Justice League America #53 is not a great comic book. Part of the problem is the scenario, the first chapter of the "Breakdowns" storyline, which focuses heavily on a Justice League International grieving over a comatose Max Lord while experiencing a literal existential crisis in the United Nations General Assembly. That's pretty heavy stuff that isn't traditionally the type of crisis that you can solve by putting on brightly colored pajamas and punching something.

Sadly, this issue's artists, Chris Wozniak and Bruce D. Patterson, aren't able to elevate the often maudlin script. Wozniak lacks his predecessors' mastery of realistic and consistent facial expressions that so often made Maguire and Hughes' work so brilliant, and the figures here all look like they were sculpted in Play-Doh. Neither does it help that in such a wordy comic, usual letterer Bob Lappan has been temporarily replaced by Willie Schubert, so even the words don't look right for a JLI title. It's not a particularly pleasant reading experience.

But any comic book with Booster Gold in it is a good book, even if he's only here in a supporting role and even if he doesn't wear his costume.

I choose the above page 10 as my favorite mostly because Booster's inclusion there in the bubble makes it the last time the classic Justice League International team would ride into action together as a United Nations-sanctioned team. Where are they headed? The sewer. It's a fitting end to the JLI's original "Bwah-ha-ha" era.

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