JLA: Year One #12 - Dec. 1998

"Justice For All" by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Barry Kitson.

We have (finally!) reached the conclusion to the epic JLA: Year One series, with the Apellax aliens prepared to square off against not only the still-wet-behind-the-ears Justice League, but the throng of other super-powered heroes who were kept as prisoners.

Each of the JLAers have spread out across the globe to deal with the threat, teaming up with different groups of heroes. Aquaman is in the ocean (of course), alongside The Sea Devils and Animal Man:

The battle is so massive it spreads to the ectoplasmic plane, where The Spectre and Wotan have teamed up(!) to fight back the forces of evil. Wotan, being Wotan, uses this as an opportunity to sabotage The Spectre as well, but the Ghostly Avenger is one step ahead, and turns the spiritual tables on him. 

The fight goes on, threatening to engulf the planet. The real mastermind behind all this, Vandal Savage, has a weapon that can pierce the minds of the Apellax aliens and kill them. The League does not want to kill anyone, even alien forms, so Martian Manhunter takes control of it, using his powerful telepathic powers to stop the aliens, but not kill them. It takes extraordinary effort, and the rest of the team make like The Guardians of the Galaxy and joins hands, so they can take some of the mental load from their colleague:

The plan works, with the aliens being sent back. That leaves a giant mob of heroes, with sore fists and pounding heads. Superman takes this moment to congratulate the JLA and offers himself up to help out whenever he's needed. But first he has to get back to his day job:

Not The End!

Well, it only took a little less than two years, but we have finally concluded the Shrine's look back at the JLA: Year One maxi-series. I didn't read this at the time, so I was discovering it as I read it for these posts and it was a lot of fun. Of course, with only five founding members in the post-Crisis continuity, Aquaman got a lot more to do, and for that I am always grateful. Writer Mark Waid, of course, was the guy who gave us the "I command 3/4ths of the planet" line in Kingdom Come, a piece of iconography that has followed Aquaman to this day. And there were definitely moments in this series where I felt like Waid was really enjoying writing the Sea King in action, something he really hasn't had much chance to do, before or since.

Of course, all this retconning now now been unretconned, and the JLA has been restored to the classic seven, in one iteration or another. Thankfully, Aquaman has been part of every one of those iterations, and so on into infinity.


This post marks a bit of a change with the Shrine, starting in a couple of weeks. After we review Aquaman #40 next Saturday, we'll actually start taking some time off. After eight and a half years of daily posts, I want to lighten my blogging load a bit. So while we'll still be covering every new issue of Aquaman, the Convergence books, etc., if there's a week off for Aquaman, we'll be taking a week off too. I need to go outside, at least occasionally!

JLA: Year One #11 - Nov. 1998

"Stalag Earth" by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Barry Kitson.

The aliens seen launching their attack in the last issue of JLA: Year One have enacted a systematic plan to rid the Earth of all its super-powered champions. Starting with Superman, it was all downhill from there: we see the aliens kidnap The Atom, Hawkman, the Metal Men, Johnny Quick, Dr. Mid-Nite, The Blackhawks, all of whom find themselves in:

The JLA tries to fight off the rampaging Appellax champions in Metropolis, but they are simply outmatched. Making a tough decision, they abandon the city and move on to Midway City, which they hope they can hold:

The team learns that Vandall Savage and his team used the Martian Manhunter's dossiers on all of the Earth's superheroes to figure out just how to attack them. Aquaman learns from his finny friends that their fellow heroes are being held prisoner, and where. The Flash formulates a plan which involves allowing themselves to be captured by some of Appellaxians, and taken to the gulag.

It's there that their plan is revealed: by disguising themselves as each other, they free the shackles placed on them by the Appellaxians and return the kidnapped heroes' weapons:

To be concluded!

I find it a little hard to believe Batman could be held by any prison, no matter how advanced and well fortified, but maybe he was playing possum to see if the Justice League could do the job. That kinda seems like something he would do.

Waid's characterization of Aquaman continues to evolve, in this issue he's still a fairly serious dude but he can kid around a bit and seems to genuinely like his teammates. Bonus points for the Fish Intel, too.

JLA: Year One #10 - Oct. 1998

"Heaven and Earth" by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Barry Kitson.

Last issue of JLA: Year One ended with the team distrusting the Martian Manhunter, whom they mistakenly thought was in control of some nefarious machine. Stumbling into the situation, it all goes wrong, and suddenly the sky is filled with fire:

Green Lantern and the others accuse J'onn of the being the eighth Apellaxian alien, and working to change the planet's environment to better suit them. But in the middle of the argument, Aquaman is blasted in the back by a small army of armed alien invaders!

J'onn attacks the machine, risking his life by being engulfed in flames, eventually destroying it. The sky of fire dies out, and along with it, the aliens. The JLA realize they've been wrong, but it may be too late: J'onn looks as though he is dying.

The JLA, enraged, follow the Locus soldiers via a teleportation beam back to their HQ. After a few minutes of a pitch battle, however, J'onn recovers and is able to help, but not before Locus' final stroke is enacted: a worldwide tectonic shift that will reconfigure Earth's landmasses and destroy all life!

The Flash, the all-but-official leader of the team, sends Green Lantern into space to try and stop the shift. While Aquaman, Black Canary, and J'onn continue to fight off the aliens, The Flash tries to reverse the program. He eventually does, while J'onn probes the aliens' minds, which trips a "fatal neuroshock", killing them all. It's...over?

A little while later, the team discusses what happened. They are still mad at J'onn for "spying" on them in their civilian lives, but come to realize it's mostly just because they really don't know one another, despite on depending on each other for their lives:

The rest of the team follows suit, but this detente is interrupted by a beaten and bruised Snapper Carr (unfortunately not dead), who tells the JLA that it is his Uncle Simon who is the missing, unknown alien. The Norad Alert goes off, and the JLA see now the scope of the plan:

To be continued!

By design, this issue is more about Martian Manhunter, with Aquaman mostly getting just to punch a bunch of aliens. That being said, writer Waid never forgets to have the Sea King be a major presence in every scene, which is always appreciated!

JLA: Year One #9 - Sept. 1998

"Change the World" by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Barry Kitson.

After Simon Carr wakes up from a dream--a nightmare, really--involving the Apellax aliens, we join The Flash, who is hanging out late at night at the Secret Sanctuary along with Snapper. The Flash is concerned that J'onn J'onnz's "betrayal" of the team will permanently break up the group, but his glum thoughts are interrupted by an emergency, spotted on the news by Snapper. The Flash sends out the JLA signal:

Three similar disturbances have popped up in the North Polar Icecaps, the Mariana Trench, and the California Redwoods. This, of course, necessitates the JLA to break up into groups, leaving the situation in California for later. As they take off, they resolve to worry about their missing teammate later. Seconds later, Snapper sees that J'onn was there all along, using his invisibility.

Flash and Black Canary encounter one of the Locus Agents, who have been promising global armageddon. They destroy the machine he was using to melt the ice caps, and take off for California. After a brief interlude with Vandal Savage, we find the other JLAers underwater:

Back at the Sanctuary, Snapper gets violently by his Uncle--my favorite scene in a JLA comic in a long time. Over in California, the four heroes reunite, and spot--J'onn J'onnz, manning some sort of vast machine!

The JLA act first, think later, and gang up on J'onn. The Flash sets off a fire--using J'onn's main weakness against him. J'onn tries to get a warning to his former teammates out, but they won't listen. The fire grows, because the machine--that J'onn was attempting to turn off--was designed to do just that:

To be continued!

I have to say, it really bothered me to watch the JLAers beat up on J'onn. After reading this characters in this context for so many decades, it just felt so very wrong. On the other end of the spectrum, it was nice to see Aquaman lighten up a bit, and have a laugh at Green Lantern's expense. And any comic that features Snapper Carr's face smashed and bloody is a good one.

JLA: Year One #8 - Aug. 1998

"Loose Ends" by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Barry Kitson.

As the plot to take over the world and destroy the JLA continues apace, the League members are dealing with the sting of rejection from The Man of Steel. Green Lantern in particular takes it in stride:

Aquaman points out that Superman dealt with one of the Apellax meteors that the League didn't know about...so who's to say there aren't more out there? Right on cue, Snapper Carr tells the heroes that, according to some NASA data he hacked, there was an eighth!

The JLA goes to search for it, with Green Lantern in particular acting strange. He's rude to both Flash and Aquaman in particular:

Hal continues to be a jerk, even in his civilian life back at Ferris Aircraft, ordering his pal Tom around. Green Arrow (who shows up to help find the meteor) thinks Lantern is just being a big baby, sore about being turned down by Superman. Meanwhile, Snapper is doing some work in one of the Secret Sanctuary's Jeffries Tubes, and discovers...a spy!

He brings photos of the spy to the team, but the mysterious invader looks different each time one of the JLAers takes a look at the film Snapper recorded. Turns out it's...the Martian Manhunter? The others smash their way into J'Onn's room, and find something even more disturbing:

As if things aren't bad enough, outside the man who has been having visions of the world ending is trying to reach the JLA, believing they are the only ones that can stop it. But he is shot to death by Snapper's Uncle Simon, who is part of the conspiracy itself! To be continued!

It's interesting to see how Mark Waid borrowed from itself: in a year or two he would have Batman be the one keeping files on his JLA teammates in the "Tower of Babel" storyline, though of course at this point in the storyline we don't know to what ends J'Onn has for all the snooping. That said, if I had been J'Onn and Snapper had talked to me like he did on page 20, I would have Martian Heat Visioned the little punk and called it a day.

I liked the moment of Aquaman telling Green Lantern off; it's true to the character and while it not make him Mr. Popular, it only underlines of the reasons I like him so much as a hero.

JLA: Year One #5 - May 1998

"A League Divided" by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Barry Kitson.

In the small town of Manchester, Alabama, the local citizenry is watching TV and reading newspaper reports about this new team of heroes called the Justice League of America. One of them wonders if the JLA would ever show up in their town, but that idea is dismissed, because nothing ever happens in their town.

As if on cue, two members of The Brotherhood of Evil start attacking, turning everyone into giant dismembered blobs of purple goo! So, where is the Justice League?

Green Lantern and Aquaman head back to the Secret Sanctuary, having sent out a signal for the others to meet them there. Aquaman wonders why they haven't offered Green Arrow membership yet (oh, he'll regret that idea). Black Canary arrives last, wanting to talk about something: are any of the JLAers married? J'Onn tells the sad story of his life on Mars, causing the rest to become speechless.

Meanwhile, The Doom Patrol gets wind of what's happened in Manchester, and head there. The JLA does too, and on the way The Flash asks Canary about her marriage inquiry. She tells him that she recently learned her mother had an affair with a married member of the JSA, and she wants to make sure that does not repeat itself with the JLA.

The JLA arrives in Manchester, much to the chagrin of the Doom Patrol:

Both teams are attacked by a small army of the purple monsters, with Martian Manhunter telling the rest that via his telepathy he has learned these creatures are innocent members of the town, not able to control what they're doing. Green Lantern manages to contain them all, followed by The Brotherhood of Evil showing themselves.

The JLA arrogantly attack them head on, ignoring the warnings of the Doom Patrol. The Monsieur Mallah blasts them with the same weapon he used on the townsfolk, hitting all but Aquaman: 

...U-oh! To be continued!

Another fun issue, even if everyone is still mostly squabbling. Green Lantern's comment, referring to themselves as "First Stringers" (as opposed to the DP), is a nice touch, showing that at times Hal can be a real dick.


Black Canary's worry about the men of JLA having affairs is also interesting; I like the idea that she's very focused on the legacy aspect of her super hero identity, and wants to maintain a certain moral standard. Is that why, in the old classic Justice League book, Ollie or Dinah were always shown sleeping on the couch when they stayed over each other's place?

JLA: Year One #4 - April 1998

"While You Were Out..." by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Barry Kitson.

The newly-formed Justice League, in the middle of a squabble that passes for a meeting, discover what they think is an intruder:

We follow each of the JLAers in their civilian identities, starting with Hal "Green Lantern" Jordan, who gets caught by Carol Ferris flirting with another woman. Meanwhile, at the local Ocean World exhibit:

But there's some grim stuff brewing: we're also following the travails of the original Blue Beetle, who is being pursued by two mysterious baddies. They catch up to him, beat him up, and drag him into their van.

Barry "The Flash" Allen tries to keep a dinner date with his fiancee Iris, Dinah "Black Canary" Lance attends a party hosted by her mother's former JSA compatriots, and J'onn Jonzz (in his human form) continues his work as a police detective.

Meanwhile, at a secret location, we see that Blue Beetle is undergoing horrific experiments by his kidnappers. They are joined by another set of baddies, ones we're all more familiar with: 

...U-oh! To be continued!

After's last issue being almost entirely character-centric, it only made sense for this fourth installment to ramp up the story in several ways. Though I have to say, I wish these uniformed thugs would kidnap Snapper Carr and torture him. Then again, no one would care, so I guess it makes sense for Mark Waid to make the victim a legendary hero.

Aquaman continues to be kind of a d-bag in this series, but it makes sense in context; it's no wonder he had such a bad reputation in the post-Crisis, pre-New 52 DCU.