matt4hire's review

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4.0

This book's got some fun stories, especially the story where Metamorpho goes off to find his kid. The one downside is the awful, awful art by Bart Sears, who never met an anatomy he couldn't screw up.

bstratton's review

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2.0

I hadn’t read these in 20 years. They have not aged well. The jokes are more miss than hit, the superheroing is an afterthought, and it’s just absurdly horny.

doctorwoofwoof's review

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3.0

I've been enjoying this trip down Memory Lane. The 80s were a fun time, especially the comics! I remember I couldn't get enough "Bwa-hahahaha", i.e. anything JLI, JLA, or JLE-related, in my life! When they brought then-newcomer Adam Hughes on as artist, JLA got turned out up to 11! Unfortunately, this was not that volume; that's the next volume)!

When I think back to this point in the 80s, the fun times, laugh riot that was the JLA brings a great amount of joy to my collective consciousness. I can't even remember anything I didn't like about any of the stories in the run. Then, I started reading Vol. 5..

So, yeah, the characters were still great fun! I miss the fun Wally West/Flash! :( Giffen and DeMatteis continued to churn out some of the funniest JLA stories! The JLEurope ones weren't AS funny as the JLAmerica/JLI stories were, but still fun nonetheless.

Now, the art? OOF! That's a whole other thing! I don't recall disliking it when I first read the issues in the 80s. I can recall meeting Bart Sears at a comic shop signing around the time of the series debut, and I thought he was friendly and likeable.

However, after this re-visit, I am disappointed to say that I found Sears' art to be not as enjoyable. The characters, both male and female, looked distorted and, in some cases, wicked muscular. And the facial expressions? Um, NO! Yeah, the art was enough of a disappointment that I almost gave it 2 Stars.

The saving grace of this TPB was the last story, from JLI Annual #3, "Around the World with the Justice League". Not only was it the first appearance of the island of Kooeykooeykooey, but it also featured some knockout pencils from Mike McKone and even more stellar inks from Bruce D. Patterson! if memory serves, the team of McKone-Patterson continued to do the annuals for the remainder of the JLI/JLA run.

It's not a perfect TPB, but again, the writing was on target, and the art in the last part of the book was pretty solid. Overall, you can read it, but it won't wow ya! Jus' sayin'...
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