On Friday, Chris Sims defended the legacy of the Justice League International.

Everyone always thinks of it as the funny Justice League book. That's how it's always referred to, with the emphasis on the bwa-ha-has, the "One punch!" scenes, and Beetle and Booster's wacky schemes, but that's not really accurate. All that stuff is in there, sure.
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The point is, while JLI was a book with a lot of very funny, very memorable parts, comedy was never really the main focus of the series. Or at least, it wasn't the focus at the expense of anything else. See, the thing that marked JLI more than being a funny book was that it was a balanced one.

Of course he's right. If you've never read the original Justice League International comics, come for the Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, stay for the action, adventure, and drama. You'll be glad you did.

You can read the rest of Sims' "Ask Chris" article at ComicsAlliance.com.

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Blastr.com has some of the solicitations for the second wave of Convergence minis, and it looks like there's at least one that will include Booster Gold:

JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL
(Writer: Ron Marz; Artist: Mike Manley, with color by Sotocolor)
The levity of the JLI team collides with the severity of the world of Kingdom Come.

I didn't include the pic from the solicitation — you can see it at Blastr.com — specifically because it doesn't include Booster Gold. For that matter, neither does the solicitation text. But DC can't revisit the JLI without including Booster Gold, can they?

For those of you too young to remember, Ron Marz never actually wrote a single issue of Justice League International. Most of us know Marz as the man who turned Green Lantern Hal Jordan into the villain Parallax and introduced his replacement, Kyle Rayner. It should be interesting to see Marz's take on the signature stylings of Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis.

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Do you remember What comics you were reading 25 years ago? If you were a Justice League International fan, you were treated to the first on-panel appearance of the tiny Pacific island KooeyKooeyKooey 25 years ago today.

Justice League International #33

One month later, KooeyKooeyKooey would be the home of the ill-fated Club JLI, a Justice League-themed resort and casino. Club JLI was built by funds embezzled from the United Nations and was robbed by future Leaguer Major Disaster, but neither of those problems were what ultimately doomed it. But you probably know all about that already.

(If you don't, find yourself copies of Justice League International #33, #34, and #35, or the 2011 reprint in Justice League International Volume 6).

(And if you miss the madcap adventures of Blue and Gold, be sure to pick up the duo's return in Justice League 3000 #12 on December 3.)

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We all know the world's first space station was the original Justice League Satellite headquarters which began operation in 1970. This was followed by the Soviet Union's Salyut I in 1971 and eventually the United States' Skylab, which launched on this date in 1973.

Skylab was the first non-Justice League space station to successfully change crews, although the station was permanently abandoned by the end of 1974. For 5 years, the station floated unlocked about 270 miles above the Earth before finally falling into the Australian Outback in 1979. (For reference, the Justice League Satellite orbited at 23,300 miles, almost a tenth of the way to the moon!)

Of course, by the year 2442, space stations will be old news. The average citizen will be familiar with several alien species, have robot valets, and travel to school in flying school buses. To a man from the future, the launch of a liquid-fueled antique rocket might be a nostalgic tourist experience.

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Remember Justice League International Volume 3? It seems like forever since it was cancelled and then resurrected in that wretched annual just so that Dan Didio could dance on its ashes. DC has finally gotten around to collecting the last of it into a trade.

Justice League International Volume 2: Breakdown is to be released today. (How long has it been since I've run a "New Releases" item?) The trade collects Justice League International Vol. 3, #7-12, The Fury of Firestorm, The Nuclear Men #9, and Justice League International Annual #1.

Although the volume will sell for a very reasonable $16.99, I don't think you'll find many who will recommend this volume. I suspect that reading Dan Jurgens' glacially-paced story crawl to its inevitable heat-death conclusion only to find that story largely ignored and contradicted in the included Annual will probably be even more dissatisfying than reading the episodic issues with a forced, monthly cooling-off period between each issue.

What I'm trying to say, ladies and gentlemen, is that I have read Extreme Justice. Extreme Justice was a friend of mine. And the stories in this trade are no Extreme Justice.

Read at your own risk.

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