JLI Podcast One-Shots – JLA 80-Page Giant #1, JLU #43 and DC Retroactive: JLA The ’90s

32 responses to “JLI Podcast One-Shots – JLA 80-Page Giant #1, JLU #43 and DC Retroactive: JLA The ’90s”

1. Great episode also the mouse in the first issue is very cute . Also I have an idea for an episode find your joy have you ever heard of Gerry Anderson series . Dick spanner ? I think the first story arc the case of human cannon ball. The guest is suggest is sir Marian gray . Maybe bucky749 has a single form lol!

   Reply

   1. Bucky749 : (teleport’s in wearing red Terrahawks t-shirt , blue jeans and booster gold sun glasses and blue sneakers , and a marvel back pack ,) I’m here !

      ( reaches into bag and pulls a signal light painted in union jack colors with a deep fried Twinkie
      Peeking out of a Tartis , wearing a thunderbirds hat , .

      Bucky749: this should call sir Martian .

      Reply

2. Hey, I had forgotten about a couple of these…
   Getting our topics together (these stories and the nineties lack of love for JLI): I believe that most of the haters had either not being exposed to the actual series but to hearsay (“the silly Justice League”) or exposed to some of these “minor” stories, which, unpopular opinion alert, I believe do no stand up to the original series. They do focus just on the funny hijinks but not the complex characterization, pathos, left-of-field plots and much more. You kind of see it in the Retroactive story, probably because it’s longer and builds on what we already know. So if you hear it’s silly and then you find the giant mouse thing, well, you reaffirm the preconceptions.

   Also, thank you for mentioning the computer color thing. Yeah, it does Maguire no favors. And not just here: flat colors work so much better with his art (it happens to many other artists as well). My theory is that Kevin’s line art has so much volume to it (the face expressions depend on having full fledged lips, cheeks and so on) that the “color volume” just feels like overkill.

   Reply

3. Can’t be to hard on guy being scared of mouse as I’m scarred of roaches . myself if guy is scared of mice shouldn’t he be happy when later they get a cat ??? I’m just saying .

   Reply

4. I don’t remember any of the issues discussed. The 80-page Giants were always out of my price range back then. I was picking up most of the comics based on the shows on Cartoon Network “for the kids” who would have been just old enough to read them, so I don’t know how I missed the JLU series.

   Shameless plug: if anyone has issue 37 of “Cartoon Network Action Pack” with Ben 10 on the cover, you can see my son’s drawing (who was 6 years old at the time) of Chromastone. He is now a senior in collage finishing his undergraduate degree in computer animation.

   Reply

5. Those Oreos can only mean three things .
   1. Sneak into watch tower and bribe the Martian .
   2 . Doctor who marathon getting there working on the fourth doctor era that’s a long era .

   3. Three stooges marathon with Rex shemp vs curly there is a four hour marathon up on YouTube.

   Reply

6. If need something to goofy to induce with that is true you can introduce as a the guy who spent the afternoon taking pictures of grimlock fighting a alternate universe rowdy Roddy piper those picks are up on bucky749’s YouTube as em I as I play the part of ring announcer for Bucky’s fictional wrestling leagues .

   Reply

7. Thanks so much for allowing me to invade your space, Shagg. Had a great time!

   Apologies to JT for stealing the rodent storyline he felt should have been his. Although maybe it’s appropriate. I’m a hippy tree-hugger herbivore and friend to all animals, so I for one was most gratified that [SPOILER] the mouse not only survived their ordeal with Blue & Gold, but turned the tables on their would-be captors. In fact, Beetle and Booster should have been grateful that said tiny critter turned their obnoxious, belligerent team-mate into a more considerate and empathetic person (albeit temporarily).

   To add to the nerdy nit-picking regarding the timeline of JLA RetroActive, if that is indeed Knockout in the background, then her presence is questionable. She first appeared in Superboy #4 in 1994, four years after the probable insertion point of this story into JLI continuity. However, one might argue that she was already on Earth by this point, but didn’t become active or known until later. I’ve probably given too much thought to this throwaway background cameo in a very silly story.

   Reply

8. I’ve only listened to most of the first part of the pod, but two quick things before I forget:

   1. The friendship between Booster and Beetle being a little more developed? Superboy-Prime reality punch!
   2. Black Canary’s costume – 100% the best costume of hers!

   1

   Reply

   1. I honestly think some things are always meant to be and it think blue beetle and booster gold being the Martian and Lewis or is it abbot an Costello of justice league just seems natural. Maybe it’s fate . Thou after seeing the blue beetle movie I like the idea of Ted having a daughter. And now the image is my head of little girl in a blue beetle onesie calling booster her favorite uncle and Ted mad cause booster spoils her maybe you have here go on go adventures with Rip Hunter’s little side kick and team up with batlash . Sorry random rant over .

      2

      Reply

9. Great episode as usual Shagg, even though you had Brett on…
   Seriously these were excellent choices. Great mini tribute to Keith Giffin.

   1

   Reply

10. I know you often talk about the hatred fans often express about the Bwah-ha-ha era. It really reminds me alot of fan reaction to the Batman 66 show. It really became popular to dog pile on that show, especially in the 80’s leading up to and much after the Burton movies.

    Usually it’s the older teens to adults that had that reaction because the campiness of the show seemed uncool for that age range. And I think JLI was looked through similar lens

    I believe even Kevin Smith expressed similar sentiments of the show in his early adulthood, but later after Adam West passed away he recanted and admitted he loved the show when he was a kid

    As your podcast has shown many fans of the JLI era have admitted to loving this version of the franchise, and nostalgia has made it safe to acknowledge that.

    I was a fan of this era from the beginning as I too bought it off the racks at the time of publication. I can proudly admit I always loved this version and never had anything bad to say about it. But when it came to an end, I did miss it, and accepted it was time to move on. But anytime this team was revisited, I was back so long as I was aware of it.

    Reply

11. Impressive
    podcast most impressive.

    Ah cool that they made a return of the old team on these retro active continuity stories.its cool that they were able to weave this mouse story into the one punch issue . And they followed the art and story telling pretty well. Yeah how pour booster gets blamed when it was mostly Ted’s schemes I’ll never know .

    John getting Ted back for the mouse trap in his cookie bag was funny. Moving on the wannabes story was good. To bad BB and Buster we not in the JLU as a dou. Ah well. Guess Ted would have been to much like Wally. In those cartoons.

    And ah the last ever team up of the JLI creative team on a story of them is pretty cool. Though why is big sirs para demon a giant? Most of them are normal size. The one in Villains unlimited was about Bane’s size . But not a giant.

    The inhaler joke is funny. We’ll power girl and her cat dis make it into the issue. Yep the cat freaking out the League fits. A pretty cool issue over all. I have just started re- reading the JLI’s first TBS. And the crazyness is still there a fun book. Got it on Kendal.
    Any way can’t wait for the next podcast.

    Reply

12. What a godsend! I didn’t know this story existed! It was so fun.

    Like Shagg pointed out… I noticed the continuity problems with the story… but just went with it. Being the 2nd Biggest Fan of Power Girl (I gave up my 1st Place slot to Symbol Pending a couple months ago), I every aspect of her appearance. While chronologically flawed regarding her yellow and white bodysuit, I loved seeing her in her classic Earth-2 outfit. Maguire didn’t even include the Atlantean belt buckle, which is a bonus. More than that, she wasn’t all agro like she was half the time in JLE. She was actually quite endearing… perhaps Giffen and DeMatteis were reading the Conner/Gray/Palmiotti version of PG that came out a few years before this book came out.

    Whatever the case… 3 CHEERS FOR THIS GEM!

    Reply

    1. I promise I’m not paying him for this comment!

       I think it’s only fair they forgot the belt, much as they tended to do during the JLE run! And yes I’m also a fan of her Earth-2 costume.

       Reply

13. Those Demolition Team jobbers have some pretty rad power-action features! I get the sense that they come with everything you see here, and are each sold separately. Ask for them by name at K-B!

    Over in the RetroACTIVE story, I guess the Achilles’ heel of Bigger Sir was a cat allergy, but I’m wondering whether that’s something intrinsic to the Apokoliptik embiggening technology, or did that result from Big Sir having a feline allergy? Because if he does, once he returns to normal and needs a pet, the embassy might have a new home for the 80-Page Giant Mouse. Big Sir would pet him and call him George, one assumes.

    Reply

14. During the feedback part of the show, I realized that I’ve met Jason Lady. We were fellow authors at last year’s Mid-Ohio Indie Author Expo. What’s up, Jason!
    Although Blue Beetle never appeared on the show, Mattel did release a Blue Beetle action figure in its JLU line. Of course, It came in a three pack with Booster Gold and Fire and its incredibly expensive if you try to buy it now. I was able to get it as a loose figure on Ebay. Besides a freakishly long head, its looks pretty much like Ted does in this comic.

    Reply

15. I hate to agree with Frank (well, not really, Frank’s a good guy), but I do think the general consensus in the early 90s was that the JLI era and humor had outstayed it’s welcome. As mentioned, I think this iteration of the League has much in common with Batman ’66. Beloved at first, then maligned as embarassing, then rediscovered and loved again. But part of that is because Batman ’66 only maintained that razors edge balance between straight adventure and sly, knowing parody in the first, short season. The show quickly moved into parodying not comics, but its own self, and became more of a farce. It still had some great episodes, but somehow everyone was now in on the joke, and it didn’t feel as fresh or as clever. I think this may be the case with JLI as well. When the humor became what the book was known for, and the driver for the series, then that balance with action was lost. Eventually readers longed for a more “straight” JL series, which is what Jurgens gave them.

    Plus, anything that is popular, and doesn’t end quickly will deveolop a public backlash at some point. Look at the MCU. Beloved for years, a few less-than-stellar films and series have some folks retroactively declaring the whole thing was bad in a “What were we thinking?” kind of way.

    But these were some nice looks back, and no doubt helped remind people that they liked this verison of the League for a reason. I know the 80-page giant story did that with me when it was released. I’m pretty sure my son has that JLU comic in his pile of books somewhere. I’ll have to dig that one out! I missed out on the RetroActive issue, but it seemed like a sweet way for the creators to sign off on their famous run. Great show gents!

    Reply

16. I really like the DCAU tie-in comics, all of them. In fact, I pulled the Impromptu panel because that was the name of our improv troupe at the time (me, Bass and 4 others). Had it clipped and on my office door and everything.

    Reply

17. I know I’ve read that story for the 80-page Giant, but I cannot find my copy for the life of me! Now I’m depressed.

    The JLU series came out when I was scaling back my new comic purchases, so I totally missed that issue. Now I’m double-depressed.

    But I did read the Retroactive issue on DCU Finite, and read it again! Still hilarious the second time! Since I haven’t memorized it like the original series, it’s like getting a new-to-me issue of JLI. What a treat! I don’t even mind the continuity goofs about Scott and Booster. But what’s funny is the cat’s big intro was JLA #37, and Booster’s on the cover, even though he’d left the team! Maybe the creators were looking at the covers to remind them who was on the team at this time. (Heh-heh!)

    I had a weird thought (like I have any other kind of thought) reading Beetle’s part in this story. Maybe he’s just “playing dumb” when talking to Scott. With his whole “Darkseid’s inhaler” bit, Beetle is so smart, maybe he’s doing this on purpose just to get a rise out of people. But wait! What if he’s been trolling all along? Does that make Beetle a bigger jerk than Guy? Oh no! Abort! Abort!

    It’s so bitter sweet listening to the show, now that it really feels like we’re nearing the finish. But I still feel tons of joy hearing “great story by Giffen”, “funny dialog by DeMatteis”, and “fantastic artwork by Maguire”. Thanks, my friends.

    Reply

18. So when Shag made a point on social media of asking people to read the covered material ahead of the podcast, I of course made a point of openly defying him. Aside from the episodes I appeared on, I never bothered to reread the JLI issues that I remembered well enough, or the JLE issues I didn’t care enough about to have read the first time. I knew I owned these Giffen/DeMatteis leftovers, and fired up the latest episode. Then I took it right back off the fire, because I could recall nothing from the JLU issue, and the more I thought about it, s’been a long time since I spared a thought for any of those nice, inoffensive DC Retroactive one-shots just ahead of Flashpoint. Damn me to Hell, I ultimately did as I was told, except now I’ll respond without listening to (most) of Shag’s dumb old (soon to deceased) podcast. If I have to suffer his inevitable smugness in the mail section next month, I’m spreading the pain to the lot of you.

    Shag is an unreliable narrator, or at least a very personally biased one. I’m throwing water on his “everyone hated JLI” myth as some sort of persecution complex on his part. In the transition from Giffen/DeMatteis to the Justice League Spectacular period, DC put an effort into hyping a more serious League. But also, they did it in January, and only after begging the old creative team to stay for an extra year, during which they launched Justice League Quarterly, while Giffen’s side project Lobo more or less launched the EXTREME ’90s. If DC or the fans hated JLI so much, why was all this stuff still selling, and why did the majority of the two JLI team memberships continue into refreshed titles that also retained an unfortunate prior writer from the JLE run?

    There are several issues that Shag has touched upon in the past but still fails to fully address. One, is that there was something special in the Giffen/DeMatteis pairing, especially with Kevin Maguire, that was more than the sum of the parts. Keith Giffen was already known as the rare successful humorist in mainstream comics, but always with the assistance of more confident scripters. J.M. DeMatteis was… not known as a comedian, but he tried his hand at humor a number of times without Giffen and… not so much. Giffen meanwhile tried to script his own work for much of the decade and… also not so much. But I think everyone knew that Giffen & DeMatteis couldn’t be replaced on JLI, because a bunch of guys had already tried and failed. Even DeMatteis couldn’t effectively spin-off on Martian Manhunter, Doctor Fate, or Mister Miracle. If they’d gotten Peter David and Kyle Baker to take over JLI, you could think DC was at least trying to maintain the formula, but I think editorial knew that was a fool’s errand. Also, from the very beginning, there were elements within DC and fandom that hated the funny League. Let’s be honest, even a lot of boosters (like me) preferred the book with name characters like Batman and a better balance between serious and comedic, before “The General Glory Year.” People who listen to a JLI podcast are more likely to defend “Breakdowns,” but I think with general audiences, that last year really patted the dirt on the grave of that approach. Looking at the sales numbers from Capitol City Distribution, JL’87 #1 sold 35K, dropped for a couple issues, then grew the audience until JLI#7 outsold the debut and maintained that momentum. Sales peaked with the Millennium tie-in #10 at nearly 41K, then faced attrition through #25– before a sales climb post-Maguire and especially with Adam Hughes’ arrival, nearly returning to 40K with “The Teasdale Imperative.” Sales dropped below 30K once Hughes was gone, and there was little bump from “Breakdowns,” which concluded at #60 at 26K, the lowest sales since the #2-3 drop. However, aside from a modest bump to #61, sales continued to erode throughout the Jurgens run, bottoming out with #68 at 21K. Sales dropped below 20K in the Vado period beginning with #84, and the final Jones issues were nearly 10K. JLE saw more of a bump from the start of “Breakdowns,” but by the end was just above 24K, and six months later barely remained above 20K. It dipped below with #44, and the switch to International branding sank it below 18K. It was down to 12K right before cancellation.

    All this is to say that the Giffen/DeMatteis JLI was still performing at the end, but like a later season sitcom that had run its course. Then Jurgens and Jones tried to take the same characters to The Golden Palace, except make it a drama? Then we had the relative non-starter spin-offs Justice League Task Force and Extreme Justice, which continued the mix of classic heroes with “funny” JLI types not being funny, but diluted by a host of D- listers across all teams. So the question becomes, exactly what counts as the JLI, and does that include the likes of Lionheart, Triumph, Maya, Gypsy, Bloodwynd, Agent Liberty, Ice Maiden, Nuklon, Obsidian, Hourman I, Mystek, Tasmanian Devil, Amazing Man, and the Wonder Twins. Okay, apologies to Derek, but all those who considers Maxima part of the JLI, stand up and say “The Yazz.” As both a fan and retailer, I don’t remember anyone who outright hated the JLI, and really didn’t hear a lot of outrage at the sad state of what the franchise had become after the true “JLI” period. I think the calls may have been coming from inside the house– that fans who held on to their JLI friends across those sad, bitter years internalized their own loathing. If anyone was saying no to the JLI, it was because we were being offered Saturday Night Live Seasons 10-11 and the movie career spin-off of Joe Piscopo when we’d once known Axel Foley, the Blues Brothers, and the Three Amigos. We were getting Ghostbusters 2 starring Jim Belushi, Tim Kazurinsky, and Rich Hall, with Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts getting elevated roles, plus one scene cameos by Ray and Egon (separately) and pre-fame Meg Ryan as the love interest (of, again, the other Belushi.) It’s a thin line between love and hate, and I think Shag was getting Blue Devil in his JLI without actually getting a recognizable Blue Devil or JLI. Perhaps he was his own disassociated hater?

    And then we get back to the elephant in the room: Giffen’s Chromium Age output. Giffen was still a major concern for DC post-JLI, with Lobo and the Eclipso event. Despite the failure of The Heckler, DC offered him his own boutique imprint to keep him from leaving for Image Comics. While Trencher #1 may be the single bestselling Giffen comic (and surely his biggest payday), the reaction to his latest art style was so polarizing, and it was so anachronistic, that nobody wanted to publish it. Giffen continued to write for Image, mostly on Erik Larsen and Rob Liefeld titles, but his post-Trencher profile was a black hole. Topps Kirbyverse and Mars Attacks. Dark Horse Heroes/Comics’ Greatest World. The final issues of Valiant’s Magnus Robot Fighter. Acclaim’s Punx. Penthouse Comix. DC’s The Book of Fate, Tattered Banners, Suicide Squad and Vext. Some of you may have liked a few of these projects, but I doubt many enjoyed most of them, in part because hardly anyone bought them to even try. I did. And I suffered for it. J.M. DeMatteis had a much better decade, because he was able to straddle the mainstream/Vertigo line, and seemed to figure out that his rare solo comedy efforts were not working. Also, he was exclusively doing the thing that he was best at, and Giffen frankly was not, with an increasing bitterness and cynicism overwhelming his output. I can’t speak for anyone else’s journey, but as with JLI, I was continuing to follow a version of Giffen that was falling far short of a prior ideal, which certainly could pollute the reception.

    That said, I was pleased to see most the the JLI team reunite for the 80-Page Giant, and was mostly good with the results, though everything was just a little off. Giffen couldn’t quite get the dialogue right on his own, and as a short it was gag heavy. Maguire had picked up some ’90s quirks that distanced his interpretations from their earlier counterparts, but still looked attractive. Bob Lappan had clearly taken on computer lettering, to mixed results, and the digital coloring had its issues. Still, a cute story, and because it was an early JLA spin-off during my peak fandom while I was working on my first Martian Manhunter webpage, was routinely referenced in this period.

    I also have Justice League Unlimited #43 set aside with my other Martian Manhunter stuff for blogging purposes, which is why the cover was familiar. Umm… it kinda sucked? I guess the premise is fine, if you like the Blue and the Gold, which I do not. It’s intended for younger readers, and the art matches the animated style, with that one multi-figure image of Batman swinging standing out. Funny? No. JLI? Tangentially. A waste of my money? Definitely.

    Oh boy, DC Retroactive: JLA – The ’90s. I was long off the message boards and nowhere near Twitter yet, so my memory of people losing their minds over the indifference to continuity must have been witnessed on the Blogosphere. Heck, maybe I covered it myself, for all I know, as the Flashpoint period was a really breaking point for my interest in the endeavor. Then and now, I’m disappointed in it. The two Super-Buddies mini-series were so much better, and it seemed like the entire creative team and forgotten how to do Fire and Ice. I always saw Booster as the con man and Beetle as the reluctant accomplice, which is flipped in all of these stories. Most of the repeated gags didn’t land the first time. I think maybe Giffen lost the right to do goofy Injustice Gang stories after slaughtering them a few years earlier, but even if he hadn’t, is this the worst of their spotlights? They’re barely in it. I dunno, I just see everybody trying to do a one-off JLI story, and only the trying. Maguire clearly enjoys drawing the monster more than the period JLI again, and I think he wanted the shot at Power Girl that he wasn’t afforded in the original run. Eh. I had to read it again, which means it didn’t take the first time. Like JLU, it reminded me why I forgot.

    I really urge you to cover The Defenders: Indefensible before the show wraps. It’s arguably the last great story by the JLI creative team, and I actually laughed at that one.

    Reply

    1. I definitely second the Defenders suggestion. Great book.

       Reply

19. Oh hey, thanks for the Terminator NOW plug! I think this was its first usage outside Rolled Spine Podcasts. Two episodes are out and the third’s in the can for March…

    Reply

20. I read every issue of Justice League America and Europe in about four months in 2017 in college and I have to say by the end I was getting exhausted. (I remember reading the issue with gnort, john and killowog coming out and thinking “can you imagine waiting a whole month to read about some aliens’ night in town?”) when I found out about the retroactive issue, I read it and.. MORE OF THE SAME, it seemed like the writers were remembering their big moments with no connection to the story (remember Justice League Antarctica? remember Powergirl’s Cat? wasn’t that funny?) and they didn’t even resolve the story… . NOW with the historical distance, knowing that this was the last time giffen, dematteis and maguire got together to write about this group, I can really appreciate this edition like when you reunited with a friend you haven’t seen in a long time and you start to remember the old days

    Reply

21. Giffen and Dematteis also wrote some volumes of the Booster Gold series with Maguire on the covers, are you covering those? Also, I’m going to be controversial, Max being evil in Infinite Crisis doesn’t work because it says he was evil all along, But in Generation Lost, it retcons that his descent into evil happened after his mother’s death in the destruction of Coast City, which I have less difficulty accepting. Giffen co wrote this, Will you cover?

    Reply

22. I feel very proud that my offhanded comment led to the joy that is the Despero in a dollie, maybe more than being on the show itself! Well maybe not that much but it’s still a joy!

    Oh, and the issue you were thinking of was JLE #13 where future Theodore! first meets Pee Gee, though obviously I prefer the Stinky moniker myself. I find it interesting that they chose to add Power Girl to the story out of all the JLE characters, my best guess, beyond just liking the character, like all sensible people, is that she was the most high profile of the lot off the back of her solo series (which has just finished the same month as it happens).

    Reply

    1. I mean yes it’s because Stinky is essential to the plot they chose, but she does tend to show up more often than not in these post-Breakdowns retro versions of the League.

       Reply

23. Well what a delight this episode was. 3 stories!

    Each of the guests did a stellar job as well. I’ll start however with the fact that JT the Exterminator didn’t get to cover the Mouse Story and actually I applaud that decision. Because that meant that there wasn’t a hint of what Boostle and Beeter or whatever their shipping names, should have done. It’s much better for us the readers to glory in their utter incompetency without having to worry about how they SHOULD have done it. That being said I’m sure JT would have played along anyway but having the veggie eating softie Matt cover it probably means it was funnier 🙂 That wasn’t meant as an insult Matt I promise you!

    As to the story itself. I know some question how come Bootle and Bester – still not getting this right – are best buds it seems. But I wager that in real life sometimes folks just click and it’s this story which maybe explains why the pair of them just fall into place so quickly. A similar thing happened to me at work where I’ve got a work friend who almost instantly became an out of office best friend after we got into a few “antics” trying to solve a problem at work. To be clear I’m the one with the Hair Brained Ideas so I guess I’m the Ted in this set up. But I digress… that this also fitted in perfectly with the Nice Guy moment was master story telling and I loved it and the art.

    So for the story that JT did cover this Issue was new to me. I knew that BB had shown up in the DCAU comics in the past but I didn’t realise there had been a spotlight issue with the pair of Blue and Gold. While the story was fun, it felt out of character for Beetle. I always felt he joked around about being a hero but he never thought being a hero was a joke or a way to make money. Booster on the other hand had that reputation – so when I did read this it was almost as if Giffen had distilled the worst parts of Ted to be his core and not his best and it was almost as if the two personalities had been switched. Don’t get me wrong Ted was ALWAYS The trouble maker of the pair of them so that tracks. Anyway it was great to hear JT bring this issue to everyone’s attention and I thank him for it and his enthusiasm!

    Finally the issue I do have in the loft somewhere which has now likely stuck together and have the colours bleed into each page so much that it will resemble a glob of mixed colour playdoh. I recall reading this issue at the time thinking – man this is the wrong paper stock for this. But at the same time I knew DC was about to go Day and Date Digital with the New 52 about to hit and of course the new JLI book there. So I think I read it once and stuck it away for a while. Which became … from then till now I guess as that was the summer of the Twins arrival and everything changed in the house. In some ways it’s sad this was the final time the Trinity of JLI came together on a JLI book – I know we should consider Adam Hughes in there as well but as much as we all love Adam’s art… You never forget you first time… or the first 12 times plus a few other issues until 24 and then 60 and then the 12 issues of Superbuddies. So yes I consider this the Trinity of the JLI with Adam and Bart and the others like filling out the greatest roster of the Justice League.

    I get that there are continuity issues with this but we’ve had during that time (and I’ve checked the maths) Zero Hour, Superboy Punches, Infinite Crisis, (not so) Final Crisis, Blackest Night, Kats and Dougs living together, and Flashpoint. So who exactly knows what is actual continuity now? The story is fun it passes the smell test of “is it cake” sorry I mean Is it JLI ? So who cares? Nerds maybe – but honest where are you going to find a Nerd around these parts?

    Anyway we were here for the Dollies Talk not the comic nonsense and it was glorious. I actually started to go back and count them in previous issues for NO GOOD REASON.

    As this run comes to a close I’m going to miss hearing some of these voices and the new to me voice of Brett, this entire run has been a blast without a single bad guest host – exception being that Jerk who covered JLE 31! It also shows me that class and quality always shines through even if it’s not in fashion at the time because someone decided suddenly we needed to be edgy and grimdark and whatever which the “kewl kidz” might have felt that JLI was something to be discarded as fast as possible the jokes on them because after this glorious JLI run you get… well we all know what you get until Waid and Morrison bring it back.

    I’m reminded of that meme of 2 Astronauts with one Saying “JLI Really is good!” and the other “Always had been”

    Anyway keep up the good work for…. 6 more months!

    1

    Reply

24. This was such a fun episode. I loved getting to hear from three separate guests about these very different, yet familiar kind of stories. I especially enjoyed hearing Matt say “mouse poop” with that sophisticated Scottish elocution. Is it Scottish law that you have to be a fan of Grant Morrison? Kind of like how if you’re from Long Island you have to like Billy Joel. Plus JT, for some reason not being the guest for the mouse story, and Brett who clocks doilies like he works for the royal family in The Crown.

    Anywho, I have never read these. If it wasn’t for this pod, I probably would never have known that these guys had a reunion. These stories must have been a real treat to anyone starved for JLI content.

    The first story was fun, and perhaps it didn’t have the same kind of banter as JLI had with JM doing the script, but it was not something that really stuck out. The fact that no one else at DC seems to see what kind of magic Beetle and Booster are as a comedic duo is beyond me. There should already be a series with 150 issues and 2 films about these guys.

    The best way to describe the 2nd story is that it was cute. The worst thing about it is that it teases us once more about a Beetle and Booster heroes for hire series.

    The gem of this batch is the last story. Oh man is it just packed with JLI goodness or what? Seriously, how are there not a hundred issues like this out there. Reading this had me feeling like these guys didn’t miss a beat.

    The Scott, Guy, Parademon pages….that’s basically my drug. Beetle trying to get out of monitor duty. J’onn and Oberon as the parents to this group. Power Girl and the cat showing up. Just amazing. Really, all they were missing was Gnort.

    My only regret is that I didn’t read this when it came out, so I could experience what it was like to find this years after the initial run ended instead of just a month after finishing Breakdowns.

    Reply

    1. Thanks for the kind words, Chris. I should note, for the record, that my ‘sophisticated Scottish elocution’ is in fact bog-standard northern English mumbling. I may live in Scotland, but I cannot escape my Englishness, even if I mercifully escaped the country itself.

       And it’s not Scottish law to be a fan of Grant Morrison, but it is the law in my house. Each day I make my wife and daughter swear an oath of allegiance to Supergods in front of a shrine to Animal Man #5. As all right-thinking people should.

       Reply

25. Great show, Shag, Matt, JT, and me. Especially the discussion on the “Apokolypse No.” Wow, your guest was so insightful. A truly brilliant conversation covering poker tables, drawing hair, and Darkseid’s breathing issues. It was like the Yalta Conference with slightly more discussion of toilet seats. Just a delight.

    Also, thanks for having me on, Shag, I had a blast!

    Reply

26. I have one mild complaint about your the last episode covering Break Downs being they were doing a wrap up covering their run and relooking at things I though you should have also mirroring it. I felt like I was missing all the segments from character spotlight to Monitor Duty that you originally had.

    Reply