No one escapes the Manhunters!The Story: "No Man Escapes the Manhunter!" by Steve Englehart, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. In Bruce Wayne's bachelor bad, three members of the JLA are surprised (to say the least!) when a Manhunter bursts in to capture Green Lantern!
Green Arrow and Black Canary fight him, but Green Lantern mysteriously gives up immediately. The Manhunter nabs them all, plus knocking out Batman, and they disappear just as Superman and Wonder Woman arrive.
Turns out that Green Lantern is being chased by the Manhunters because, well, he accidentally blew up an entire planet. My bad!
Green Lantern, trying to save a planet in distress, accidentally allowed a force beam to ricochet, destroying it. While investigating this disaster, the JLA run into a sleazy government official who wants Lantern executed for his crime!
Turns out this Governor Tozad is secretly a Manhunter, and this is part of a plan to discredit and destroy the Guardians of the Universe! To be continued!
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary
Notable Moments: Steve Englehart could cram twice as much plot in a regular-sized comic, so now that he's got a full thirty-three pages to work with, the plots are even more dense. Trying to condense them here is nigh impossible, so for the sake of brevity I'm only going to hit the highlights. You should read these issues for yourself, since they're a lot of fun!
This issue started an odd two-page feature "100 Issues Ago..." where we get super-condensed versions of previous JLA issues. Kind of like if Castle Films made comic books.
This issue's cover is penciled by Rich Buckler, who would go on to draw a lot of JLA, both covers and inside stories.
Well, now I know where Timm/Dini got the plot line for "In Blackest Night" in the Justice League Animated first season...
ReplyDeleteWhen I first got this and the next issue I was annoyed that Aquaman was totally ignored. I ended up appreciating this story for what it was, but it's still my least favorite Englehart story...which, really, still outclasses 75% of Gerry Conway's work. Rob, you totally nailed it when you said these issues are fun. All fans of the JLA owe it to themselves to have these issues. Even though the art leaves a lot to be desired, the stories are AWESOME!
ReplyDeleteAhh, I have read the stories where many of the JLU episodes are drawn from, but I had never come across this one. If it's anything like the episode, then it must be awesome indeed!
ReplyDelete