Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "all-ages"

Justice League Adventures Vol. 2: Friends and Foes by Adam Beechen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Friends and Foes collects five issues from DC's Justice League Adventures Comics published from 2002-2004. The kid-friendly digest plays off the success of the original Justice League Series featuring the original seven Justice League members. This collects a sort of "best of" digest with issues #13-14, #16, #19, and #20.

The stories contained live up to the kid-friendly label. However, the quality varies quite a bit.

"Local Hero" is my favorite story in this collection In it, a teenage girl who is a local small-town Superhero named All-Star who impresses the Green Lantern who offers her a chance to fill in for him while he has some duties in deep space. All-Star is practically floating on air as she gets a chance to fight on the same side as some of Earth's greatest heroes and is starstruck. But is she up to the task? And when a tough battle comes, can she prove she belongs in the Justice League. A touching and poignant story with a powerful point. Grade: A+

"Angry Tide" features Aquaman making trouble in Gotham. What's behind his bizarre behavior? This one was an okay story, but seems like it could have been better with the ingredients of Aquaman and one of Gotham's great villains included. Grade: B+

"Hide and Seek" finds Martian Manhunter faced with a dilemma. The original white Martians from the pilot who destroyed his home world and tried to enslave Earth are coming back. He intercepts a message indicating that one of the Justice League has been replaced by a disguised alien who will sabotage this ship. This would usually be simple enough to detect but to protect from the White Martians, he's given every Justice League member a headband that's blocks mind-reading. Now, he hasn't to uncover which of friends has been replaced. The result: Suspense, Action, and a poignant ending. Grade: A

"What in a Hero?": Worst story of the collection. Green Lantern battles a villain in a neighborhood and encounters a kid who thinks being a hero is all about superpowers, Green Lantern shows him it's not. Overall, I credit the writers for trying to teach values through comic books but this one was just too ham-handed and preachy in its approach. Grade: C

"Emotional Baggage": The Justice League battle the Psycho-Pirate, a disgruntled ex-psychiatrist who seeks to bring about destruction through manipulating emotions and when he faces the Justice League. There was a lot to like about the story as we saw some confrontations between Justice league members as a result of Psycho-Pirate's powers. Some of the emotional reactions I could buy like the Flash feeling that Justice League leadership was too old. Others, like Batman knocking Superman because the Justice League looked to him for leadership seemed outside of Batman's character. They could have done better on that point. Still, I give this one. Grade: B+

Overall, some pretty good kid-friendly comics are packed into this digest. A great find at a library or as a used book.



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