Justice League America #27-32 + Annual #3

Justice League America #27-32 + Annual #3

Originally released in 1989

Written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis

Art by Ty Templeton (#27-29), Mike McKone (#28-29 + Annual), Bill Willingham (#30), Adam Hughes (#31-32)

Last time, the Justice League International series underwent another name change and Blue Beetle was possessed by something that caused him to attack his teammates and Maxwell Lord.  Despite the name change and the Exorcist-inspired cover, I doubt that the tone of the series will be changing any time soon.  I should note that I haven't seen The Exorcist, so I feel like most references to it (barring extremely obvious ones) will likely go over my head.

The issue itself feels more like The Manchurian Candidate, with Blue Beetle having been brainwashed by the government of Bialya and Amanda Waller being called in to undo it. (They put up mental defenses so strong that, if the Martian Manhunter tries to break through them, it could wreck Beetle's mind) The threat is treated far more seriously than usual for this series, and it's unclear who else could have been brainwashed.

By contrast, the next issue is more like what I expected for this series; Guy Gardner manages to get Ice to go out with him on a date.  Guy is one of those characters who's fun to write, and who's entertaining to read about because of his contrast with the rest of the cast, but if you met someone like him in real life, you'd likely get fed up with him in a matter of minutes. (also, between Guy comparing himself to Ronald Reagan, Reagan's portrayal in The Dark Knight Returns, and how quickly Reagan signed a Mutant Registration Act in Marvel, I get the feeling that comic book writers really hated Ronald Reagan's presidency)

The other League members that hear about this try to talk Ice out of it, to say the least, but Ice naively believes that the sensitive side that Guy displayed when he got bumped on the head could be buried somewhere in there, and she wants to give him a chance.

If that side of him is buried, then it's buried extremely deep down, because his idea of a first date is to take her to a porno movie to see if she's willing to have sex with him.  Needless to say, the night is a disaster, and Guy is inexplicably convinced that Ice is in love with him.

For Tom King's story The Human Target, I'd seen complaints that Guy Gardner was acting out of character, but from what I've seen of him here and in that story, he felt entirely in-character there compared to here.

Much like Animal Man, Fire's powers became uncontrollable thanks to the Gene Bomb from the Invasion event, though unlike with Animal Man, her powers became boosted to the point where she can't control them.  Now, when she activates her powers, her whole body is wreathed in a green flame like a Marvel character that DC can't legally mention.

Big Barda was called in to help her train, acting like a drill sergeant. Barda confides to J'onn that she's worried that she's going soft, as she's heading to her car to get her Mega-Rod so she can blast at Fire for training.  However, she steps outside of the League's headquarters to find that her car's been stolen, along with her Mega-Rod and the Oreos that she had got for J'onn. (So clearly the carjacker has a death wish)

As Barda tries to track down her car, Batman calls on Kent Nelson, the former Doctor Fate, to help with Blue Beetle, though it's more complicated than that. (Long story short, Kent Nelson's dead, the spirit of Doctor Fate's helmet (Nabu) is possessing his body, and the current Doctor Fate is the fusion of a kid and a woman - none of this helps to make him sound like a reliable source of help)

Nabu temporarily switches bodies with Beetle to remove the barriers keeping the mental programming in place, and he does the same for Booster Gold (who was captured alongside Blue Beetle), ending that particular threat.  Meanwhile, Mister Miracle, Big Barda, and Fire track down the stolen car and missing Mega-Rod in a place so indescribably awful that Barda finds Apokolips to be slightly better by comparison, a place where gods fear to tread: New Jersey.

A punk finds the Mega-Rod in the wreckage of a car crash, though he soon discovers that it's letting out subliminal signals influencing the user's mind with Apokolips's propaganda.  Barda's mind is strong enough to resist them, though that's not the case here.  Ultimately, Huntress happens to be in the area and helps to stop the rampage, though the punk accidentally kills himself with the Mega-Rod.

Maxwell Lord is impressed by what he hears about Huntress, especially since the team is a few members short due to Justice League Europe starting up, though Huntress doesn't want to join since she's a loner who keeps her focus on the small scale. Unfortunately, Lord won't take no for an answer.

In an uncomfortable scene, Lord uses his newfound mind control powers to force Huntress to join the Justice League, turning her from a distant loner to someone who's eager to please whenever she's close enough for him to use his powers on her.  Maxwell Lord's generally been in a morally gray area, and I know he becomes outright villainous at some point, but this seems to be a definite step in the villainous direction.

Issues 31 and 32 are a crossover with Justice League Europe, though I'll just focus on the Justice League America side here. (I'm guessing issue 32 will be easier to follow if I read the first Justice League Europe issue that covers this storyline, but I figure it's best to keep it simple) Towns in Europe are being attacked with the bodies disappearing, and with communications from the European branch cut off, it's up to Justice League America to investigate the situation.

As it turns out, the citizens of the towns are being converted into something like vampires or zombies, and Simon Stagg is (in part) responsible for it.  A scientist working for him discovered the formula (which kills its subjects after enough time passes), only for Stagg to make plans to weaponize it for the military and kill the scientist in question.  The scientist survives, converting the townsfolk into an army before turning it on Staff's factory to get the rest of the formula. (And kill Stagg in the process)

The story concludes in Justice League Europe, though despite seemingly everyone in the story aside from Stagg and his assistant Java wanting Stagg arrested or dead, I'm guessing he'll make it out of this without either of those happening.  The third annual for the book has the American and European teams taking a tour of the various embassies around the world, where hijinks ensue.

Shortly after the group leaves, a delegation from the small tropical island of Kooeykooeykooey arrives, wanting to become a Justice League embassy so that America and Russia don't try to take them over.  Max accepts the deal, though first, Martian Manhunter (who is stuck dealing with them as he stayed behind, seemingly to get some peace and quiet for once) has to deal with a lot of frustration as he keeps being one step behind the League on their travel plans.  Max accepts, so at least the League gets a tropical headquarters out of all of this chaos.

I would have gladly kept going beyond this point, but for no apparent reason,  the app skips over issues 33 through 36 and jumps straight to issue 37, so this seemed like as good of a point as any to stop for the day. Fire and Ice were the highlights for this part of the series, and much like Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, they make for a fun comedic duo. (It almost feels like they're trying to move Booster away from being comedic relief; at the very least, he expresses annoyance with having that reputation) The annual also has a side story involving Martian Manhunter and Batman trying to find the killer of a police officer which does a good job at developing J'onn and his culture through his internal monologue.