This Trade Would Be Good - The Best of Justice League Quarterly
I was going to recommend some Justice League Quarterly issues, but that seemed kind of odd, so then I remembered a gimmick some other person used, so I figured I would steal the idea...so now, from time to time, I will recommend a group of comics that have never been collected before that I think would make a good trade paperback collection.
I will use a page limit of 285 (which is about right for a $20 trade).
Today, the trade I think would be good is a "Best of Justice League Quarterly" trade paperback.
Justice League Quarterly is an often overlooked part of the Giffen/DeMatteis era of Justice League comics. It ran from 1990-1994, for 17 issues. The last seven issues or so really are not that good, but the first 10 had some very impressive issues with stories from the likes of Giffen, DeMatteis and Mark Waid (who contributes some really good stories) with art from the likes of Mike McKone, Darick Robertson and others.
I would split the trade into two parts - the first part would contain lead stories, while the second part would collect short stories. They are all stand alone stories, so that is good (no worries of continuity hurting our enjoyment of the stories).
First Part
1. The lead story from Justice League Quarterly #2 - A fun-filled romp with Martian Manhunter and the league having to deal with the Galactus parody, Mister Nebula. Mister Nebula is a bit over the top, but the story is still fun enough, with nice art by Tom Artis.
2. The story from Justice League Quarterly #3, which was a sequel to the good Extremist storyline in Justice League Europe. The art is from Mike McKone, and it is strong. It is a time travel story that includes some good parodies...but the MOST impressive part was the amount of HEART the story had. People sometimes forget how they could occassionally pull on the heartstrings...
3. The second story from Justice League Quarterly #4, a nice little love story with Guy and Fire, with nice art by a young Darick Robertson.
4. The lead story from Justice League Quarterly #5, Mark Waid's first issue, with a really cool Professor Ivo story (and nice art by McKone). You could tell Waid was trying to prove something here, as he pulled out ALL the stops with this story!! Really good story, probably the best of the series.
5. The lead story from Justice League Quarterly #6, a really fun Waid story featuring one of the famous "Elongated Man birthday mysteries." Very cool, genial story.
Second Part
1. The back up story from Justice League Quarterly #2 by Giffen/DeMatteis doing one of those "remember the old days?" stories with Captain Cold and Heatwave fighting Fire and Ice. The Cold and Heatwave characterizations are terrible, but the story was fun.
2. A fun (but odd) Bill Loebs story featuring a fella who is stalking Ice.
3. A funny John Ostrander story from Justice League Quarterly #6 showing Blue Beetle getting into fighting shape.
4. A good Flash backup by Mark Waid from Justice League Quarterly #10. One of those "looking at Flash's powers from a different perspective" things that writers like to do sometimes.
5. A funny Waid backup from Justice League Quarterly #10 featuring Beetle on a date.
This trade would end up at 284 pages...cool.
This trade would be good.
Anyone remember these stories?
I will use a page limit of 285 (which is about right for a $20 trade).
Today, the trade I think would be good is a "Best of Justice League Quarterly" trade paperback.
Justice League Quarterly is an often overlooked part of the Giffen/DeMatteis era of Justice League comics. It ran from 1990-1994, for 17 issues. The last seven issues or so really are not that good, but the first 10 had some very impressive issues with stories from the likes of Giffen, DeMatteis and Mark Waid (who contributes some really good stories) with art from the likes of Mike McKone, Darick Robertson and others.
I would split the trade into two parts - the first part would contain lead stories, while the second part would collect short stories. They are all stand alone stories, so that is good (no worries of continuity hurting our enjoyment of the stories).
First Part
1. The lead story from Justice League Quarterly #2 - A fun-filled romp with Martian Manhunter and the league having to deal with the Galactus parody, Mister Nebula. Mister Nebula is a bit over the top, but the story is still fun enough, with nice art by Tom Artis.
2. The story from Justice League Quarterly #3, which was a sequel to the good Extremist storyline in Justice League Europe. The art is from Mike McKone, and it is strong. It is a time travel story that includes some good parodies...but the MOST impressive part was the amount of HEART the story had. People sometimes forget how they could occassionally pull on the heartstrings...
3. The second story from Justice League Quarterly #4, a nice little love story with Guy and Fire, with nice art by a young Darick Robertson.
4. The lead story from Justice League Quarterly #5, Mark Waid's first issue, with a really cool Professor Ivo story (and nice art by McKone). You could tell Waid was trying to prove something here, as he pulled out ALL the stops with this story!! Really good story, probably the best of the series.
5. The lead story from Justice League Quarterly #6, a really fun Waid story featuring one of the famous "Elongated Man birthday mysteries." Very cool, genial story.
Second Part
1. The back up story from Justice League Quarterly #2 by Giffen/DeMatteis doing one of those "remember the old days?" stories with Captain Cold and Heatwave fighting Fire and Ice. The Cold and Heatwave characterizations are terrible, but the story was fun.
2. A fun (but odd) Bill Loebs story featuring a fella who is stalking Ice.
3. A funny John Ostrander story from Justice League Quarterly #6 showing Blue Beetle getting into fighting shape.
4. A good Flash backup by Mark Waid from Justice League Quarterly #10. One of those "looking at Flash's powers from a different perspective" things that writers like to do sometimes.
5. A funny Waid backup from Justice League Quarterly #10 featuring Beetle on a date.
This trade would end up at 284 pages...cool.
This trade would be good.
Anyone remember these stories?
posted by Brian Cronin at 5/07/2005 04:01:00 PM
9 Comments:
I loved all the stories you mentioned, and totally agree that this series was overlooked. But I think DC should focus on collecting the ENTIRE Giffen/DeMatt run. Maybe this could serve as the last volume? Or an addendum collection? Or, the stories could be collected chronologically in the respective volumes of the regular series...WAIT...What if they collected Quarterly, International AND Europe in the same series of volumes? I'm a genius.
The first issue of Quarterly was great, too... Sprouse art, that one, for seventy whole pages (or so). It was a great one. I actually liked the Conglomerate... well, the first one.
I'm gonna have to track down more of these, though... I only have a handful of 'em.
Alex, I would agree...but that would be a big undertaking!
The cool thing about this is that the stories are all "stand-alone" stories!
Bill, I left off the first issue only because it was so directly tied into the stories in the regular book at the time, it really doesn't make as much sense to a new reader as do the others.
I WOULD definitely include it it in Alex's mention of collecting Giffen's entire run (in which case I would just place it where it was in continuity, as it was the one issue that really took place in standard continuity).
Hehe...tell Alice I am sorry, Lex.
You're right, the JLQ stories were pretty good and the story "When Titans Date" from JLQ 10 is the best thing Mark Waid has ever written.
That issue was okay, too.
But not good enough to make the TPB!!
Waid had a couple of other decent ones (including one that tied into DC's Hacker Files comic and another that had Jesse Quick join the Conglomerate), but his best were definitely his first few.
One of the things I keep threatening to do if I ever have any free time is to figure out how the entire Giffen/DeMatteis JL/I/A/E run should be ordered for collection, and then get them all bound in a series of those custom hardcovers people get made...
Ha, Chris!
Cool idea!!
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