JLA Classified

22-25

When DC asked me to do something for JLA CLASSIFIED, I had a couple of thoughts. (1) When I did the JLA the first time, I was charged with revamping all the characters, so I thought it'd be both fun and fitting to do the same here. But who was there to revamp? Why, (2) the worst JLA team of all, the Motown Misfits. The people behind that era were all better than their run showed; why this JLA never came to life is beyond me. But they didn't, so revamping them and giving them the epic they never had seemed like the thing to do. So then, (3) four issues, four characters...you do the math, and you'll get the same answer I did: spotlight each hero in turn.

There were some differences between this time and my first time, however. Four current issues adds up to just two of the double-sized issues I had last time, but there had to be four superhero stories in the mix instead of two, so the characterization had to be done in broader strokes. Still, I found some stuff I liked for each hero, and some especially nice angles for, all of people, Gypsy. She was the least developed of all these guys, and I got to show why.

Also, this run was done after the DCU had been retconned yet again, so it turns out that some things I planned to do were not longer doable. In particular, I'd wanted to work off the J'onn J'onzz I'd written the first time, but that J'onn J'onzz no longer exists. Well, I'm not going to do a story that contradicts the current continuity, but on the other hand, I'm not going to do a story that contradicts me. So I dropped that plot line.

In any event, about the time I was feeling good about what I'd done for these guys but feeling bad that I couldn't take it any farther, DC offered JSA CLASSIFIED and I got to do just that...

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COMICS


NOTES:

I've always enjoyed the part of my job that lets me work with different artists, so it was fun to have Tom Derenick (and my old pal Mark Farmer) draw these and the JSA.