Arriving this week in a Local Comic Shop near you is the third (and final?) volume of the Justice League International Omnibus.

According to the solicitation, this issue (with a brand new wraparound cover by Kevin Maguire) reprints "stories from Justice League America #51-60, Secret Origins #33-35, Justice League America Annual #5, Green Lantern #18, Justice League Quarterly #2-5, JLA 80-Page Giant #1, Formerly Known as the Justice League #1-6, JLA: Classified #4-9, Justice League Europe #26-36, DC Retroactive: JLA - The '90s #1, Justice League Europe Annual #2, and Justice League International Special #2."

It's funny: when you're reading them as you go along, they didn't seem like so many comics, but in hindsight, that's a heck of a long list.

That's at least part of 46 different comics, which pretty much A) justifies the $150 price tag, and B) puts a cap on the Giffen/DeMatteis era (with the exception of Justice League 3000-3001, which is collected elsewhere).

And the best part is that it excludes the JLI's appearances under the pens of other writers, so if we want to, we can all just pretend that Identity Crisis and Countdown to Infinite Crisis never happened. I can live with that.

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Booster Gold appears in only two panels in Justice League International #20, so we'll skip ahead to Justice League International #21 where Booster Gold has about the greatest three consecutive panel sequence you'll ever read in a DC comic.

And can we just take an extra moment to admire Ty Templeton's pencils on what is very obviously a layout (with an iconic Darkseid closeup) by the late, great Keith Giffen? Amazing work, guys.

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If you didn't buy any DC Comics this week, you might not have seen Kevin Maguire's tribute to the late Keith Giffen surrounded by his creations (in the style of the immortal Justice League #1 cover) that appeared in each of DC's monthly titles.

As you can see, the famously irascible Giffen is in the center position originally occupied by the famously irascible Guy Gardner. Very fitting.

Also fitting, Giffen wearing a t-shirt with Booster and Beetle laughing. That image isn't new; it comes from a print that Maguire created for DC in 2014. Giffen didn't create either character, but he and his writing partner J.M. DeMatteis did create "Bwa-ha-ha" and build Blue and Gold into comicdom's greatest bromance.

The second page of the two-page tribute is quotes of Giffen's friends and co-creators. You can read them online at dc.com/rememberingkeithgiffen.

Thanks for the laughs, Keith.

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A few weeks ago, while discussing my favorite page of Justice League International #14, I said that Steve Leialoha's loose style was a bad match for Keith Giffen's layouts. I've been looking at a lot of Giffen's layout art since his recent passing, and I've changed my mind. I now think the problem with Leialoha's art in JLI #14 and #15 is that Leialoha's finishes are probably too loyal to Giffen's layout style.

In any event, the art in Justice League International #15, while still not up to the standard set by regular series artist Kevin Maguire, is at least more consistent from panel to panel and page to page than the previous issue managed.

Thanks to J.M. DeMatteis's dialogue, there are several pages competing to be my favorite of the issue, including Booster Gold flying into action in page 10, Booster Gold saving the day on page 15, and Batman's punchline on page 22. But since this will always be the first meeting between Blue and Gold and Fire and Ice, page 6 steals the show:

I can't say the four of them really get along any better these days, but they'll always be family.

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I was sad to hear late yesterday that Keith Giffen has died.

In addition to many other significant accomplishment, Giffen, as all Booster boosters should know, is second only to Dan Jurgens in total number of Booster Gold adventures written. He's a big reason many of us love the character, and it's sad to think that he won't be creating any more.

Thanks for all the good times, Keith.

UPDATE 2023-11-28: DC has published a two-page tribute to Giffen in all books released today. Booster Gold appears in Kevin Maguire's art. You can see the image on the Boosterrific Comic Book House Ads page, and the whole tribute is online at dc.com/rememberingkeithgiffen.

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