Who Was Who Is Who #19

So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, I'm going to go through all my copies of Who's Who and see if I can predict who will make it over to the new DCU by the end of 2012, who might make it and who hasn't got a Helix's chance.

GUNNER & SARGE - again, an example of those characters that a year or so ago you'd never have expected to see in a mainstream DC title. However, with DC still going for war titles even after Men of War didn't make the cut, it wouldn't surprise me if they turned up before 2012 finished. They're going in the possible column.

Global Guardians #1 - Who's Who?

Back last year, I had some great fun - okay, some of it wasn't that great - looking back over two incarnations of the Justice League, specifically the much derided Justice League Detroit and the mostly forgotten but should be remembered and derided a bit more Jurgens League.

While I was wondering where to go next, commenter Jeremy Patterson wrote:

"How about instead of looking at another League, let's try to focus on some of the 'lesser light' superteams of the DCU, either:


*  A look at one of DC's two attempts at revamping the MLJ heroes: The early 1990s Impact Comics or the 2009-2010 attempt to integrate them into the DCU. (With 'New Crusaders' coming in 2012, it is time to take a look at the subject!).


*  Or at the many attempts to give focus to the Global Guardians, as the Global Guardians seemed to have never existed at all in the DCnU, so it is intriguing to see what went wrong with the G.G.!"

Having never read any of the Impact / Red Circle comics, I decided to go with Jeremy's second suggestion and take a look at the Global Guardians.

Please . . . try to contain your excitement.

Justice League Detroit Redux - JLA Incarnations

JLA INCARNATIONS #5, written by John Ostrander with art by Val Semeiks, Kevin Conrad and Prentis Rollins.

As seen last week, the Justice League Detroit's original run came to an end with Justice League of America #261. By the end of that issue, Vibe and Steel were dead, Gypsy had reunited with her family and Vixen had resigned. While both women would continue adventuring over the years (Gypsy even re-joining the Justice League in the form of the Task Force) it would be fourteen years or so before the full Detroit League were seen again.

In JLA Incarnations, John Ostrander wrote single issue tales of the Leagues various line-ups and, in #5, he dealt with the Detroit League during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Justice League Detroit - Rebirth

Over the next few weeks on a Tuesday, I'll be working my way through the Justice League of America titles from 1985 to 1987, trying to work out if the Justice League Detroit era really was as bad as we think it was. Why? Why the hell not.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #233 - #236, Rebirth, Parts 1 to 4, written by Gerry Conway with art by Chuck Patton, Bill Anderson, Mike Machlan and Rick Magyar.

Picture the scene: you're Gerry Conway, you've just relaunched DC Comics' flagship team title in its recent annual and you need a storyline worthy of you're new team, something that will stretch them and prove that they are worthy of being known as the Justice League.

You start your first issue with a one page prologue, showing an ancient disaster, hinting that something or someone was behind the extermination of some of the first complex life forms ever to evolve on Earth billions of years ago. It's not a bad start - a foreshadowing of what's to come.

And then you have your first two-page spread, pages 2 and 3 of issue #233. What are you going to do, how will you introduce your new heroes, the new League?