Justice League: Secret Origins

Justice League

by Michael Teitelbaum

They are the world's greatest super heroes, fighting endlessly to defend Earth. But some threats are too big for just one hero. When an alien invasion threatens our planet, they must join together as the Justice League. But can they fend off the unstoppable invading armada in time?

Genres: Superheroes, Audiobook, Childrens, Fantasy, Fiction, Dc Comics, Science Fiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Michael Teitelbaum has been a writer and editor of children’s books for more than thirty years. He worked on staff as an editor at Golden Books, Grossett & Dunlop, and Macmillan. In addition to The Scary States of America, Michael’s fiction work includes The Very Hungry Zombie: A Parody, and The Very Thirsty Vampire: A Parody both done with artist extraordinaire Jon Apple, published by Skyhorse. His non-fiction work includes writing Jackie Robinson: Champion for Equality, published by Sterling, and The Baseball Hall of Fame, a 2-volume encyclopedia, published by Grolier. He is also the series editor of Great Escapes, true-life acts of incredible courage, published by Harper Collins.
Michael has always had an interest in the paranormal, despite a rather normal childhood in Brooklyn, NY. These days, Michael lives with his wife, Sheleigah, and two talkative cats in an (as yet unhaunted) 180-year-old farmhouse in the beautiful Catskill Mountains of upstate New York.

Reviews

[Conan Tigard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Teitelbaum brings to the printed page the first episode of the cartoon Justice League, which plays on the Cartoon Network. He does a good job of portraying the characters from the show, not the comic books. If you haven't seen the show, which I have, you might be confused by some of the characters, as they are not from the original Justice League comic book.

They picked John Stewart to be Green Lantern, not Hal or Kyle, because they needed an African American on the team...John being the least popular of the three Green Lanterns from Earth. They picked Hawkgirl, not Hawkman, because they needed another woman, besides Wonder Woman, even though Hawkman is a better known character. They went with the second Flash because they needed someone younger, and probably because the original Flash, Barry Allen, is dead. But in this story, Wonder Woman is new on the scene and nobody knows her yet. So, the timeline is pretty messed up in the story, but that is not Michael Teitelbaum's fault, is the producers of the cartoon's fault.

Either way, this book is a good representation of the show and I quite enjoyed the reading . . . I must have since I finished it in a day.

I only had one problem with the story: Superman never kills, but he seemed to have no problem killing the invading aliens in this story. This is a slight discrepancy in his character, but doesn't really distract from the story.

If you like the show, or just the comic book, the book Secret Origins is worth picking up for some fun reading.

I rated this book an 8 out of 10.

[Brody]

Justice League is an Action/Adventure book released in the year 2002 and written by Michael Teitelbaum. The story is about aliens from mars removing earth’s defence systems and invading earth,this causes a bunch of super heroes working together and forming The Justice League to stop the alien’s plans .The story is in 3rd person and it jumps from character to character whenever the story needs it too.


The story is very basic and just tells a mediocre superhero origin. I do like how the book sets up The plot twist in The end but other than that it is just an average story. It sacrifices all emotion,character development and basic world building just for a cool story. The only thing that even had an impact was when Batman “died” but it was just a fake out with him mostly saving the day even though he was only in 50% of the book. The tone of The book is mostly Grim or Normal,for example. And the eyes,again The glowing orange eyes. Or like Streaking asteroid's tore through the sky.

But in the end it is not a bad book. I like it but I feel it could do more with all the characters. The overall story is good and it will keep you reading at some points. It is a good book if you just wanna hear something cool. But if you want a story with character growth and emotion,maybe skip this one.

[Rubén]

The only thing I remember about this book is that my brother got it out of the library and lost it, and we paid fees enough to buy the book, only to find it six months later in a trash bag of clothes we were going to donate to Salvation Army or something. Did I even finish reading it? I don't know.

Why did I suddenly remember it today and decide to catalog it on Goodreads? The universe is mysterious, is all I can say.

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Novelization of the double pilot episode by the same name.

[Matt Mazenauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A retelling of the first episode. It's well told, and a strong story. But thena gain, you could just watch it.

[Chris Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Junior novel, quick read. A fun book to spend a rainy day on.

[Kimberly Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely love it and look forward to reading more.

I love thus book so much because it kept the original story line intact. I certainly look forward to more reading.

[Steve Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Judging a book by its cover, I thought that JL:SO was for the coloring book crowd. Maybe not quite. It kind of reminds me of The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker (recently added to the Goodreads "read" column) in structure. Like that title, JL:SO has it's own helping of camp in a KA-THOOM! kind of way.

I have to give it extra credit for one passage:
As a kid, he had pretended to be Superman, pinning a bath towel around his neck, running around the house imagining he was flying.
Yeah. I guess I have to 'fess up to that one. (Well, o.k. we used to clothes-pin our towels outside after cooling down under the lawn sprinkler.)

Still, strolls down Nostalgia Lane only lead so far. After the current Goodreads pipeline of Superhero novels is cleared out, it's time to move on.