JLA: The Deluxe Edition, Vol. 6

JLA: The Deluxe Edition

by Joe Kelly, Doug Mahnke (Illustrator)

With Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth severed, the very concept of truth itself has been fractured -- and the heroes of the Justice League must contend with a world capriciously redefined by the dreams and fears of the human race. With the League stretched beyond its capacity, and Wonder Woman's spirit broken, can even the World's Greatest Super-Heroes stand and fight? Then, the JLA battles for control of Atlantis the help of some mages... and when only Batman remains, the Dark Knight assembles an unexpected and unfamiliar new Justice League!

Collects JLA #61-76.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Batman

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 27, 2002

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Reviews

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

So after Grant Morrison and Mark Waid, joe Kelly comes in to try his hand at the JLA.

What first starts off as a Wonder Woman arc, we go into solo one shots which are the best of the bunch in this collection, and then a major arc where the Justice league are killed off and a new team has to take over. Which is interesting since that is currently what is about to happen in 2022 as well.

Anyway this secondary team lead by Nightwing is actually the most fun part of the book and my favorite part. I also really liked how this mission and "death" really effected everyone internally and they don't just get back up and everything is great again.

But the storyline itself, the plotting, is overly long and complicated for really zero reason. We all knew everyone would come back. And nothing actually felt scary or gave us interesting villains.

So yeah a solid collection but nothing special in the end.

A 3 out of 5.

[Kafka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking forward to this volume largely for 'The Obsidian Age', a Joe Kelly arc that I'd missed when I'd read this JLA run for the first time. The Obsidian Age turned out to be a lot of fun: the JLA travel back in time to Atlantis (yes, I know I'm mixing up space and time in that sentence) to save Aquaman, who's disappeared with the rest of his kingdom after a major crisis on Earth. The whole storyline was heavily invested in magic, which is always fun to read, since the JLA love treating their problems as just that: problems, which may involve negotiating magic but ultimately need a logical response. But the storyline that really impressed me was Kelly's debut 3 part 'The Golden Perfect'. Wonder Woman's lasso of truth snaps, throwing the rest of the world in flux. Nothing is "true" anymore. How can the JLA cope with pure and utter randomness?

I love Mahnke's artwork, and still do, which is why the rotating artists didn't do much for me. Aside from that, and some convoluted storytelling near the end, a great read.

[Seth Tucker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book collects some decent stories, but the bulk of it is the Obsidian Age storyline, which I did not like too much. The only value is served was to introduce Manitou Raven, who would join the Justice League Elite later. Also, the introduction of the contingency league (the guys that were called if the JLA ever vanished or were presumed dead) was pretty cool. And they were picked by Batman, so you can imagine that line-up. Still, the artist is good, but I don't enjoy his interpretation of the characters. There is also a story featuring Plastic Man and Batman on a teamup. Batman was great, but I find Plastic Man to be a pale hero compared to the Elongated Man. So it's an okay read for fans of these characters, but it is far from the best JLA stories out there.

[Michael Emond · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a struggle to get through thanks to the VERY long-winded Obsidian Age. Wow...that was a long drawn out story.
First we get a nice three parter with Wonder Woman and her lasso of truth being broken, which read like a poor-man's Grant Morrison but was still a good read - and only 3 issues...so the right length.
You get a few one issue stories that were nice.
Then...the Obsidian age. It is hard to even summarize this mess of a story. It is a time traveling convoluted mess. As bad as the story is, Joe Kelly makes it worse by telling it in the most confusing way possible. So we get a three parter of an Indian Shaman trying to kill the league saying they are the seven headed hydra that will destroy the world. Turns out - no that was a lie told to the shaman.
We then get the JLA all traveling to the past to find the missing Aquaman and all the missing Atlantians...who had time traveled to the past to find a safe place to live. Wow. That's just stupid.
We get Green Lantern having visions of everyone dying so he is a big wimp throughout it all.
We get a League of ancient warriors to fight the JL in the past which is irritating because we never get to know their powers or who they are and they are all just dupes (of the ONE true villain) anyway, so who cares about them?
So much stupidity ensues..along with a NEW JLA being formed, headed by Nightwing. I don't even mind the idea of a new temp JLA being formed but the list of people is so random (Green Arrow literally does nothing of note throughout the entire story besides hitting on the women) and we never really get to know them before it is over. We have the JLA dying, coming back to life, time travel again, all the water form the Earth going away for 2.5 days but "yay" it comes back and all is good (ignoring the billions who must have died while it was gone, but let's not focus on that practicality).
The villain is stupid, her motives stupid and the final way the JLA come back to life...contrived and stupid.
I think I am most mad because someone on youtube listed it as a top ten JL story. I would put it in my bottom 10. Any Morrison or Giffen JL story goes before it.

[Adrien]

mostly marking this as complete on here so all my friends on goodreads know i have been reading lol, just mostly comics. also i’ve read quite a bit of the joe kelly run before, so now i’m going through it as part of my post-crisis completionist journey and with everything i know now i feel an even greater appreciation for joe kelly as a writer. i think he’s very underrated in the pantheon of justice league writers. you can tell that he genuinely does love the dc universe as he does such a good job balancing the team and all of the components that make the dc universe so special (magic, science, detective work, etc.). he knows the characters so well and it really shows. i especially of course appreciated the way he represented the relationship between bruce and dick and their complicated father and son dynamic. my only criticism is that there is more weight given to what’s going on in the green lantern solo than what’s going on in the wonder woman solo, but i guess only one of those characters went off world during the time so it was probably more necessary to acknowledge that. oh i do have one question though, for chuck dixon homophobe supreme (imagine writing the bat books and writing all of those characters gay as fuck while being a homophobe), does dinah not know that GA is alive?? anyways, i don’t want to end this review talking about that fucking menace so i will once again ring my bell saying i love this frickin run so well and once again think it’s so underrated for its impact on the cartoon and how we think of these characters.

[Alex E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Kelly takes the helm in this volume coupled with Doug Manhke on art and they make a great team. I was very impressed with Kelly's writing and Manhke's art.

Its hard to follow the previous writers that have been on this book, but Kelly proves he is no slouch.

There's two main stories in the book with some personal stories mixed in between. The first story has to do with the break down of "truth" as a concept breaking down in the universe. The second is "The Obsidian age" which deals with the history of Atlantis and features alot of time traveling antics.

Both of these were good, entertaining reads that were creative and bombastic enough for a JLA book. But I thought where Kelly really shone was when he was writing the interpersonal relationships of the characters. From showing how the league works with each other moving from crisis to crisis, to plastic man showing a bit of his vulnerability to batman, to the entire team jumping into the unknown dangers of the past based on the chance that one of their own is alive.

All of this drawn beautifully (for the most part) by Mahnke make the book a delight to behold.

I will read the next volume eagerly to see what Kelly has planned next.

[Nate]

Halfway through this book, Kelly changes the status quo for the Justice League, if only for a little while. The core group travels back 3000 years to save Aquaman, and a new group (selected by Batman) operates in the present. The issues switch back and forth between teams, culminating in an oversize finale issue. I really like this storyline. It’s ballsy, and though it does get convoluted at points, the characterization and dialogue make for an engaging read. I wish it would have gone on longer actually, in part because I want to see more of the new group. They’re an odd mix but they work together well in Kelly’s hands. Batman picking Nightwing as leader because “he’s the best” definitely got me. And Green Arrow (post-Kevin Smith) is a hoot here.

The rest is nothing to write home about save for a fantastic issue with Plastic Man and Batman. Kelly writes probably the best Plastic Man I’ve seen; every time he came on page my attention shot up a little more.

Favorite line: “Aqualad is tearing a portal in time with a magic harpoon. We’re well beyond normal.”

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two arcs here: kind of a little related. In the first, Wonder Woman confronts an internal dilemma that has a

It seems like the JLA authors tasked themselves with a mystical world-altering symptom of a big bad on a regular basis. A few books ago, everything became part of a story. A few books ago, all language went away. Here, in the first story, absolute truth dissolves, and, in the second story, water vanishes.

It seemed like Kelly was hesitant in defining many of the alternate leagues we see. The ancient league in particular felt undeveloped, which left the characters between stereotypes and flat avatars of unclear power.

Parts of this felt clever. Parts of this felt rushed or vague.

[Brian Ingram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone talks about Grant Morrison’s run on JLA as the end all be all, but for me most of his work is meh though often clever. Kelly and Mahnke’s work is where it’s really at. Obsidian Age is the highlight of my re-read so far, and I can’t wait to get to their next volume, I recall more great Manitou Raven stories and phenomenal Mahoney art

[Alek Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're like me and you've been looking for a pre-"Infinite Crisis" Justice Leage, but don't care for Grant Morrison. Then Joe Kelly's run is probably for you.

This Deluxe Edition contains "The Golden Perfect" and "The Obsidian Age". Both stories demonstrate the mythic and awe inspiring scope the early 2000's JLA had. With death, despair, and interpersonal character moments.

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the greatest, but some good moments. Plastic Man gets character development... which is crazy. Green Arrow shows up and is a lot of fun. The Justice League travels in time which is less fun.

[dude · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Matthew Noe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the perfect example of what happens when a good story meets bad art. The last issue - the wrap up - exemplifies the issue perfectly. Story-wise, this should be a 4.5. The art is so inconsistent and so out of whack that it pulls it all down to a 3. Sigh.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

The start of Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke's run on JLA. Some of Joe Kelly's best writing and Mahnke can draw monsters like no one else.

[LBK · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love Kyle in this collection.

[William Sarson · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book