Justice League America #86 from 1994 is the first issue by artist Dan Campos, whose style herein presents as an obvious attempt by DC Comics to ape the more, uh, "dynamic" styles of some of the more famous artists of the era. I consider this the dawn of the very-hard-to-look-at EXTREME era of the Justice League, which, perhaps not-so-coincidentally, coincides with the collapse of the 1990s speculation market.

(I'm not saying Extreme Justice single-handedly killed the 90s comics boom, but I might be suggesting that when staid, old DC Comics tries to get hip with what the cool kids are into, that bubble might be past ready to burst.)

All of which may be contributing to why my favorite page in this issue is the one that sees a resurrected Superman politely declining to rejoin the league.

Get out while the getting's good, Supes. Even Guy Gardner knows you're better than this.

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Last week, I picked my favorite page from Justice League America #83, so you might expect that this week I'd show a page from Justice League America #84. But I couldn't find one. I just don't think any of the pages in that issue are particularly great.

So let's skip ahead to the much better page 14 of Justice League America #85.

Hmm. "The Booster Gold Way." Someone should trademark that.

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If you've ever bumped into the Boosterrific.com 404 page, you already know that my favorite page from Justice League America #83 is this one:

One of the most misunderstood aspects of Booster Gold's personality is just how much of his own self worth is based on being a superhero. That kid is driven.

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I'm not going to try to convince you that DC's 1993 "Bloodlines" event is great. I'm not even going to try to convince you that it's worth reading. But even the bad events have their fun moments, like this one from Bloodbath #1:

There's no wrong time to quote Star Wars. Though, next time, Booster, you might want to quote someone who doesn't fail at his job.

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When last we left our hero, he had just debuted his replacement for the power suit Doomsday destroyed (in Superman #74), and in Justice League America #81 we learn that his 20th-century power armor is not yet up to the task, especially when its servos burn out under enemy fire leaving him feeling as powerful as a sardine in a can.

The issue's finished art is generally too loose for my taste (it never feels like the penciller, inker, and colorist are working as a team), but this page panel layout by penciller Kevin West really works for me. The action starts with the foregrounded Wonder Woman, but led by the departure of Guy Gardner, the central action in each panel slowly moves away from the reader and, importantly, away from Booster Gold, emphasizing his current irrelevance. Well done.

And while I'm praising creatives, I should definitely mention the writing. I'm on record as a fan of Dan Vado's Justice League run as I often enjoy his strong and sympathetic characterizations. Although I find this issue to be imperfectly paced, I'm very impressed that its central dilemmas between heroes all trying to "Do the Right Thing" in a tense political situation feels even more topical now than when it was published three decades ago, making it very re-readable. Kudos.

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