I just read this really entertaining column by Tucker Stone about the much ridiculed Justice League of Detroit — a continuity blip when all the A-list leaguers wandered off and the title was left with Aquaman and a bunch of newbies.
I can’t remember if I had all those issues,but I certainly remember the sequence where (as Tucker describes) the newbies were killed off. It was extremely brutal and cold and quite sad. Tucker seems ambivalent about it, but I think those were actually excellent stories; as is so often the case, the only time the series really seemed to figure out what it was doing was when it terminated. A lot of that was, I think, because those last stories were written by J.M. DeMatteis. I think he wrapped the Detroit series up as a prelude to his goofy run with Keith Giffen — a run that also, actually, had a lot of suprising emotional depths.
So anyone know? Am I remembering right that DeMatteis penned those last few JL Detroit issue? Or am I just making that up?
You’re right: DeMatteis wrote the last six issues of JLoA. His first two issues wrapped up a left-over Zatanna plot. The last four issues were the “End of the Justice League of America” which was also a Cross-Over with the company wide Legends series.
The plot was Professor Ivo sends his android “sons” to kill off the Justice League. In the end, “father” Ivo was revealed to also be an android, while the real Prof. Ivo was locked up in a padded cell by his creations because they couldn’t stand being around him.
I just quickly re-read the issues and the death scenes are exactly as you remember them.
Hi Noah –
I was just re-reading these issues and woudl agree with your take on them.
The goofiness of the Giffen/DeMatteis JL comics has been exaggerated in fandom’s collective memory. (The creators have indulged in this exaggeration, too, in those “Formerly the Justice League” comics). But the original comics were more like: action/adventure with wisecracks and the occasional comedy interlude episode.
Noah,
You read these comics because I owned them…and I quite liked JLD, although it obviously wasn’t “real” Justice League. The last four ishes were better than good…and yes, because DeMatteis wrote them. He’s still a favorite of mine…and I was delighted to see they finally got around to printing a trade of Spidey: Kraven’s Last Hunt…a nice DeMatteis moment.
On the other hand, there were some very bad DeMatteis moments too…like “Blood” and “Seekers Into the Mystery”…better forgotten! I fondly remember other fun mini-series like Forever People, Martian Manhunter, and Dr. Fate, which DeMatteis created.
I still might revisit the Detroit stuff later on–I actually took it pretty hard when Steel was dead. The thing that got me was part due to the comic, but mostly due to that I didn’t understand at the time that they were still publishing Justice League comics. I just assumed, because of the only store I went to only had back issues, that was all that existed. I thought all the stories were already published, that no new Justice League existed beyond that final issue with Vixen on the cover.
I didn’t think that for long–a little bit afterwards, I got the current (at the time) issue of the Justice League–something in the 30’s, I think–it had the old Starman throwing a membership card at the reader. I couldn’t understand why there weren’t any of the characters I remembered. Martian Manhunter was, and the people that I already knew existed like Batman, but it was all too confusing.
After I filled in the gaps, I saw the issue where Despero finds what’s left of Steel and destroys it–that was when it got me. That was the last time I actually “gave a shit” about what happens in a super-hero comic. Since then, I just don’t care if they get raped, turned into monkeys, ret-conned. They got me, but never again.