Oh for the days when Kyle was the sole Green Lantern, Wally was the de facto Flash, Aquaman had a beard, a harpoon hand and a 'tude, and Superman had more in common with Tron…

Grant Morrison might be better known now for BATMAN andFINAL CRISIS, but my first introduction to the warp savant was in ‘97’s JLA. This was his first high-profile assignment on a big title, and it arrived with a thunderclap.  JUSTICE LEAGUE books prior to this were largely off-shoots of the great work Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire had done to humanize the team in the 80s. You got second and third stringers who were easier to relate to, perhaps, but readers at this point were missing the basics of a league consisting entirely of the Big Guns. And big was, in all regards, the operative word. This was a harbinger of the widescreen comics movement thatTHE AUTHORITYand THE ULTIMATES would later make famous. Where the previous League had gotten deeply into the member’s psyches, this uniquely opted to leave their personal lives for their individual titles. Hence, Supes would suddenly be electro and Wallace West and Hippolyta would abruptly fill in for Flash and Wonder Woman, with only brief asides to explain why. This book thus felt larger-than-life onto the point of mythic. The threats were the real stars of the show and they were so huge that only DC's biggest names could battle them, let alone comprehend them. == TEASER ==

The mythic comparison was quite intentional. Morrison had the brilliant idea for his line-up to correspond to the gods of the Olympic pantheon, bringing full-circle the parallels between superheroics and mythology. Since this was never explicitly stated in the comic, I figure I ought to list the analogs for you insatiably-curious Comic Vine maniacs... 

• Superman/Zeus
• Wonder Woman/Hera
• Batman/Hades
• Flash/Hemes
• Green Lantern/Apollo
• Aquaman/Poseidon
• Plastic Man/Dionysus
• Steel/Hephaestus
• Huntress/Artemis
• Orion/Ares
• Big Barda/Demeter
• Zauriel/Eros
• The analogs for Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Oracle and Aztek weren’t as obvious.

This run was about 41-issues-long, mostly drawn by Howard Porter, and the arc-for-arc batting average was impressively-high. NEW WORLD ORDER, ROCK OF AGES, WORLD WAR 3, CRISIS TIMES FIVE, ONE MILLION, the arcs introducing Prometheus and the Ultramarines, and even tie-ins like the ’97 SECRET FILES, the NEW YEAR’S EVIL one-shot, the EARTH 2 OGN the WILDC.A.T.S. crossover were all exceptional. Staying on point and objective is actually a little hard because the run was just filled with so many goosebump-inducing cool moments.   

How about Zauriel valiantly shielding a wayward and helpless Triumph from the unstoppable wrath of the Spectre? How about Dream of Gaiman’s SANDMAN casually imprisoning Starro the Conqueror in a glass bubble? How about Superman moving the whole Moon?    

So there you have it. If you haven't experienced this JLA before, it's very easy to do so now. Every issue was collected and those trades are almost always in circulation. Much like how the Ultimate Warrior made lil' Tommy P expect every wrestler to be as outrageously intense, this run made an adolescent Pinchuk expectat all big super books to be as mind-bending and awe-inspiring.  However, there's decades upon decade of JUSTICE LEAGUE comics to compare and contrast this with. Do you agree with me? Are these your favorite issues? Or are there other runs you prefer?   

Voice your picks and opinions below in great detail! 

 Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of  HYBRID BASTARDS!  &  UNIMAGINABLE . Order them on Amazon   here  &   here .  Follow him on Twitter:  @tompinchuk 

It was indeed epic World War Three was one of the best JLA stories.

Well said. Fully agree, right down to the Ultimate Warrior bit at the end.

Yeah, the White Martian story is one of my all time favorite arcs. I am surprised it isn't more heralded as one of the definitive Batman stories.

I'm a BIG fan of Morrison's tenure in the Justice League, you might've mentioned that THESE series also were influential for the coming of the Justice League in it's animated form as well!
 
My only complain is that Morrison didn't got to write into the team Captain Marvel, that would've been awesome, but it's a minor one, the comic book were so good that it even left a good momentum for Mark Waid and Joe Kelly to write good stories as well.

Hmmm maybe i should check them out...

I've read DC One Million, a decent bit of his Batman stuff, and recently All-Star Superman.  I must now read all of this JLA.  I'm sorry, wallet....

Morrison's JLA was the best team book.  Period.  Not the best version of the Justice League, but the best team book.  Claremont's X-Men?  Bendis' Avengers?  Levitz' Legion of Superheroes?  Wolfman/Perez' Teen Titans?  All classics.  But nothing, and I mean nothing, stands up to Morrison's JLA.

I love Morrison's JLA in my opinion it blows his work with Batman and Final Crisis right out of the water. Some of my favorite stories ever came from that. Great article Tom

I miss THIS Morrison...

I gotta say the best team book was also by Morrison, but with the world's strangest heroes, The Doom Patrol! 
 
*edit* To reiterate, The Doom Patrol had the best and most imaginative array of strange adventures and villains.  It had the best Doom Patrol line-up that included Crazy Jane (with a different superpower for each of her sixty-something personalities) and Danny the Street (a space-folding sentient street).  The goals of the villains were never like the rest of villainy.  Some were trying to reshape reality, end abnormality, or run for public office.  I think these lines between Cliff Steele and Dr. Niles Caulder sum it up best: "Sometimes it might be nice to just stop a bank robbery or foil a criminal mastermind.  Ya know, like the regular super-guys."  "Nonsense, Cliff!  It's essential that we leave such feeble-minded pursuits to the muscle bound cretins who enjoy them.  Our work is far more important."

Was the initial JLA Classified arc ever reprinted as a trade? I always wanted to read that one.

Completely agree. Morrison's run was my first real encounter with the Justice League and will always be my personal zenith for that team.

Being only 20 years old, this team was the first incarnation of the League for me as well; this was my first dose of the team. The American Dream trade was the first comic I'd read with all of them, and I remember after I was done with it, I gave it to my brother and said: "dude, this just felt like a movie. A really awesome movie. Read it!" and he did. That was the first time a comic book had shaken me like that. I read a few more afterward with the big ass roster, but never followed suit with it all. Pinchuck, you just gave me an idea of what I want for Christmas! 
Great Article yet, again. You rock.

Interesting article.  

I actually much preferred Mark Waid's following run on JLA to Morrison's. World War III had such an anticlimactic ending for all the amazing build up it was comprised of. 
Plus Waid gave us Tower of Babel, which is an iconic exploration of just how crazy prepared Batman is, and even a bit of how he's able to be so prepared; and Terror Incognita, which was an awesome White Martian story. 
 
I do generally praise the ground Morrison walks, but I just wasn't wowed by his JLA nearly as much as his other stuff.

"I actually much preferred Mark Waid's following run on JLA to Morrison's. World War III had such an anticlimactic ending for all the amazing build up it was comprised of. Plus Waid gave us Tower of Babel, which is an iconic exploration of just how crazy prepared Batman is, and even a bit of how he's able to be so prepared; and Terror Incognita, which was an awesome White Martian story.  I do generally praise the ground Morrison walks, but I just wasn't wowed by his JLA nearly as much as his other stuff. "

This run was the real introduction to DC characters.  Sure I had some Batman classics, and a few G.L. and Superman stories.  Namely Death of Superman, and the fall of Hal Jordon and intro to Kyle, I didn't know shit about the other hero's that wasn't common comic knowledge.   I remember reading about the run in Wizard, and grew up watching the Plastic Man cartoon so I was surprised to see he was even part of DC.  I do agree with Mighty Monarch about the anit'-climatic ending.  Everything else was great leading up to about the last five pages.  What I did get tho was turned onto 2 characters that I just LOVE but haven't done that much since.  Promethius and Zauriel.   Being Catholic I loved how they used a gaurdian angel.  It was my inrtroduction to Mark Millar who wrote the side story Paradise Lost about Zauriel.  Promethius had an incredible orgin story that was a direct tie-in to his Almost Taking Out The JLA personally.  Bad luck is what killed that attempt.  I highly reccommend this run.  Great trades.  It was Morrison god awful run of the X-men that followed.  For what ever reason why too, I must be the only person who doesn't like that run.

That was a really good arc. I only read a few issues of it but from what I could see, it was incredibly impressive. The JLA at its best since its preconception IMO

Everything Morrison writes turns to gold

They have the entire run in trade... 4 volumes! EPIC!!!!

" I actually much preferred Mark Waid's following run on JLA to Morrison's. World War III had such an anticlimactic ending for all the amazing build up it was comprised of. Plus Waid gave us Tower of Babel, which is an iconic exploration of just how crazy prepared Batman is, and even a bit of how he's able to be so prepared; and Terror Incognita, which was an awesome White Martian story.  I do generally praise the ground Morrison walks, but I just wasn't wowed by his JLA nearly as much as his other stuff. "

lol @ blue supes....what a gimmick. set him back 20 years...

" Morrison's JLA was the best team book.  Period.  Not the best version of the Justice League, but the best team book. 

With what issue did Morrison begin the JLA? where did it end?

Too bad the JLA series nowadays is lame...  =P

Loved this article!
Your dead on with everything.

if you're going by the greek pantheon, shouldn't flash be Hermes, since Mercury is part of the roman pantheon?

Tom you made a great December even better! This was a frickin epic run and like you my first grant story...though that didn't mean much till I was holding his new x-men in my hands back in the day :)
 
thanks for the memories

Electro Supes is one of my favorite versions of Superman; a very creative revisioning of the character.

I loved this series.  It was pure summer blockbuster movie action in a superhero comic book.  It was great stuff.

 fixing floating thread

I never cared for Morrison's JLA all that. It was basically "Batman, guest-starring the Justice League".

 Too answer the questions: Morrison had a great run. Mark Waid's Tower of Babel is the best story arc. Have you heard of  Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire?       

I had never read any of it but the first two trades, until I recently I picked up the set of hardcovers.  About 2/3rds of the way through book 3 and WOW.  I can't agree more with this article.  It is great how the books keep the more modular feel.  This group reconvenes when the $*%& hits the fan, whether superman has his mullet, or electric blue, or normal they come to defeat what ever extinction level event thrown at them.  This ends up allowing the book not only to be amazingly awesome in it's own right, but to cleanly exist within the overarching DC continuity much easier.   
 
The Hardcovers are pretty nice.  My only complaint is there were some strange printing errors in volume 1, like random letters being omitted from bubbles.  

Pretty true!
It sure was a great fun run! 
 
*reminds me I need to get some of those on TPB forms!

This is one of those series that I have in three different formats and... if they released it in another form... I'd probably get that too. :P

This was the best period of time in my opinion for JLA.  I absolutely loved how Batman went up against the White Martians and ESPECIALLY the one mentioned about the Atom and Green Arrow killing Darkseid !  My favorite part of that issue was when Batman destroyed Darkseid's factories and we see an immortal quote from Darkseid:
 
"How small you are, and yet, you have hurt me."

Fix

I could not agree more with every word you've said, man.    This was my first JLA too and man was I lucky enough to start loving comics in this era. Nothing that has come afterwards or before can ever, in my opinion, feel as important, as big, as EPIC as this run was. 
 
This is what the Justice League should always be, The BEST of the BEST, not just a handful of nobodies. There are other teams for that.  It's the reason Morrison became my absolute favorite writer. 
 
@    FadeToBlackBolt: Totally agree. And that's because Grant Morisson GETS all of DC's big guns. I'm sure he's the only writer in DC that could work on all of them and always  et it right.

I just threw up in my mouth a little...