2002, written by David S. Goyer and Geoff Johns, pencilled by Carlos Pacheco, inked by Jesus Merino, colored by Guy Major, lettered by Ken Lopez, cover by Carlos Pacheco, Jesus Merino, and Guy Major
This is the best JLA/JSA crossover I’ve ever read. After the abyssmal first matchup of the two modern teams in Morrison’s run on JLA, I despaired of a good story, and didn’t even buy this story the first week it was out. But then I heard the decidedly positive buzz on this, and decided to risk it.
And I was entirely pleased that I did! Not only is it a really good, well-thought-out story involving the two current teams in a “widescreen” battle against a really great villain, it is also a marvellous showcase for the JLA and JSA reserves, particularly Black Canary (much to my amazement!).
After things fall apart early in the story, the backups are called in and Canary, as the senior JLA reservist (can’t get more senior than being a founder of the original team) takes charge, strategizing and giving orders like she knows what she’s doing. I was not only thrilled but completely impressed. Here was the Black Canary the way she should be but rarely seen outside the pages of JLA: Year One and a few of the JSA issues (plus the wonderful JSA: Annual #1). She’s now showing up more and more in her own title (BoP, of course), which is great news for we Canary fans.
But aside from the great Canary portrayal, this is just a great story which uses an enormous cast of characters very well indeed. Too often with these gang-up stories, you get the equivalent of everyone waving at the camera and only two or three characters doing anything. In this story, everyone who is in the story seems to have a reason to be in the story. This is no small achievement in comics, and I applaud Messrs. Goyer and Johns for a job very well done.
The villains are well-chosen and well-used, the mystery is well-done, the battle is well-fought, and the cast is well-chosen. The writing team shows a grasp of current continuity usually associated with Mark Waid and no one else, and they use it very well.
I’ve sometimes begrudged the $2+ cover price on a comic I didn’t love, but I enjoyed every page of this $24.95 hardback and don’t feel I wasted any money. That’s really saying something about how good a story this is.