Pros: Dwayne McDuffie....and that's it in the "pros" column. Pulling McDuffie on board as writer of JLA is this fan's dream come true as McDuffie wrote some good stuff when he was on the 'toon version of Justice League.Cons: Ed Benes. He can draw, sure, but looks like he went to the Jim Lee School of Static Art. Lots of "poses" and not much fluid movement. I almost decided to drop JLA from my trade collecting because of him but decided to give Dwayne McDuffie a chance first. I'm beginning to regret my decision. Gratuitous ass shots, boob shots. Damn, McDuffie deserves a better penciller! Benes didn't design Black Canary's and Wonder Woman's costume, I know, but can he pose them less like pin-up models and more like super heroines? I much prefer Mike McKone's pencils on the Wedding Special included here as the first chapter.
Though I welcome Dwayne McDuffie as the new writer of JLA, I have to concede that the tales collected here aren't his best. Luthor forms the "Injustice League Unlimited" (ugh!) and kidnaps several of the JLAers, including Batman...how the hell did that happen?, but not before ambushing and almost killing the new Firestorm. I thought they had killed him (Cheetah sure thought so) but he turns up alive and well later on. Superman and Black Lightning goes to the rescue, Batman frees himself and the rest of his captured teammates and they all beat up the bad guys. It ends with Batman shanghai-ing Firestorm into joining the League.
My overall opinion of this collection? Meh. Not as bad as the last JLA trade collection but not very good on its own either. Slightly disappointed with McDuffie but I think I'll wait for the next JLA collection before deciding to continue or drop the title for good.
