Formerly Known as Justice League

[Guest realsandman420]

the old giffen/dematteis run is one the greatest runs ever.......you have no idea how much i am looking forward to this.

 

 

 

 

One of the neatest announcements at DC's recent RRP was the return of the Justice League as seen by the eyes of Keith Giffen, JM DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire. Almost fifteen years ago comics fans delighted at their comedic approach to the world of costumed heroes. Who can forget J'onn J'onzz dunking oreos and cursing and blessing Captain Marvel for introducing him to the tasty treats? Who can forget Black Canary's horror at missing Batman lay out Guy Gardner with "one punch?" These were the stuff of legend and a series that will still be fondly remembered years from now. Formerly Known as Justice League reunites the creative team for another six issues. The series features Maxwell Lord, L-Ron, Beetle, Booster, Fire, Elongated Man and Sue, Mary Marvel, and Captain Atom as the basic group, with lots of guest stars expected.

"The book is essentially a superhero sitcom," said Kevin Maguire. "I enjoy the opportunity of creating comedic performances for this variety of personalities. There are a few characters that I wish we had in there, most notably Guy Gardner, but that's a problem which will be solved soon enough."

 

Maguire hinted that the title of the series might change before it's officially released. He also hinted that this might just be the beginning of many Justice League adventures to come. "If this sells through the roof, that should give us license to get really crazy further down the road," commented Maguire, who quickly added. "If, of course, we're lucky enough to continue."

 

The artist believes fans of the original series will appreciate this new edition. "If you liked the JL that Keith, J.M., and I did ,(Jeez! Is it really close to 15 years ago?) then you'll get a kick out of this. Giffen has lost none of his iconoclastic fervor over the years. More often than not, you'll hear the editor saying, 'No,Keith! Are you crazy?! We can't possibly do that to Mary Marvel'."

 

"I love visual storytelling. That's my thing," Maguire responded when talking about what keeps him creating comics and staying in the comics medium. "I couldn't imagine doing advertising or portraits, even though it would probably pay a lot better. I love telling a story."

 

He's having a lot of fun creating this six-parter. "Right now, my favorite one to draw is Fire, most notably in the third and fourth issues. And I actually get a kick out of drawing L-Ron. I always hear the voice of Tom Servo when I read his dialogue, though I understand that there's medication I can take to deal with that."

 

"There really aren't any characters that are difficult to do," commented Maguire when questioned about challenges certain characters present and preferences. "Generally, I don't like doing characters whose eyes can't be seen, but that's not a problem here."

 

As Maguire hinted earlier if the series does well we might see a lot more of this Justice League. Besides working on the comics, Maguire has a few more irons in the fire. "I have a couple of screenplays going with co-writers as well as something else I'm developing, which I'll be more than happy to discuss when it's closer to being a reality." As for what's next comics wise, "That's too far down the road right now for me to contemplate. I know what I'll be doing tomorrow and next week. Beyond that? Who knows?"

[Guest Some Guy]

I might pick this shit up. I liked the old JL books when I was a kid. I bought tons of back issues, Guy Gardner was the man.

[Guest raptor]

I just have the one issue, where the team has a barbeque and the Joker tries to fight them...

 

Funny stuff, but I don't have the money to add more titles (with Tsunami coming out soon). So, yeah, good luck to the creators, though.

[Guest starvenger]

I might pick this shit up. I liked the old JL books when I was a kid. I bought tons of back issues, Guy Gardner was the man.

Only when Batman and/or Ice wasn't around...

[Guest Some Guy]

True. Bats always punked him out and Ice made him a pussy. But such is life.

 

BTW, Why the fuck did they do all those goofy changes to Gardner? He was a fun character before the tattoos and morphing, then he bacame a b-rate X-MEn type character. I liked him as a GL and with Sinestro's ring but after that he got too fucking wierd to follow or care about.

[Guest starvenger]

BTW, Why the fuck did they do all those goofy changes to Gardner? He was a fun character before the tattoos and morphing, then he bacame a b-rate X-MEn type character. I liked him as a GL and with Sinestro's ring but after that he got too fucking wierd to follow or care about.

I'm thinking that once he became a "Warrior" the sales dropped so they did whatever they could to keep the series alive - which in the 90's meant "NEW powers, NEW costume and a NEW direction" - which in turn alienated even MORE people.

 

I'm not sure though, I've never been too big on the entire GL sub-universe so I'm not the right guy to ask. Maybe that GLCorps website (glcorps.com? I'll have to check Google) has something on all of Gardner's changes...

[Guest Some Guy]

I didn't mind the "Warrior" nick-name or the first new costume and haircut, he looked better. The only thing I know was that since Sinestro's ring was powered by GL rings and Hal Jordon was destroying the GLC and their rings they figured that Guy's ring wouldn't be able to charge again and had Hal destroy it. But they easilly could have had Guy's ring get a permanent charge when the GL battery on OA blew up or something and kept his character true. It pissed me off royally when they ruined him. I recently went backa nd bought all the rest of the GG:W books to see what they did to him after I quit and it pretty much sucked. Not only did his gimmick totally change (for the worse) but he "grew up" and that took away from the rebelous appeal of the character. He became just another guy, rather than "The one and only Guy." Or whatever his catchphrase was.