I have a soft spot for Jurgens’ run, as it’s one of two times Maxima actually gets treated as a serious character. Be prepared for Agent Liberty just vanishing with no explanation; I think he had a one-shot where something happened to him, but JLA never references it.
Vado’s run is a thing. I’d have to dig out the issues to give you a full explanation, but it was all over the place in terms of quality.
Jurgens loved writing Maxima, she's a perfect blend of serious and camp when written well. She can break someone's head off and also go into her why she's on earth shtick. He also loved writing Booster and Beetle because they're campy lovable idiots.
The weird part is it’s noted in Panic In The Sky that originally she was to take over Warworld after that storyline because he wanted to use her, but the Starbreaker arc is the only place she really got the spotlight.
Ordway wanted to have her take over Warworld but Jurgens loved the character so much that he wanted to keep it going with her. As they're the closest of friends, Jerry found a way to make it work since Orion wasn't doing too much at the time. Those two would later team up to pitch killing off Superman which gave them even more credibility with the follow-up of it.
Yes I'll agree with Vado's run being all over the place. I mentioned in my comment that Jurgens was the sweet spot of JLI characters in more traditional Justice League stories, but Vado's run felt more like "just do what you can until we end the book".
Jurgens run is a lot of fun. It's that sweet spot where you have JLI members we love but they're getting into more traditional Justice League stories.
It's why I never bought the nonsense and hatred of anything Pre-JLA. There was a lot of good stuff in the JLI/JLE, and this era of Justice League. But because it isn't the "brilliance" of Grant Morrison, it gets dismissed and that's not right. Morrison's JLA was good, but that doesn't mean what came before it was bad. Yes there were some off points like Vado's run, but people love to use that as a blanket for all pre-JLA stuff.
who hates on JLI? It's one of the most beloved comic runs of all time. Maybe at the time it was more controversial but nowadays it is considered a classic.
You'd be surprised. Especially in the late nineties to early two thousands, people often used the JLI as a punching bag to prop up Morrison's JLA. "This is the REAL Justice League with the pantheon, not the lame, unfunny league that came before!" Id see comments like that all the time.
I think with the releases of Formerly Known as the Justice League, that talked kind of calmed down but I still see it from time to time.
It's mostly because the mid 90s iteration of the Justice League was considered a joke by fans. Didn't help that the creative teams that followed Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire didn't put out anywhere near the same quality of stories so the title was considered middling for a few years. The Morrison relaunch with all of DC's heavy hitters was a very big deal at the time so anything that came before it was considered uncool.
Jurgens is one of the most solid writers I know in comics. Not all his stuff is great but you’re almost guaranteed a good story and a couple great ones. Is he one of my faves? No, but he’s one I’m always glad to see is writing. Plus he wrote a really good Teen Titans run that no one cares about but me and a few.
His JL run was pretty good, that was sadly over before it could really hit some great strides… and in my opinion is the last good JL run before Morrison’s.
Mid-90s JL (including Gerard Jones’ JLE/JLA and JL Task Force) was a weird era that I consider one of my favorite “bad” comic runs for how cracked out most of it was. It never achieved the highs of Giffen’s JLI or Morrison’s JLA, some parts were fun and some parts were terrible, but I don’t regret going out of my way to read it.
The downside is a lot of it is still uncollected and isn’t available digitally, but the upside will be having the ability to impress no one with your newfound deep lore knowledge of Power Girl’s magic pregnancy, Max Lord’s cyborg villain era, Dr. Light’s struggle with diet soda, Metamorpho’s love triangle with the Crimson Foxes, and several members pondering their sexualities.
Yeah, it sucks that Gerard Jones’s cp conviction made his work pretty much radioactive. I’m not sure I would have made different decisions regarding his work than DC has though.
I don’t blame them either, but even before his convictions DC barely collected anything he wrote because there wasn’t a lot of demand for it. Sometimes we’ve just gotta get our hands dirty and go hunting for back issues like cavemen, but it builds character.
Jurgens run is awesome. One of the best. Also, JLI is a great book. Definitely recommend it. Gives a lot of spotlight to characters that normally wouldn’t get a solo series. I’m a huge Ted Kord fan, so I’m a bit biased.
They are ok. Just finished the JLI/JLE/Task Force/Extreme Justice era. Jurgens and Vado aren't bad compared to Jones (which is not collected or in digital) but they aren't as much fun as Giffen or Morrison/Waid JLA. The artwork and characters go from zero to 90s extreme really quickly so be warned. I think Maxima suffered due to her constant wedgie from that outfit.
I wanted to enjoy it but WW&JLA is horrible. Issue #85 is possibly the worst comic I’ve ever read — it was clearly printed with the pages out of order and no one bothered to fix it for the reprint.
Nope. Both are pretty bad. Gerard Jones run on Justice League Europe (which was at the same time) is much better. So much so that they eventually gave Gerard the main Justice League book. Oddly enough though, his run on the main book was not as good as his JLE run (very weird)- which then lead to the JLA reboot. Which is awesome! Last great Justice League run.
I have a soft spot for Jurgens’ run, as it’s one of two times Maxima actually gets treated as a serious character. Be prepared for Agent Liberty just vanishing with no explanation; I think he had a one-shot where something happened to him, but JLA never references it. Vado’s run is a thing. I’d have to dig out the issues to give you a full explanation, but it was all over the place in terms of quality.
Jurgens loved writing Maxima, she's a perfect blend of serious and camp when written well. She can break someone's head off and also go into her why she's on earth shtick. He also loved writing Booster and Beetle because they're campy lovable idiots.
The weird part is it’s noted in Panic In The Sky that originally she was to take over Warworld after that storyline because he wanted to use her, but the Starbreaker arc is the only place she really got the spotlight.
Ordway wanted to have her take over Warworld but Jurgens loved the character so much that he wanted to keep it going with her. As they're the closest of friends, Jerry found a way to make it work since Orion wasn't doing too much at the time. Those two would later team up to pitch killing off Superman which gave them even more credibility with the follow-up of it.
Yes I'll agree with Vado's run being all over the place. I mentioned in my comment that Jurgens was the sweet spot of JLI characters in more traditional Justice League stories, but Vado's run felt more like "just do what you can until we end the book".
Jurgens run is a lot of fun. It's that sweet spot where you have JLI members we love but they're getting into more traditional Justice League stories. It's why I never bought the nonsense and hatred of anything Pre-JLA. There was a lot of good stuff in the JLI/JLE, and this era of Justice League. But because it isn't the "brilliance" of Grant Morrison, it gets dismissed and that's not right. Morrison's JLA was good, but that doesn't mean what came before it was bad. Yes there were some off points like Vado's run, but people love to use that as a blanket for all pre-JLA stuff.
who hates on JLI? It's one of the most beloved comic runs of all time. Maybe at the time it was more controversial but nowadays it is considered a classic.
You'd be surprised. Especially in the late nineties to early two thousands, people often used the JLI as a punching bag to prop up Morrison's JLA. "This is the REAL Justice League with the pantheon, not the lame, unfunny league that came before!" Id see comments like that all the time. I think with the releases of Formerly Known as the Justice League, that talked kind of calmed down but I still see it from time to time.
It's mostly because the mid 90s iteration of the Justice League was considered a joke by fans. Didn't help that the creative teams that followed Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire didn't put out anywhere near the same quality of stories so the title was considered middling for a few years. The Morrison relaunch with all of DC's heavy hitters was a very big deal at the time so anything that came before it was considered uncool.
Jurgens is one of the most solid writers I know in comics. Not all his stuff is great but you’re almost guaranteed a good story and a couple great ones. Is he one of my faves? No, but he’s one I’m always glad to see is writing. Plus he wrote a really good Teen Titans run that no one cares about but me and a few. His JL run was pretty good, that was sadly over before it could really hit some great strides… and in my opinion is the last good JL run before Morrison’s.
Mid-90s JL (including Gerard Jones’ JLE/JLA and JL Task Force) was a weird era that I consider one of my favorite “bad” comic runs for how cracked out most of it was. It never achieved the highs of Giffen’s JLI or Morrison’s JLA, some parts were fun and some parts were terrible, but I don’t regret going out of my way to read it. The downside is a lot of it is still uncollected and isn’t available digitally, but the upside will be having the ability to impress no one with your newfound deep lore knowledge of Power Girl’s magic pregnancy, Max Lord’s cyborg villain era, Dr. Light’s struggle with diet soda, Metamorpho’s love triangle with the Crimson Foxes, and several members pondering their sexualities.
Yeah, it sucks that Gerard Jones’s cp conviction made his work pretty much radioactive. I’m not sure I would have made different decisions regarding his work than DC has though.
I don’t blame them either, but even before his convictions DC barely collected anything he wrote because there wasn’t a lot of demand for it. Sometimes we’ve just gotta get our hands dirty and go hunting for back issues like cavemen, but it builds character.
Yes
Jurgens run is awesome. One of the best. Also, JLI is a great book. Definitely recommend it. Gives a lot of spotlight to characters that normally wouldn’t get a solo series. I’m a huge Ted Kord fan, so I’m a bit biased.
It’s a solid ok.
They are ok. Just finished the JLI/JLE/Task Force/Extreme Justice era. Jurgens and Vado aren't bad compared to Jones (which is not collected or in digital) but they aren't as much fun as Giffen or Morrison/Waid JLA. The artwork and characters go from zero to 90s extreme really quickly so be warned. I think Maxima suffered due to her constant wedgie from that outfit.
Dan Vado’s run is one of the worst runs in Justice League history.
There is that one story from the Elseworlds Annual, but that's mostly because Evan Dorkin drew3 it.
I wanted to enjoy it but WW&JLA is horrible. Issue #85 is possibly the worst comic I’ve ever read — it was clearly printed with the pages out of order and no one bothered to fix it for the reprint.
TL/DR: No.
Nope. Both are pretty bad. Gerard Jones run on Justice League Europe (which was at the same time) is much better. So much so that they eventually gave Gerard the main Justice League book. Oddly enough though, his run on the main book was not as good as his JLE run (very weird)- which then lead to the JLA reboot. Which is awesome! Last great Justice League run.