonizing renewal of his power, and walks out of the fire, only to be temporarily blinded by an explosive gas pellet thrown in his eyes by Batman.

Despero chases after Batman, blasting away at everything in sight, enraged more at Batman's guts than the explosion itself.

Meanwhile, Vixen tires to wake up the other JLAers, knocked out by Despero's last attack. They finally do, and Vixen tells them of Batman's plan.

When Vixen tells Vibe Batman is in there, fighting Despero alone, he basically gives up and says they have no hope of stopping him. But Steel doesn't want to hear it:

The JLA heads toward Despero's temple, and Vibe initially starts to walk away. Finally, he realizes his cowardice, and turns out to join his friends.

Inside, we see Batman has been captured again by Despero, but he's still trash-talking him anyway. This drives Despero nuts:

Batman even goes so far to call Despero "a pathetic little loser"(!), which distracts Despero long enough for the JLA to sneak in and hit him with a series of blows, courtesy Vixen and Steel.

Vixen then frees Batman, and they and the rest of them fight the various stone demons Despero has created. Despero then blasts at Steel, which infuriates Gypsy, who uses her hallucinogenic powers on Despero, causing him to go completely berserk.

Vibe then uses his powers on the Flame of Py'Tar, causing the effect on Despero that Batman guessed it would:

Everything Despero created disappears into nothingness, and Batman credits Vibe with the final blow.

Vibe is touched by Batman's compliment, and asks if they can double-date. Batman's answer: "Don't press your luck."

Roll Call: Batman, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: Maybe the new JLA's finest moment, sad to think this was Gerry Conway's last story line with the team he wrote for so long. Despero is defeated by teamwork and logic, not some deus ex machina event at the end. I think, over time, if just a couple older JLAers had returned to the team, this could've been a workable concept. But of course, it wasn't to be.

This issue's cover is inked by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, another unusual choice as inker.

Justice League of America #253 - Aug. 1986

Despero takes on the entire JLA!

The Story: "Pyre" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. The JLA is stunned to see their old foe, Despero, in a new, more powerful form, as well as their teammates Batman and Vixen trussed up.

While most of the team don't know who this guy is, Martian Manhunter sure does, and he keeps repeating, solemnly, "Despero", as if he can't believe it.

Despero explains he is here for revenge, and uses his power to turn a nearby skyscraper into a giant stone dragon, based upon a beast from Despero's home planet.

Steel tries to subdue the creature, but it doesn't work. This is something they've never encountered before.

My favorite part of this whole story line is that, even through all this, Batman still manages to play mind games with Despero:

The combined powers of the JLA find a way to smash the dragon into bits, which seems to pain Despero greatly, causing him to lash out and cause the ground beneath the JLA's feet to shake and shatter.

Despero then moves Batman and Vixen inside his stone temple, where Batman--of course--starts to form a plan.

Despero then joins them, and tells them how all this came to be, and how he came to battle the Justice League:

Even during this whole soliloquy, Batman stays focused, and gets Despero to tell him about the Flame of Py'Tar, which Bats believes is the source of Despero's newfound power.

Despero says, in the Flame of Py'Tar, his entire being was atomized and he was reborn in this new body, one capable of amazing, god-like power.

As Despero renews himself in the Flame, Batman slips one hand out of his stone manacle, freeing himself, and then Vixen. He then tells her that the JLA needs to destroy the Flame, which should stop Despero.

Vixen tries to argue, but Batman is already off to distract Despero. Vixen heads outside, and runs into a problem:

To be continued!

Roll Call: Batman, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: A lot of the letters in the JLA Mail Room ask for Aquaman to come back. And while I've said before that I wouldn't want to lose the Neal Pozner/Craig Hamilton 1986 mini-series for anything, you have to think DC made a mistake dropping him from the JLA so abruptly. Maybe it's because he's still pictured in the letters page header.

I love, love, love that, even amid all this unbelievable power, Batman is still not all that impressed by Despero, and how much that pisses Despero off. It must be really fun to write Batman sometimes.

Justice League of America #252 - July 1986

All hell breaks loose as Despero arrives on Earth, looking for the Justice League of America!

The Story: "Arrival" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. As we saw last issue, Despero makes his way to Earth, enveloped in a giant ball of fire.

Despero doesn't have much time for niceties, as we see him use his mental powers to extract from a human he stumbles upon where the Justice League is. Once he gets what he needs, he immolates the poor sap (and his dog, the bastard).

While he is disappointed to learn the Justice League he last fought and imprisoned him is no more, he is more than happy to go after the new one, since it is led by one of his old enemies, Batman:

Meanwhile, we see Zatanna try and escape from the hospital bed the megalomanic Adam has put her in, but some sort of electronic headband keeps her from going too far, but not before she sees Adam putting himself through some sort of bizarre experiment, starting with an electronic arm cutting him open with a scalpel!

Later that night, Bruce Wayne and Mari McCabe are having dinner. But of course, the dinner is interrupted by big trouble:

Bruce turns to Batman before Mari even has time to think, but she quickly changes too into her superhero togs and they see who's the cause of all this destruction.

Batman is a little unprepared for the sheer amount of power Despero is now showing, as the ground shakes and breaks open, with demons spewing forth.

Despero grabs Bats, who gets a punch in, which infuriates Despero for the sheer effrontery. Vixen then knocks Despero into a pit of fire, but that only makes him angrier, so angry that he shoots himself into the sky, causing a massive ball of fire to explode in the night sky!

Back at the Secret Sanctuary, the League has assembled, Batman having sent a JLA distress signal. They head to New York, and they don't like what they see:

To be contnued!

Roll Call: Batman, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: This issue's cover is inked by Kyle Baker, of all people. I wonder how that came about.

Luke McDonnel gives this battle a real sense of scope--he doesn't skimp on shots of lots of lots of buildings surrounding this massive conflagration caused by Despero.

Elongated Man's new costume makes its first appearance in the book.

Justice League of America #251 - June 1986

Despero returns to exact his revenge on the Justice League!

The Story: "Hunters and Prey" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. We see the all-new Despero making his way with only one thing on his mind...revenge.

Meanwhile, the new JLAers are being put through their paces by Batman (Ha! and they thought Aquaman was a hard-ass!).

As he tries to teach Vibe to concentrate and hone his powers, Vibe gets fed up and walks off, throwing insults as he leaves. You gotta say this--Vibe has guts. No brains, but guts.

In another part of the Secret Sanctuary, Martian Manhunter works on the murder case he stumbled upon (back in JLA #248), and Gypsy tags along when Manhunter leaves to follow up on the trail.

In Manhattan, we see what grim events have taken over Zatanna since getting knocked out:

...it's here she meets Adam, a slick, nice-looking man who the rest of the group talk about as if a god.

Adam takes a blood sample from Zee, with the goal of injecting into himself, so he has enough power to "fulfill his dream." Uh-oh...

While Manhunter and Gypsy make progress in the investigation, and Steel goes on a date with a woman named Robin, Vixen and Batman spend some private time together:

...I love the moody art on this page, and how cool Bats looks, panel four in particular.

Back with Despero, we see him reach the burned out hull of the JLA satellite, only to find it, well, burned out and empty. He turns his attention toward Earth...that's where they must be.

To be continued!

Roll Call: Batman, Martian Manhunter, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: Elongated Man (and Sue) makes no appearance in this issue, the first time since JLA Detroit started where not all of the members made at least a cameo appearance.

I think this issue reveals--retroactively--the idea that Gerry Conway mentioned in our interview, in that he originally intended to Aquaman stay around a lot longer. He and Vixen formed an interesting friendship, which she immediately then transfers to Batman.

Justice League of America #250 - May 1986

The JLA's 250th anniversary issue, and a new leader takes charge!

The Story: "The Return of the Justice League of America" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. Picking up from last issue, Sue Dibny managed to hit the JLA Distress Signal, just as she is blasted by a strange being who has sprang forth from the alien stowaway known as "Junior."

We see who is receiving the signal--first up, its Batman, who is in the process of stopping some kidnappers from getting away with their hostages. After punching out most of them, he ends the melee simply by staring down the last one. Nice.

He is shocked to hear his JLA signal device go off, as is Superman, who finishes putting out a wildfire and then heads off to the source of the signal.

The same thing happens to Green Lantern, currently out in space, and Green Arrow and Black Canary, a little closer to home. Alas, the signal does not make it to everyone:

Back at the Secret Sanctuary, we see who this intruder is--a golden skinned man, who short circuits the JLA computer with his touch. He knows more are coming, and he will be ready...

Next, we find ourselves in a bucolic neighborhood, as the girl we know as Gypsy is coming from school. She has a Mom, a Dad, a little sister, and all seems to be well. Is this a dream? A flashback?

She enters a typical teenaged girl's room--stuffed animals, messy bed, Madonna poster on the wall. No, wait, it's a poster of...Vixen?:

Gypsy is pulled into the wall, then watches all her JLA friends start to wither away to nothing, all of them telling Gypsy she is next.

Of course, this is all a hallucination, and Gypsy wakes up from it screaming, in the arms of Black Canary and her fellow former Justice Leaguers:

Gypsy explains what happend, and Batman immediately takes charge. The heroes split up to search the Sanctuary to find the creature that did this.

Meanwhile, Zatanna is continuing her search for her friend Sherri. The trail leads her to a marina, where she assumes regular clothes and finds her way to a docked yacht. Amid weird questions about whether she is "part of the group", across the yacht she sees...Sherri!

As she approaches her, Sherri can only offer "I'm sorry" before one of them hits Zee over the head, knocking her out. To be continued...

Back at the Sanctuary, Green Lantern and Green Arrow run into the mysterious alien attacker, who blasts Hal, aging him the same way the others are! Green Arrow gets an arrow into the baddie's chest before he runs off.

He then runs into Superman and Batman, and they figure out that this alien is "carrying" their friends' life energies in him, and if they destroy him, they do the same to their friends!

The JLAers lure Junior from room to room, until he dives for Batman, misses, and plunges into a web of high voltage wires! Superman then grabs the wires, and, using his own body as conduit, transfers the energy to the unconscious JLAers, restoring them to normal. As Batman says, "It's over."

As the heroes celebrate, Martian Manhunter makes a plea to Batman--he should leading the League. At first he demurs, but finally:

In an epilogue, we see the strange alien from the previous issues has survived the trail of fire, and emerges reborn, as...Despero the Destroyer!

To be continued!

Roll Call: Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: The story a lot of JLA fans were waiting for, if a little dishonestly sold--you got the sense from the ads that Superman, Green Lantern, et al, were rejoining the League, when it was just Batman. Still, progress!

This issue has a two-page JLA Mail Room, now back under the aegis of Alan Gold. Gold had a nice habit of printing the names of every person who sent in a letter, even if he didn't print the letter. To that end, here's the one moment he original JLA book and I converged:

...yep, that's me heading the list. My letter writing at that time was atrocious, and it doesn't surprise me that none of my letters ever got printed. Getting mentioned at all was a total thrill--and in the 250th issue yet!


Ok--we're now a year's worth of issues away from the final issue of JLA. As I have mentioned before, I'm planning about a week or so of posts after that before officially turning out the lights on JLA Satellite.

One of themes I've covered since starting this was naming my favorite issues, whenever they came down the pike.

But what I'd like to hear before we go are your choices for favorite issues. This blog has never enjoyed the (relative) popularity of The Aquaman Shrine, but its audience has remained remarkably consistent--each post of this blog has almost the exact same number of hits each day--which leads me to think those of you who stuck with me through this long, strange trip are, deep down, big fans of the JLA.

So, if you are so inclined, email me a list of your three or four favorite issues, with maybe a few sentences as to why you like them so much, and I'll post everyone's choices!

Justice League of America #249 - April 1986

Things get worse with the mysterious alien visitor Junior!

The Story: "All Fall Down!" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. The JLAers are stunned to see what has happened to Vixen--she is suddenly aged to the point of near death, and they don't know why!

Meanwhile, Steel and Vibe want to imprison Junior, but Gypsy is having none of it. She insists Junior means no harm; a point that takes a beating when Junior zaps Steel when he tries to touch it!

Then Vibe inadvertently causes a small cave in when he tries to use his powers, trapping him and Steel inside, leaving Gypsy and Junior outside.

While all this is going on, Manhunter and Elongated Man try to figure out what's wrong with Vixen:

As Manhunter finds a piece of Junior's skin on the floor, Ralph starts to feel woozy and weak. Steel and Vibe find them, and he tells them they must find Junior--now.

Meanwhile, Zatanna is on the search for her missing friend, which involves consulting a fortune teller named Mama Larue. She tells Zee about a "voodoo man" who came to town recently, and uses something called Graveyard Dust, the stuff that Zee found in her apartment.

Back at the Secret Sanctuary, Sue Dibny is driving there to meet up with her husband, when she runs into Gypsy and Junior, and we see now Gypsy is starting to age just like Vixen!

On planet Kalanor, however, we see the mysterious alien undergoing a ritual with The Flame of Py'Tar, which, if it doesn't destroy you, leaves you with great powers. He enters the flame, and screams.

Back on Earth, Manhunter consults the JLA's computer memory banks and learns that Junior came from a spore that attached itself to Superman many years ago when he visited an alien planet, and landed in the Secret Sanctuary when he got back. It has been living here all these years, unbeknownst to anyone.

Turns out the Junior is unknowingly sucking the life energy out of the people around it, and we see that this is now happening to all the JLAers!

Sue Dibny sees all this, and then sees Junior start to glow, and crack open. A shadowy, energy-draped figure emerges:

To be continued? Yes, To be continued!

Roll Call: Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: It was good this Junior storyline started to ramp up; after a few issues it kind of got like "Is this going anywhere?"

I also like that this whole thing sprang from a mission Superman went on years ago? Doesn't he check himself before he returns to Earth?

The art team of McDonnell and Wray are exceptional at rendering withered old people--they look like actual old people, not the people you know but with some extra lines on their faces.

Justice League of America #248 - March 1986

J'onn J'onzz, Manhunter for hire!

The Story: "Interweavings" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. Picking up from last issue, Elongated Man, Vixen, and Gypsy are wondering what to do with this new alien resident of their Secret Sanctuary.

They also wonder if there are any other surprises awaiting them, something J'onn might be able to help with.

Unfortunately for them, J'onn is a little busy in his i.d. of John Jones, who is involved with a murder case as a private eye.

He's staking out a woman when he hears a scream coming from her apartment. He rushes in to find her dead, and then is followed by some cops who think he did it!

He smells a frame up, and uses his invisibility to get away, resolving to solve the case himself.

Meanwhile, in deep space, the mysterious magenta-skinned space traveler who we saw last issue arrives at his destination, the planet of Kalanor. He gets out of his ship, where the people there worship him like a God:

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Zatanna continues her quest to find her missing friend Sheri. She collects some mysterious ash on the floor of the apartment they shared, and then finds a note with "Westside Marina 9:00" scribbled on it. She takes the note and heads out.

While Steel and Vibe go through their respective dramas, back at the Secret Sanctuary, the three JLAers are trying to communicate with the alien they have come to call "Junior."

Junior makes it outside, only to be met by Manhunter, Steel, and Vibe. They try and prevent it from getting away and heading to the city, but it zaps Steel, causing the other two to knock it out with a combined Manhunter/Vibe attack.

Gypsy is mad that they did this, saying Junior means no harm. But as we see, that may not be true:

To be continued!

Roll Call: Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: Kind of a meandering issue, the cover promises us an all-Manhunter issue, which could have been fun; instead this is mostly a bunch of random plot lines.

But I remember enjoying the build-up--slow and meticulous--to the return of Despero.

Justice League of America #247 - Feb. 1986

The new JLA returns to an old home...but not everything they find there is good!

The Story: "...There's No Place Like Home" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. We open late at night, by a mountainside hiding a huge steel door.

We see inside, and its the Justice League draped in darkness. Zatanna casts a spell, filling the place with light. We see they are in...the Secret Sanctuary, the original HQ for the League!

Manhunter marvels at how well the place has held up, which is partially thanks to the Injustice Gang, who used the place as a hideout way back in JLA #158.

Vibe thinks the place is a dump, but Gypsy loves it, loves the whole mystery/fairy tale aspect to it. She gets so mad she uses her powers on Vibe, who for a moment thinks he is about to plunge into a pit of fire and lava.

While Gypsy goes exploring, Steel and Manhunter set out to start up the base's generator:

After Gypsy comes back with a family of rats she's found, Vixen senses another presence there along with them.

Meanwhile, at a spaceport across the galaxy, a magenta-skinned alien steals a spaceship, thinking nothing of killing some other aliens in the process...

Back on Earth, we see Steel possibly land a job in the movies, and Zatanna starts to investigate her friend Sherri's abrupt disappearance. Back at her apartment, she finds a small pile of...is it dust?...on the floor.

Back at the Secret Sanctuary, Vixen is attacked by some sort of alien creature, which then turns its attention to Gypsy:

Gypsy tries to fight the creature, but then it suddenly stops, plops itself on the ground, and begins to...cry?

To be continued?

Roll Call: Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: I thought it was a cool idea to return the JLA to its original base. Back when we talked to Gerry Conway, he mentioned wanting to, at some point, returning the JLA to look more like what it once did, and its a shame in a lot of ways that didn't get to happen.

A old/new JLA hybrid operating out of the original Secret Sanctuary might have been a really interesting thing to follow.

Justice League of America #246 - Jan. 1986

The JLA gets thrown out onto the street!

The Story: "Be It Ever So Humble..." by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. Steel returns from his adventure in the future (last issue), only to see that his grandfather has kicked him and his fellow JLAers out of their Detroit HQ!

Steel doesn't want to hear about his grandfather having a legal right to do so--he's mad, so he does what he does best--smash stuff!

He smashes his way into the HQ, where he is met by his old friend Dale Gunn, who makes a half-hearted attempt to stop him.

As Steel searches for his grandfather, Dale is comforted by the rest of the League, and Martian Manhunter ponders the team's fate:

Steel's grandfather, once Steel finds him, explains that he wants to give his grandson and the JLA a fresh start, one without the black mark of Commander Steel's actions hanging over them. Instead of another argument, it ends with a hug.

The JLA, homeless, decides to head for New York, where Vixen, in her civilian life as Mari McCabe, has an apartment. Zatanna and J'onn talk amongst themselves, and their thoughts turn dark:

The JLAers decide to resume their civilian identities in the Big Apple--Manhunter, as John Jones, becomes a private investigator, Steel tries his hand at being a personal trainer, and Vibe gets sticker-shock from the price of New York apartments.

Zatanna takes up residence at an old friend's home, and is a little worried to find her mysteriously gone...

Roll Call: Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: Things take an extraordinary dark turn with this issue--the JLA, homeless? Having to get jobs? Now that they don't have the ability to live and train together, the whole reason Aquaman formed the new League in the first place is gone.

There's a real melancholy to the stories from this period, the kind of feeling you get when you're working for an employer who keeps laying people off until there's only a small group of you working in a space that used to be bustling with life. You wonder, should I jump ship before its too late? You have to think people like Ralph and Zee looked at each other, wondering where the heck the JLA they called home for so long has gone.

Part of the feeling derives from Luke McDonnell's work--its very well done, but most of the scenes takes place at night, drenched in shadow, and it gives a sort of gloomy feeling to the proceedings.

Justice League of America #245 - Dec. 1985

Steel in an adventure all his own--with an old foe of the Justice League!

The Story: "The Long Road Home" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Mike Machlan. We open with Steel, beaten and dazed, wandering a strange, unfamiliar land. Is this even Earth?

Steel is so tired he falls over onto the ground, but learns this is no time for a rest--he is immediately attacked by a horde of giant insects!

Luckily, instinct and training kicks in, and Steel makes short work of his attackers, punching and throwing them off him.

We see that Steel is being watched, by a mysterious group of people drenched in shadows. They resolve among themselves to capture Steel and bring him to them.

After smushing most of the giant bugs with a giant rock, Steel runs into a beautiful stranger (aren't they always?):

As this Olanda woman carries Steel off, she is attacked by the "killer bot" ordered by the shadowy group to do the same job. Olanda fires a weapon from her ship, blowing the robot up.

This group watches what happened, and talks of "The Progenitor" and how he/she/it will "learn the intruder's secrets." They also claim this Progenitor brought Steel here in the first place.

Back on our Earth, the JLA explain to the wounded, elder Hank Heywood that his grandson is gone, and they have no idea where he is!

Back to with Steel, we see him in an opulent bedroom, with Olanda bringing him food and drink. When he mentions he is part of the Justice League, she is startled, and storms out.

Steel follows Olanda, and sees her talking to a disembodied voice. She tells Steel this is the year 1,000,000,000 A.D., and asks what he remembers before he came here.

Turns out (in Crisis on Infinite Earths #9) Steel was separated from the rest of the League, and caught in some sort of explosion, which knocked him into another dimension, and, apparently, into the far future.

They are then suddenly attacked by a group of "kill bots" from outside their base, but Steel makes quick work of them. He then meets who the disembodied voice is:

...the Lord of Time!

Turns out the Lord of Time eventually gave up his super-villainy, and decided, using cloning techniques, to create a family for himself, including his beloved daughter Olanda.

But the other clones rebelled, and stole the Lord of Time's Chrono-Cube, which allows him to travel through time. Without it, he is stuck here, at the end of the world, suffering their attacks.

At the clones' base, we see they are split as to what to do. Most of them want to attack their "father" one more time, once and for all. But one of them is afraid of this new addition, who ca destroy their robots at will. He suggests taking the cube and moving to another time, leaving the Lord of Time behind.

As the clones dicker, Steel comes crashing through a wall, tossing kill bots left and right!

Olanda grabs the Lord of Time and throws him into the cube, so he disappears, taking the cube with him.

Steel suddenly sees all the clones and bots disappear, and the Lord of Time returns, explaining he went back in time and stopped himself from creating all the clones in the first place...but not Olanda.

The Lord of Time offers to return Steel to his own time, but he grabs Olanda's arm, and says, what's the hurry? He's got all the time in the world...

Roll Call: Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: A really interesting story...I like the idea of one of the JLA's most indefatigable villains finally giving up and creating a life for himself away from the rest of humanity.

There's very little mention of the LOT's history with the JLA, I wonder how this story would have read if it had been written a lot earlier, and it had been one of the original Leaguers taking this trip? I'm not saying it would have been better, just different.

This is the debut of Luke McDonnell as the JLA's last regular penciler, and I enjoyed his work quite a bit. It would get a bit loose and cartoony at times, but under inkers like Machlan and later Bill Wray, he gave the book a nice smooth (if frequently dark) look.

I'm guessing DC wouldn't have allowed the JLA to not appear at all in their own book, so they make a one-page cameo here. Might've been neat to never see the JLA at all.

Justice League of America #244 - Nov. 1985

The final JLA/JSA team-up!

The Story: "The Final Crisis" by Gerry Conway, Joe Staton, and Mike Machlan. Following events in Infinity Inc. #19, the JLA has been kicked out of their Detroit headquarters by its owner, Hank Heywood, Steel's grandfather.

So the JLA, under the leadership of the Martian Manhunter, is making a trip to their old, ruined satellite.

Vibe wants to know why they've made this loooong trip, and why, in his eyes, they are "running" from those kids in Infinity, Inc.

Manhunter says the JLA needs assistance (in fighting Infinity, Inc.? Oh, how the mighty have fallen...) and gets busy culling information from the JLA's computers.

Vibe asks Elongated Man who they're supposedly getting help from, and Ralph explains the whole Earth-1/Earth-2 thing:

That Vibe, he's a charmer.

Meanwhile, back the JLA's Detroit HQ, Infinity Inc. investigates the place, and can see no evidence of what Commander Steel told them--namely, that the JLA were bad guys, planning some sort of insurrection.

As Northwind and Silver Scarab head off to do some more investigating, Fury heads a different way, and discovers something horrible--the robot known as Mekanique (first seen in All-Star Squadron) seemingly torturing a young man (who we recognize as Steel)!

Commander Steel gets the drop on her, though, and knocks her lights out.

Back up in space, Manhunter has Zatanna use her magic to power up the JLA's transmatter tube, which carries them to Earth-2. At the same time, Commander Steel and Mekanique attack all of Infinity Inc., and with the element of surprise, buries them in rubble.

Commander Steel has been driven quite mad--he sees this new JLA as outlaws and traitors, and not worthy of his grandson, his superhero namesake.

In the midst of his tirade, he is surprised by the sudden appearance of the Justice Society--Dr. Fate, Dr. Mid-Nite, The Flash, Hawkman, and Wonder Woman--who are shocked to see what has happened to the man they knew.

Using Mekanique as a decoy, Commander Steel manages to escape, only to find himself in an underground basement, where Fury and the JLA are waiting for him!

Steel says this is between him and his grandfather, and they begin a knock-down, drag-out fight, while the red skies of the Crisis loom ominously outside.

Mekanique vanishes, and Dr. Fate warns something worse is coming. The JLA and Infinity Inc. meet up and team-up to fight off the disasters raging outside:

...I like that top panel. Very "chaaaarrrrge!"

While the heroes save lives, the battle between the two Steels ends. It seems Commander Steel is...dead?...as Hank stands over him, his eyes filled with tears.

Roll Call: Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: A nice fill-in job by Joe Staton, drawing what would be the last ever JLA/JSA team-up, at least as they were classically defined.

I noticed the "jerk" quotient of Vibe got ramped up here, both from Conway and from Dan Mishkin, who wrote the third JLA Annual, which came out this same month (and we'll see here tomorrow).

This is editor Alan Gold's final issue as editor, handing the reins over to Andy Helfer. Unless I'm very careless, I can't find any mention of why Chuck Patton left the book. Weird!

Justice League of America #243 - Oct. 1985

Aquaman returns, and the final chapter of the Amazo story!

The Story: "Storm Clouds" by Gerry Conway, George Tuska, and Mike Machlan. Continued from last issue, we see Aquaman--with Mera--return to the JLA's Detroit headquarters. He isn't relieved when he sees its empty.

Using the JLA computers, he sees the JLA headed for the Canadian Northwest, and he gets a feeling in the pit of his stomach--a bad one. Has he abandoned his friends when they needed him most?

Back in the Yukon, we see most of the JLA, unconscious and trussed-up, as they remain trapped in a pitch-black pit, put there by Amazo.

Vixen suffers from claustrophobia, but she finds it in herself to stay calm, and the power of her Tantu Totem allows her to break free of her rope bonds. Now...to dig herself and her friends out!

Meanwhile, Manhunter and Dale Gunn have arrived at the Fortress of Solitude, which was, before the melee in the Yukon, Amazo's last known address, as it were.

Vixen does manage to move the rock Amazo left there and dig herself out, helping her teammates out of the pit. She is met by another JLA shuttlecraft, and she is shocked to see it's Aquaman, and he's not alone:

Back at the Fortress, Manhunter finds what he was looking for: how Amazo escaped. Turns out it was an errant meteor that crashed and freed Amazo, not some supervillain or Amazo himself. To Manhunter, that means that all this destruction he is causing is from whatever human he first encountered, whose personality he assumed.

While Mera tends to the wounded JLAers, Aquaman tracks Amazo, who has made his way to Vancouver, and is ripping up the town!

They fly the shuttlecraft over him, and Aquaman dives out, getting a few good shots in on Amazo before he knew what--or who--hit him.

Back in the small town where all this started, Manhunter finds out that Amazo has been calling himself "MacGregor." Who's MacGregor? The local constable tells him:

...Tuska may not have been the best choice for superhero slugfests like this, but I simply adore that portrait of MacGregor--its so perfectly realized. Cartoony yet real--many artists tend to draw heavy people so they look grotesque, like Jabba the Hut, but Tuska nails it.

Anyway, back to Vancouver (where I'm sure all the destruction is causing the many, many movies always being shot there to halt production), Steel recovers enough to try again with Amazo. Amazon responds by throwing an unconscious Vixen at him.

Amazo is then confused when he meets--himself, Slick Jake MacGregor! But...how can that be?

Amazo is distracted long enough for Aquaman to deliver a two-handed, knockout wallop upside Amazo's head. MacGregor reveals himself, of course, to be Martian Manhunter using his shape-shifting powers.

Aquaman is happy, but Manhunter demands and explanation. He gets one, but probably not the one he wanted or expected:

Roll Call: Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: And with that abrupt ending, Aquaman's quarter-century career with the Justice League comes to an end.

At the time, I was furious that this story ended like this--I had been waiting for the eventual payoff to Aquaman being such an AquaJerk these past few months, but instead he ditches the JLA, gets back with the wife who seems to leave him every few months (I know she's hot an all, Arthur, but there are plenty of fish in the sea!), and leaves the JLA. I was fifteen, and the word "stricken" comes to mind as I recall reading this comic for the first time.

Of course, I now know some of the external forces that caused this, and while I wouldn't trade the superb Neal Pozner/Craig Hamilton Aquaman mini-series for anything, I really wish a better compromise could have been worked out between what Gerry Co