Justice Leagues: JL? # 1 - Justice Leagues Part I: Twighlight's Last Gleaming

Introducing the Advance Man! If you've seen the original, classic Lethal Weapon directed by Richard Donner, and Under Siege, starring Steven Seagal, then you might agree with me that the Advance Man has all the menace of Gary Bussey at the top of his game. The toughness of his character in Lethal Weapon, so tough that he can stand the flame from a lighter on his forearm; the bad@$$ from Under Siege, where he throws his weight around the galley, dresses in drag, and basically chews scenery like a goat blazing a lawn-trail! That movie is Gary Bussey and Tommy Lee Jones just on fire, while Steven Seagal cruises on zen autopilot. The Advance Man makes a spectacular entrance at the Star City airport, harassing a fellow passenger before causing a major catastrophic air disaster. He manages to elude the Justice League when they arrive to avert the disaster quite easily before making his way to Hector Hammond's cell.

The League are frustrated that the Advance Man is toying with their teleportation signals, bouncing them all over the globe. Aquaman is particularly enraged by the Advance Man's audacity.
 
In Hammond's cell, the Advance Man gives the mentalist the golden opportunity to destroy the Justice League by broadcasting a worldwide message to forget the Justice League of America. The first step in his plan for his client Plura is to divide, then conquer. When Hammond realizes that the plan ultimately leads to the extinction of all life on Earth, he sends a follow up message to remember the Justice League of A- ! The Advance Man explodes into his Bussey, and beats Hammond senseless before moving on to the next stage of the plan.

At the Daily Planet, a headline reading JLA Defeats Dr. Destiny is unreadable. Clark Kent has been writing Justice League of A all over his notepad during the meeting.

Stewing on his throne in Atlantis, Aquaman summons a school of fish to form the letters JLA; while in the desert, J'onn J'onzz believes he is going mad for carving JLA into the ground, in what could be a nod to symbols carved by aliens. 

Soon, Wonder Woman convenes the first meeting of the Justice League of Amazons with Barda, The Huntress, Power Girl, Supergirl and Zatanna!

While this is not a as groundbreaking or earth-shattering as the three-issue Justice League: A Midsummer's Nightmare, Justice League: Year One, or even JLA: Incarnations, Tom Peyer has crafted a pretty tight, amusing story focusing on the teamwork dynamic of the Justice League. If you've read and enjoyed JLA: Liberty and Justice by Paul Dini and Alex Ross, or Ross' Justice, like me, this story features the same teamwork, until it is fragmented. If you're as much a fan of Ethan Van Sciver as I am this issue is a delight. His Aquaman is a little creepy, his Plastic Man zany; Zatanna and Supergirl are a little flat as far as dimensions are concerned - Z's top hat just looks all wrong somehow. His Power Girl, though, looks like she was modeled after Carla Guigno! Really, this is what comics should be all about, a thrilling story that is both fun and entertaining. I don't bandy about the word rollickin' too often, but I just might apply that term to this issue. This could be just one too many JLA story featuring an alien invasion, but it is fresh and different approach to the concept. The focus is not so much on the Advance Man or his plan of human extinction - we don't even see his client Plura -  but, on how the League re-forms. Answering the question, "A Justice League of what?"

This story continues in Justice League of Amazons 1.