In the latest edition of Comics to Read Before You Die, Jessie Robertson looks at Formerly Known as the Justice League…
Published in 2003
Created by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire & Joe Rubenstein
Comedy comics are rarely mentioned when it’s discussed what are the best comic book collections out there; you usually venture to a classic team book, or comic book moment, or the one with the most innovative artwork, and in recent years, the most interesting out of the box storyline. But, comedy is damn relevant. It’s what first drew me to Spider-Man as a kid; reading old Uncle Scrooge books with my daughter and now, Chew, which is, in my opinion, the best regular series being published. Formerly Known as the Justice League is exactly that: a comedy comic book. There are serious moments mixed within, but this book has a punchline or joke or quip on every single page, nearly every single panel. It’s been one of the most refreshing books I’d read in a long time, completely devoid of serious, droll moments and kept light, funny, irreverent and a big naughty.
The premise is businessman Maxwell Lord puts together money and backers to start a call – in service of superheroes; so, you have a plumbing problem, you call Roto-Rooter. You have a supervillain problem, you call them. He assembles former Justice Leaguers he worked with to fill out his roster and there are a lot of turn downs. Just the recruiting process is great. It’s also funny to see Lord in this role if you’ve ever read any of his later 90’s appearances where he becomes a dark and disturbing villain.
The team is assembled with Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Fire, Mary Marvel, Captain Atom and Elongated Man (and his wife Sue). Let the hijinx ensue! Beetle has been diagnosed with a serious heart condition and does not want to be there; Booster gives him a constant hard time about being a stick in the mud. Fire uses her sexuality to get what she wants; Mary just wants to be part of a team like her older cousin and Elongated Man wants to be rated higher than a 4! (Fire and Sue stand around rating men’s hotness on a 1 to 10 scale as one bit). Even before the team’s first mission is underway they are kidnapped by Roulette, a ruthless woman who runs a high risk gambling ring where she kidnaps superpowered beings and makes them fight to the death in a gladitorial pit.
I don’t want to spoil the entire plot for you because it gets even crazier from there. The book features one of the strangest prisons ever conceived of, one of the strangest alien invasions of all time and just loads of one-liners and jokes galore. Mary Marvel is the gem of this book, as a character. She’s got the powers of Captain Marvel, but she’s completely innocent and naive to the ways of the world, and this was the worst place for her to be. Her fight with Captain Atom in the pits is also a damn cool sequence showing off what makes comics comics; awesome battles that can only take place there. I think particularly here is where the artwork just shines as there are some amazing panels that are just as good as any you’d see in a serious book with major storyline repercussions.
I don’t know if you’ll ever find this book named on a “greatest comics of the 20th century” list or anything, but for my money, you won’t have a better time reading a book full of characters you probably don’t know anything about. I know that was my experience with it and it’s easily a book you can go back to time and again and enjoy, as it’s filled with loads of humor, pranks and sight gags, as well as some great characterization for a slice of the DC Universe pie that doesn’t get a lot of attention.
Jessie Robertson
https://youtu.be/yIuEu1m0p2M?list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5
Originally published June 12, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
