DC COMICS' GREATEST SUPER TEAM!
04/24/2006

When I first started reading comics in the early 1970's, I was almost exclusively a Marvel fan and didn't read many DC comics at all. I was lucky enough to have an older brother who as a big DC can and among the books in his collection was a full run of Justice League of America from #50 through #120. Reading his comics (when he wasn't around, of course) was my introduction to one of the great superhero teams of all time and I ended up becoming a big fan. The Justice League companion is a 45th anniversary celebration of the team as well as a fascinating and informative tome of JLA lore.

Eury begins with a FAQ section with answers supplied primarily by JLA creator Julius Schwartz that was culled from interviews with the legendary DC editor. Julie tells how the birth of the JLA came out of the popular success of the revivals of Golden Age characters The Flash and Green Lantern. JLA would be a revival of the Justice Society with Schwartz changing the name from "society" to "league". Schwartz goes on to explain why certain members were either included or excluded into the team's membership and the battle with Superman and Batman editors over how much those characters should be utilized in the JLA title. Schwartz also discusses the various JLA/JSA crossovers and the creation of Earth 2. In an interesting bit of trivia, he relates that calling the world of the JSA Earth 2, even though its characters came first, was simply an oversight!

In an exclusive interview that Eury conducted in 2004, Stan Lee recounts how his boss, Martin Goodman, mandated that Stan create a super team to compete with the very popular Justice League, and thus came up with the Fantastic Four.

One of the most interesting interviews in the book was with Roy Thomas and Jerry Bails, the creators of one of the earliest, and certainly most famous fanzines, Alter-Ego, in the early 1960's. His work on the fanzine, and the connections he made in the comic industry would eventually lead Thomas to Marvel in the mid-1960s where he would become their top writer and later Editor-in-Chief. Thomas and Bails discuss those early years and their correspondences with people like Schwartz and Murphy Anderson and how some of their early ideas were incorporated into the JLA.

Thomas also talks about the secret JLA/Avengers cross-over (sort of) that took place in Avengers # 70 and Justice League #75. Thomas created the Squadron Sinister with a team of villains based on JLA members, while Denny O' Neil did, as I recall, a Halloween story in which the JLA encounter somewhat altered versions of the Avengers Thor & Captain America...and Captain Marvel, although curiously it was the Fawcett Captain Marvel. Other interviews in the book include Murphy Anderson, Denny O' Neil, and Mike Friedrich.

The book is simply loaded with valuable information about the JLA, although the info is limited to the Silver Age. It includes a timeline of all super teams created in the Silver Age from the Black Hawks in 1957 to the Defenders in 1971. There is also a splendid index to every JLA/JSA crossover of the Silver Age including a full cover gallery. Eury also includes Bios on those artists and writers who worked on the JLA in the Silver Age including Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky. Neal Adams, Murphy Anderson, Schwartz, O' Neil, and all the rest. One of my favorite things in the book is the alternate covers of various comics. For example one shows the cover to Fantastic Four #1 but with the JLA battling the gargantuan creature instead of the FF. Another features a JLA cover with the Avengers.

Michael Eury did a fantastic job on this book. His interviews were informative and lively and the wealth of information is just astounding. A must have for fans of the Justice League.

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