Justice League of America #261 - April 1987

It all ends here--the final issue of the Justice League of America.

The Story: "Last Stand" by J.M. DeMatteis, Luke McDonnell, and Bob Lewis. We open on Professor Ivo, laying on his side in an insane asylum.

Even here, in a straightjacket, he has dealt a blow to the JLA that all its other foes could only dream of--killing two of its members.

He ruminates on his history with the League, and is conflicted by the impulses in his mind. He wants revenge, but murder is wrong. But Martian Manhunter killed one of his "sons." But...

Ivo blows up his last therapist, still unable to deal with the conflicting thoughts on his mind.

Meanwhile, Vixen--to hell with the Presidential order--is on the hunt:

In Detroit, Manhunter is having a drink with Hank Heywood and Dale Gunn, but he is so racked with anger that he swears Steel will be avenged.

Dale warns him that that's revenge, not justice:

Vixen uses her animal powers to sniff out Ivo, and she finds him waiting for her, with dinner, no less! But Ivo is also in a mental institution, so...

Vixen goes along with this fake civility for a few moments, and then attacks Ivo. Ivo in turn calls out a mob of his androids, who attack Vixen. She's able to fight most of them off, but there are too many of them!

Then Martian Manhunter bursts in, and starts busting more android head. He then grabs Ivo, ready to kill him, but finds he can't.

Vixen is not so squeamish, but:

They find the real Ivo, locked up. Turns out Ivo escaped Arkham Asylum, built the androids, who in turn committed Ivo, realizing their creator was insane. But since they were built from his mind, he could still control them from afar, and his madness led to all this.

Manhunter and Vixen talk at the Secret Sanctuary. Manhunter says that for their deaths to have any meaning, the League must continue in some form, Presidential orders be damned.

Vixen agrees, but says she can't continue with him. This road is too violent, too bloody, and she just doesn't want to keep going. They say goodbye:

...and that is the end of the Justice League of America.

Roll Call: Martian Manhunter, Vixen

Notable Moments: Well, this is it--the last issue of Justice League of America.

While I understand the business end of this--that this book had to be cleared out to make room for the all-new (and immediately big-selling) Justice League book, I wish that Justice League of America--one of DC's flagship books--had been given more of a royal send off.

The cover is fine, except as the last JLA cover ever, and I still--all these years later--hate the fact that the book ends 27 years of JLA adventures with essentially a plug for another book. Jeez, DC, the corpse isn't even cold yet! Would it have killed you to coral George Perez to do a "classic JLA" pin-up or something?

But I got to give them credit--this was a ballsy, gripping way to end the series. Ivo's revenge plan is sinister to the nth degree, and I bet to this day he still brags to other villains that he killed not one, but two members of the JLA. Luthor's been trying to kill one hero for like 20 years.

Goodbye, Justice League of America.


So now what? Is this blog over?

Well, not quite--as I've mentioned a few times before, I've got about a week's worth of fun posts to come. A few sort of "greatest hits" style ones, an interview or two, another special JLA comic that falls outside my timeline but I felt had to be included, all concluding with a final post that I guarantee none of you will expect.

But before we get to all that, be here tomorrow for a chat with the fine writer who brought the original JLA to a close--J.M. DeMatteis!

Justice League of America #260 - March 1987

Professor Ivo's plan of revenge continues!

The Story: "Flesh!" by J.M. DeMatteis, Luke McDonnell, and Steve Montano. Ivo's android--the one that save Gypsy-- reverts to its original programming when confronted by an angry Martian Manhunter, and a battle ensues.

Manhunter tries to see inside the mind of the android, but is repulsed by all the contradictory impulses he finds there.

The battle continues, with neither side giving in, until Manhunter gets so mad he ends up ripping the android's arms off, and then punching its head off!

But he's not done--enraged over Vibe's death, he pounds the still-talking android head into little bits, smashing it into the ground:

Meanwhile, Vixen and Steel are at her apartment. Steel is infuriated he can't go hunt for Vibe's killer, but Vixen admonishes him to listen to Manhunter--the two of them need to lay low for a while.

Steel won't listen, so he suits up and heads out, daring Vixen to stop him. Guess which hero went on to a further career in the DCU?

While Ivo struggles with this sanity, Steel draws attention being out on the streets in his costume. He sees one of the police officers surrounding him is, in fact, one of Ivo's androids!

Meanwhile, Gypsy learns from Manhunter that Vibe is dead. She, too, wants revenge, but he tells her to stay with her family, and go back to the normal life she deserves. She tearfully agrees, and they part.

Back with Steel, we see him threatening the android cop. Not knowing the truth, the local citizenry start taunting Steel, demanding him to let the cop go.

Realizing this was a trap, he drags the cop off to a secluded spot--big mistake. Its here that the android lets loose on Steel, blasting away parts of his skin until a lot of Steel's internal robotic systems are showing through.

Steel staggers to the main drag, followed by the android. No longer caring about the illusion, he blasts Steel unmercifully, until he is almost dead:

Manhunter arrives to see his friend in agony, and carries him off to his grandfather's headquarters, the original home to JLA Detroit.

Hank Heywood Senior says there's nothing he can do, and takes Steel off of life support. The machine beeps a few times, until it stops. Steel is dead.

Meanwhile, Professor Ivo sits in a padded room, muttering "I'm sorry."

To be concluded!

Roll Call: Martian Manhunter, Vixen, Steel, Gypsy

Notable Moments: Another nasty end to a JLA member--he should have listened to the Martian Manhunter.

JLA Mail Room editor Greg Weisman reveals that, yes, the next issue of JLA will be the last.

*sniff*

Justice League of America #259 - Feb. 1987

Professor Ivo continues his revenge on the Justice League!

The Story: "Homecoming!" by J.M. DeMatteis, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. We open on the lifeless face of Vibe, after he was murdered by one of Professor Ivo's androids.

The body is found by Manhunter, Vixen, and Steel, who are so enraged that Vixen threatens the life of a bystander who she thinks is involved.

Given the current feeling about superheroes, Steel convinces her to calm down, while Manhunter tells them--Vibe is dead.

He touches the weird mask on Vibe's face, lifts it off, and stares at it for a moment, thinking:

The police arrive, but the heroes pay them no heed, and carry Vibe off.

They don't realize Ivo is watching them, and he moves to phase 2 of his plan--kill Gypsy. He has realized the best revenge is to kill these innocent heroes, make them pay for the crimes of the original League, hurting them in a way that just killing them never could.

But he is conflicted over Gypsy, because even to him, she seems so young and innocent. He consults another android therapist, but gets mad when it agrees with him. He quickly changes course and orders the hit on Gypsy.

Gypsy decides to head home--to her real home--and hitchhikes a ride with a creepy, dead-eyed guy.

Meanwhile, Vixen and Steel want to know who this "Ivo" character is Manhunter keeps muttering about, and he tells them about his and the League's history. He figures out Ivo's sick plan and heads out to search for him.

Meanwhile, Ivo's android reveals himself and attacks Gypsy, who manages to defend herself for a little while. Finally, though, the android delivers the "killing" blow, leaving Ivo racked with guilt.

But all is not what it seems:

The android explains he and his brothers were made from Ivo's brainwaves...his thoughts and feelings. Ivo's doubts about murdering Gypsy simply manifested themselves in this android, who realized it was wrong to kill. He drives Gypsy home, who has a tearful reunion with her parents.

As he watches the scene from outside, a hand grabs his shoulder--a hand belonging to the very mad Martian Manhunter.

To be continued!

Roll Call: Martian Manhunter, Vixen, Steel, Gypsy

Notable Moments: ...and then there were four.

I'm glad whoever at DC decided who would live and die chose to spare Gypsy. As Ivo said, she was so sweet that killing her would've been so grim it might've been unbearable.

The deck was stacked with Vibe--he was written by several writers as a jerk, so he was first on the chopping block. But Gypsy, thankfully, was spared.

JLA Mail Room editor Greg Weisman hints at the identity of #255's co-writer Michael Ellis, but doesn't say who he is exactly.

Justice League of America #258 - Jan. 1987

The final case of the Justice League of America!

The Story: "Saving Face!" by J.M. DeMatteis, Luke McDonnell, and Bob Smith. We open on the monstrous face of Professor Ivo, as he is undergoing psychotherapy.

He is telling his therapist about how the Justice League ruined his life, by turning him into a monster!

The therapist tells Ivo he knows that's not true, that it was he who attacked the League--

Ivo cuts him off, and then turns him off. We see that the therapist is nothing more than a robot, built by Ivo to have someone to talk to.

Back at the Secret Sanctuary, the JLA is dealing with their failure to help Firestorm defeat the villain Brimstone (in Legends #1). As usual, Vibe makes a bad situation worse:

This quickly degenerates into name-calling, and then even a fight breaks out between Elongated Man and Vibe!

Manhunter breaks it up, but says that, following the President's order that all super-heroes withdraw from public life, he is disbanding the Justice League.

Gypsy tries to argue, but Vixen says J'onn is right. Elongated Man agrees, saying they've all got personal lives to deal with. He apologizes to Vibe, but Vibe blows him off.

There's not much left to say:

After Manhunter leaves the room, the rest of the heroes decide to head back to Vixen's apartment to talk. They invite Vibe, but he turns against them, sulking.

Meanwhile, we see that Ivo has built dozens of androids, and sends one of them out to find its "intended victim."

Later, we see Vibe aimlessly wandering his hometown streets. He runs into a little boy who worships Superman. Vibe is angry the kid doesn't know about his own people's superhero--him--but then dejectedly walks off.

He then runs into Ivo's android, who immediately attacks him!

With the kid watching, Vibe uses his powers to fight him off, telling himself he won't be defeated, won't let the kid down.

He hits the android over and over again with his powers, until it falls over and stops moving. The kid is thrilled, and runs off, desperate to tell his friends and family about their homegrown superhero, Vibe.

Vibe then decides to call the League about this, and realizes he was wrong to dismiss his teammates. But then:

Vibe is dead.

The android's mission completed, it walks off, leaving a member of the Justice League lying dead on the street like so much garbage:

To be continued!

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

Notable Moments: This story--both this issue and eventually the entire four parts--blew my mind. I couldn't believe what I was reading--not only were they killing off a member of the JLA, but they were doing it in such a nasty way. Vibe learns the error of his ways just before he is strangled to death. Ouch.

The new-ish JLA logo used since the second JLA Annual is replaced by the old school, mid-60s one.

Justice League of America #218 - Sept. 1983

The return of an old JLA foe, out for revenge!

The Story: "The Price of Humanity" by Cary Burkett, Chuck Patton, and Romeo Tanghal. This issue opens on a light moment...Hawkman and the Elongated Man playing some video games aboard the JLA satellite! (No, not Grand Theft Auto.)

As Wonder Woman shows up for Monitor Duty, and Carter is embarrassed to be caught goofing off, something sinister is happening all over the world--mysterious, super-suited beings are kidnapping regular people, like a high school Baseball player, a ballet dancer, and a Hollywood stuntman!

One of them tries to kidnap a slightly harder target...the Black Canary!

As she tries to break free, she hits her JLA Signal Device, and Hawkman, Wonder Woman, and Elongated Man head out to rescue her.

They knock the being out long enough to see its a robot, but while they do this, two others sneak up on them, blasting them, and flying off with Canary in tow.

Later, up at the satellite, the rest of the JLA has met. While Green Arrow is rants and raves about what to do, Red Tornado offers a word of caution:

Elongated Man figures out the one thing all the hostages--hundreds more cases having been reported--have in common is that they are in all excellent physical shape. He bets that more kidnappings might occur at the Metropolis Marathon, taking place this very day!

The JLA agrees, and takes a moment to congratulate Ralph on his fine detective work:

Hawkman, meanwhile, having looked into the one robot they stopped, says he can trace its power source. He figures they might be able to stop all the robots if they can knock out their source of power, and Aquaman and Wonder Woman agree to go with him.

Meanwhile, we see where all the hostages went to: a secret base where a hooded figure tells Black Canary he is the longtime JLA foe Professor Ivo, and he has built a machine that will channel their life energies into him, reversing the horrible side effects he has suffered from by drinking a serum he created to make him immortal (way back in Brave the Bold #30!).

As Canary sees for herself, Ivo has been living all these years, horribly deformed:

...that is one nasty design. Congrats, Chuck Patton, for making the twelve year-old me almost throw up.

Anyway, the robots do appear at the marathon, but they are so powerful they managed to fight the JLA to standstill.

Meanwhile, Hawkman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman find the robots' power source is a remote island. They've barely set foot on the island when robots there blast them, knocking out Hawkman and Aquaman, leaving Wonder Woman barely hanging on.

Back in Metropolis, the robots are making off with runners left and right, but Green Arrow manages to get off a tracking arrow and hits one of them.

Back at the island, Wonder Woman commands her invisible plane to dive-bomb three of the robots, which gives her just enough time to grab Aquaman and try and hurl him into the ocean. She tries, but gets hit by the recovering robots, leaving Aquaman at the lip of shore.

In Ivo's mountain lab, he is none too happy to see the JLA has followed him there, where he sicks even more robots on them!

On the island, just enough water makes its way to Aquaman to wake him up. Here he hatches an ingenious plan:

...he manages to get into the water, and peels off the robot's suit and puts it on himself.

Betting that the robots are programmed not to attack each other, he emerges, and walks toward the equipment shed without being stopped by the others.

He uses Hawkman's mace to smash everything in site, shutting the robots down. This allows Red Tornado to destroy Ivo's machine, and to take pity on this poor creature, who thought he could reclaim his Humanity by giving up his soul.

Roll Call: Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado

Notable Moments: Like yesterday's fill-in issue by Paul Kupperberg, Cary Burkett delivers a superb, self-contained story. Fast-paced and exciting, it also works as a nice sequel of sorts to the first Professor Ivo story.

Also, Aquaman gets a great couple of moments here, and he saves the day due to a combo of his ingenuity and his particular powers. In fact, Aquaman got to play a central role in both yesterday and today's issues. If #s 217 and 218 were typical of the quality JLA fill-ins would have, I was ready to say let's have nothing but fill-ins!

The reveal of Professor Ivo is truly disturbing, and Chuck Patton's EC-esque background gives it an extra punch.

This issue's cover by Howard Bender and Dick Giordano is unusual, in that it uses yesterday's cover by George Perez as a backdrop. I don't know what it means, exactly, but its unique, to be sure.

Brave and the Bold #s 28, 29, 30 - 1960

F.O.A.M. member Russell Burbage pointed out yesterday that this blog should really start with the JLA's debut in The Brave and the Bold.

I initially didn't think to, because even as a kid with a driving desire to complete my run of the JLA, these first three appearances were way beyond my means, and then as I got older I never really got around to picking them up, especially since all the stories had been reprinted anyway. Plus part of the blog's mission was to chronicle my experiences getting each individual issue, complete with cover scans of the one I bought(not pulled off the GCBD or some place), and I simply didn't have those experiences with these three issues.

Yet, not including them just feels wrong, since they are seminal comics in the team's history. And any blog professing to be a (mostly)complete history of the JLA as a comic can hardly skip them, so here they are, all at once!

Brave and the Bold #28:
The story: "Starro The Conqueror!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. Proving Gardner Fox wanted to hit the ground running, this story opens with Aquaman's finny friend Peter the PufferFish(no, I'm not kidding) telling him about a mysterious, alien starfish that has landed in the ocean!

Aquaman calls the Justice League(who?), and let's them know multiple Starros are appearing all over the world, so Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Martian Manhunter each try to fight them(Superman and Batman are both "too busy" starring in other books at the moment).

They eventually band together to fight the original Starro in the town of Happy Harbor, where local jerk Snapper Carr assists them. For his trouble they make him an Honorary Member. Dig it, man!

Roll Call: Superman, Batman Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter

Notable Moments: Aquaman in this story is wearing yellow gloves, retroactively the hallmark of the Earth-2 Aquaman. Luckily, this has been ignored by continuity mavens and it's always been the Earth-1 Aquaman that's been a member of the JLA.

Superman and Batman were no doubt horrified that the JLA allowed some kid who snaps his fingers to become an honorary JLAer, but that's what you get when you miss a meeting.

Brave and the Bold #29:
The story: "Challenge of the Weapons-Master!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, Bernard Sachs, and Joe Giella. Some weird guy named Xotar(from the year 11,960!) who has all kinds of futuristic weapons at his command, goes back in time to fight the JLA and see which of his wondrous doo-dads works against them, which he then will use to defeat the Intersolar Police, who are trying to apprehend him in his own time. Um, what?

By the way, how is Xotar so certain any of his weapons will defeat the JLA? From an old JLA diary--which is incomplete due to age and wear-and-tear--which uses the worlds "Xotar", "defeat", and "Justice League." Really--he bases his whole plan on this. Obviously, Xotar is not the sharpest gerflonk in the ponfahr.

Roll Call: Superman, Batman Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter

Notable Moments: Superman and Batman play a bigger role in this story, but the individual chapters still feature the other members more prominently.

Brave and the Bold #30:
The story: "Case of the Stolen Super-Powers!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. The brilliant-but-insane Professor Ivo creates Amazo, an android who has the powers of all the Justice League! Holy crap!

Roll Call: Superman, Batman Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter

Notable Moments: Superman and Batman are in the beginning of this story, and while they are technically involved in the case, we don't see them again after page four.

This is the first appearance of both Professor Ivo and Amazon, two characters that would return many times to take on the JLA and the rest of the DCU. Ivo drinks a formula that helps him live five hundred years in this story, which ties in at the end, and is also picked up as a story thread twenty-three years later in JLA #218, written by Cary Burkett. Nice job, Mr. B!


Since I don't have a personal story relating to the purchase of these issues(even as back issues), I thought the next best thing was to run this super-cool description of what it was like from no less a JLA authority than Gerry Conway, from his awesome text piece in JLA #200:

...and so it did.

Tomorrow: the very first issue of the Justice League of America!