Justice League of America, Vol. 1: The Tornado's Path

This is a great graphic novel of the JLA adventures. The storyline revolves around a typically minor character with turns out to be genius idea. It's well written and the images are amazing. The storyline is exciting enough to keep any reader interested and doesn't drag on with "holy-moly batman!"'s and irrelevant cultural events of the past. It's new and exciting and a genuinely good book.

This has got to be one of the best JLA stories. Its starts out thinking its about getting the band back together but its really about characters you don't usually hear about. I really suggest this book for your collection.

This hardcover collects the first seven issues of the new JLA series. I normally am not a fan of series reboots as more often than not, they are done strictly for profit than purpose. Not so with the latest incarnation of the Justice League of America. DC seemed to realize that it was skidding down the same slippery slope as Marvel with morally ambiguous characters and decided to take steps to fix their universe. Coming on the heels of Infinite Crisis and 52, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman have come together to reconstruct not only the Justice League, but their ideals and reputations. In the commentary section in the back of the book, Meltzer is dead on when he says, "The long lasting beauty of comics has nothing to do with big breasted women in skimpy costumes. The true beauty of comics is its history."� And it's as simple as that: DC is embracing it's 70 year history of characters while still producing outstanding stories for the modern reader (Joe Quesada should be taking notes!) As the story begins, the trio of legends are discussing and voting on new members of the team as Red Tornado, now human, discovers his robotic body has been stolen. Professor Ivo, with the aid of several villains has stolen the body in order to create a new Amazo, grafting Amazo's programming into Red Tornado's CPU. But there is a more sinister villain behind the plot. A now intelligent Solomon Grundy wants the new Amazo body so he can live forever. Among the notable events in The Tornado's Path is Roy Harper, the former Speedy and Arsenal, now growing into the role as Green Arrow's successor, and taking the name Red Arrow. Throughout the book there are respectful tributes paid to the teams of the path with a collage of panels and covers from previous issues of the JLA as well as photos of the previous teams on the wall. They even rebuilt the Hall of Justice! This is what a superhero book is supposed to be all about! REVIWED BY TIM JANSON

Let's just get this straight: I love the Justice League of America. I always have, and I always will. I loved the Detroit stories, I loved the "Bwah-ha-ha" era, I loved when Jurgens tried to get it more serious, and I loved it when Nuklon and Obsidian joined the team. When Morrison came along, I thought the comic book gods had smiled upon us, and when Waid took over from Morrison, I thought all was still right in the world. When Joe Kelly came along I was thoroughly impressed, and then, after he left, well, things got a little rough for a while. However, who comes in to save the day but the otherworldly Geoff Johns. And then, well, it got rough again. However, when I heard Brad Meltzer had been tapped to reboot the title, I was more than ecstatic. Meltzer earned my undying loyalty with Green Arrow: The Archer's Quest, and Identity Crisis was very strong as well. I realized from those two works that Meltzer's strengths are definitely characterization and the interpersonal relationships between characters. So, when I gave in once again to my weak will and read the message boards as to what people thought of his work (because I'm a wait for the trade kinda guy) on JLofA, I was disappointed that they were largely saying negative things (I know, the message boards being negative, big surprise). This concerned me, because I couldn't believe Meltzer was doing a poor job. Fact is, he didn't do a poor job at all. The Tornado's Path works in almost all aspects. Meltzer is harkening back to my favorite era of the league, before the Detroit era, and that's when they were one big happy family hanging out and acting like the greatest super hero team in the world. But, he puts his own twist on it. Instead of the team coming together and then breaking off into splinter groups to deal with problems, like in the old days, the series begins with them teaming up into small groups and then coming together to form a larger whole. There were some complaints that this slowed the action down, but this baby had plenty of action from the get-go. Sure, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman spend half the book simply talking with each other, but the rest of the team is out there in splinter groups getting things done. This allows Meltzer to establish the rest of the team and help the reader get a feel for them. It's not like anyone doesn't already know what the Big Three are about, right? I also heard a bit of rumbling because Meltzer has all of his JLofA members calling each other by first name. This didn't bother me at all. I mean, these people are friends, that's what's Meltzer is trying to establish. If you were friends with a police officer, would you always call him Officer Smith? Probably not. The code-names are there to protect their identities, but if the team already knows their identities, why would they continue to use code-names when in private? The Tornado's Path is basically a storyline to reestablish the Justice League of Am