A “garden of eden,” to quote Superman and keep with the religious metaphors throughout the series (more coming on that). By the end of the arc, it is crumbling to dust. How come they do nothing? Of course, these alien creatures are inevitably sinister (executing criminals without trial is the first clue), but the also create a garden in the Sahara. Why can’t superheroes actually make the world a better place? I mean, Superman could stop wars, the Flash could ensure everyone on the planet gets fed, the Green Lantern could mitigate any sort of natural disaster, Batman has technology that could instantly improve the standards of living.

A bunch of seemingly benevolent ( ha!) alien superheroes show up and promise to do what the Justice League can’t: make the world a better place. Take his opening arc – Them! (in fact, all of the chapters in the story are named for sci-fi classics – The Day The Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, Invaders From Mars) – as an example.

The problem is that there really isn’t space for it in his epic, large-scale, clock-is-ticking narrative structure. Morrison attempts to use the book to ask questions about the nature of superheroes. It ceased to be a bargain when you replaced those iconic characters with a bunch of second-rate no-namers. It’s hard to access the impact of what Morrison did in retrospect, but putting the team back together was perhaps the finest legacy of his run. Why buy seven individual comics when you could have Superman, Batman, Wonderwoman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman and The Martian Manhunter for the price of a single comic book? That was what had made the title so enticing in the past. The series had originally been a success because it was value-for-money. Putting “the big seven” back on the team really should have been a no-brainer. It’s just odd that it took one of comicdom’s greatest minds to fix a book which had once been so influential that it had inspired Stan Lee to create The Fantastic Four. Sure, experiments like Justice League International (and even the Justice League Detroit era) are retrospectively viewed as worthwhile experiments, and maybe even as quirky stories in their own right. This doesn’t even factor in that the series had been in trouble for decades before Grant Morrison stepped in. It’s packed to the brim with action and explosions and everything is turned up to maximum in order to grant it the greatest impact with the audience. It supposedly provided the inspiration for the Justice League in its cartoon form. We have a lot to be thankful to this collection for.

Jla by grant morrison