Hello I promised two threads with Grand Morrison, and let's talk about his FIRST BIG mainstream comic, JLA!

HISTORICAL CONTEXT, now it's hard to think about now but before this comic the full big 7 JLA team had been non-existent since about 1985! Almost 10 years without the Justice League being made up of it's big guns.

A long time and this was going to change a lot of people felt that Justice League was just another team book now, it was a long time since the Giffer/Demattais glory days and while I like the characters it was made of c-listers.

DC and Grant felt a change was in order and so got set to actually make the Justice League feel grand again. MYTHIC was the name of the game and So somehow they got the Batman offices to play along(this was the biggest problem) and we were OFF!

Grant did innovate in this run but kind of creating what would be known as the widescreen action superhero comic, there was a huge focus on splash pages, action and minimal use of gutters. TWO PAGE SPREAD!

This was a huge movement in comics and would lead to comics being more adapted to trade, like I said this was a big deal at the time. It influenced a lot of creators and now I have to talk about the Authority. I will try not to make this too awkward.

So the Authority came from Warren Ellis who recently has been caught into huge controversy and this is not the thread for that. This is only going to talk about influence here and honestly I rather wait for a bit before I cover this.

Now Warren was clearly looking at JLA when making the Authority and basically based it around taking out superhero conventions like you know not killing and CHANGING THE STATUS QUO! What it boils down to is the Authority is a Hollywood action movie.

It's a good popcorn comic, though this comic couldn't keep up the momentum it started. The Authority started to run into problems with changing the status quo and making the setting a little not very relatable.

Now not be down on the Authority it introduced a mainstream gay couple into comics, Bryan Hitch debuts his most well know style and the run is fun. But it is popcorn. The problem with the comic is that it's episodic in a way that leaves it feeling hollow now.

Sure it changes things, but subplots and character development stop in this run. You had to read the previous Stormwatch run for any of that so I can't really recommend this run without reading that.

Because like I said it's an action movie comic that is about ENDING THINGS rather then longterm development. It was different at the time but it ran into the PUNISHER PROBLEM. Which will be another thread entirely.

To sum it up the problem is this the Punisher is more suited to limited or TIGHTLY planed runs or one shots, he doesn't support long term storytelling well and you really have to think about him. This caused issues with his 90's era but moving back JLA holds up well.

many people read All Star Superman by Grant, or other comics and a LOT OF HIS MAINSTREAM comics tie back to this run. In fact this RUN BROUGHT BACK CLASSIC ELEMENTS OF THE DCU!

Here's a list of the LORE JLA brought back.
*the JSA
*Animalman
*the big 7
*Sandman being part of the DCU
*Jemm son of saturn.

but if your a fan of dc MANY GRANT SUBPLOTS START HERE! Here are the comics that SPRING FROM THIS RUN! THERE IS MORE THEN THIS, BUT THIS IS THE TIP OF THE BOOKS THAT HAVE THERE ROOTS HERE!

*But isn't All star superman an alternate universe.
You will shut up now. You don't know Hypertime like I do. This is not the thread for hypertime.

Anyway Grants run is very important for a lot of reasons. For one it did WONDER for Kyle Rayner's rep as a GL. One thing that was nice about Kyle since he was the rookie in this era he made a good character for new readers.

He made sure to make EACH member look badass. No one really jobs hard. For one it gave us the INFINITE MASS PUNCH! Which should be the finisher for every Flash ever.

Grant didn't limit it though. You see he had a plan, to make the Justice League feel like MOUNT OLYMPUS, I'm not kidding he chose this expanded lineup here and EACH ONE WOULD STAND IN FOR a god.

So instead of big 7 we big 14 or so. He use this expanded lineup actually VERY well. Everyone gets a major moment and honestly everyone is fun. Plastic man is actually a major highlight on the team.

I will admit though there are several flaws of the run mostly relating to events in other books. So let's go over the weird stuff that you as a non dc lore person will encounter.

Superman's powers and costume change for a bit. Grant for his part is the only writer TO REALLY take advantage of this and have use the gravity of the moon, and other inventive uses. He also fights an Angel because why not.

Wonder Woman at one point is REPLACED by her Mom as Wonder Woman, there was a story where Diana was going to die and this happened. It's not a huge issue but it's easy to forget they are different characters.

Walter West, this is in a fill in issue but people tend to read it with the main run anyway. Walter West was a dark future Flash who took over for Regular Wally for a bit. It didn't last long and it was one issue.

the Fill in issues, there are a bunch but not a lot. Look some of them are written by Waid but this was before he had twitter. Honestly one of the best arcs is by him so keep that in mind. The Spectre issue is also killer.

but this run Fixed Adam Strange after a 90's series and Alan Moore kind of fucked him up yes again Waid did this bit but man the balls it takes to fix an Alan Moore retcon. Then again Alan said himself it was a terrible idea.

Grant did one of the only Sandaman focus stories after the series finished. This one finished some subplots and also gave Kyle an iconic moment. very good story.

Finished up some subplots from the rather underratted Captain Atom series from the late 80's. This introduced a version of the Shaggy man who was actually smart and MORE DANGEROUS..

The Justice Society returns and this story gives them a crossover that is one of my favorite DC comics series of all time and I miss it. It was nice to have them in the spotlight because they got fucked over in the mid 90's.

Supervillain prison breaks are one of those stories that is always usually pretty good and with Grant and his love of WEIRD SILVER AGE stuff we get a fun lead into Grant's Last arc.

The last arc FEELS like a crossover without the bullshit. It's easy enough to read if your paying attention and is a fun romp.

Look at one point to free Lex Luthor of mind control, Kyle just tells hims he is being outsmarted. This run is so much fun.

Two Flaws to note before going in not just the lore stuff, Batgod is in play and if your annoyed by that it's here but it's also not the worst it could be but some people get annoyed.

Also do yourself a favor and read AZTEK the ultimate man. This tragically cancelled comic has it's plots wrapped up in JLA and it's major in two stories, the run is NOT long so do yourself a favor and just read it as part of the run.

and those are the small thing problems the ONE MAJOR THING one is DC one million. This important story is not the easiest thing to read because of it's dense crossover nature but it's fun? I also have the omnibus and could kill someone with it.

This run inspired the Justice League cartoons in the DCAU and this is one of the runs that I come back to every couple years. This run showed the old school heroes could still have a major impact, the Justice League can be mythic again.