Graphic Novel Review: JLA The Greatest Stories Ever Told

Being a Green Lantern fan that I am, I bought and read Green Lantern The Greatest Stories Ever Told and was pleased with the stories it contains. So I thought I might as well get JLA The Greatest Stories Ever Told. JLA stands for Justice League of America, sometimes known just as the Justice League. JLA or Justice League of America is a comic published by DC Comics. It’s a superhero team made up of the biggest names in DC like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and the list goes on. The list is not permanent. From time to time, some members leave while new characters join. The comic has been entertaining its readers from the sixties to the present.

So JLA The Greatest Stories Ever Told is a compilation of some of the best stories or adventures of the team. Although I would have to say that the term “best” is subjective, I found a way to appreciate this compilation of comics.

I guess one of my biggest expectations from this book is to read the original issue where this team or group of superheroes comes together and becomes a team. I’m talking about The Brave and the Bold #28 from 1960. I’d really love to read that original story. The initial story of the team that was included in this book was from number 200 with the title “Origin”. It was a story of how its founding members came together to fight the invading alien forces and formally establish the group.

Well, the short origin story gave way to other pages where interesting stories are completed. Stories like “The super exiles of the Earth”, “Snapper Carr-Traitor” and “The great identity crisis”, among others. Each of these stories (eight stories in all, including “Origin”), had some key events in the team’s long history which included revealing each member’s secret identities to each other, betrayal by one of their members, overcoming themselves, transitioning with their new members and heeding advice that could be the key to saving the world from total alien domination.

Among these stories, I think the best I’ve ever read was “Star-Seed.” It originally appeared in JLA Secret Files #1, September 1997. The story was written by Grant Morrison and Mike Millar. In the story, Blue Valley was attacked by an alien threat. Flash was the first to address the situation, but he was also among the first to fall under the invader’s control. Superman called a meeting with Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter when the alien invader made it public that they were out to take over the world. During their planning process, The Specter intervened and warned them not to get involved. However, superheroes were

reluctant to take unsolicited advice, so the Specter gave them a vision of what would come should they go through with their plan. The result of their action would be that they would fall under the control of the alien threat. And being the super-powered being that they are, the rest of the world was no match for them. Seeing the likely outcome, they came up with a solution: penetrate enemy territory stripped of their superpowers. without their powers, they would be less of a threat if they did in fact come under control. Despite being powerless, the group managed to subdue the alien threat, keeping the world safe again.

Once again, there are eight stories in this compilation book, and each story offers a different perspective and point of view (as interpreted by the respective creative writers of each story) on the lives of these great superheroes. Aside from the great stories, like comics, each story also featured great art from great artists who had shared their talent on every page.