 Justice
League Elite #1 (of 12)
"Grand Experiment"DC
Comics
Writer: Joe Kelly
Pencils: Doug Mahnke
Inks: Tom Nguyen FC,
32 pgs w/ ads
$3.85 CAN / $2.50 US A Justice
League for the 21st Century
by Mike Hintze For a primer on the
group known as the Elite, check out my review
of JLA #100. That issue marks the start of a new group of Justice League
heroes proactively dealing with world-class threats. We saw the members of the
Elite work with the JLA to avert a world-wide disaster. Vera Black, the
leader of the Elite, proposed an alliance with the JLA to work together to stop
threats before they start. Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman were against the
idea of working with Black, although Batman did approve of the idea in principle.
Black wanted to have her team (Coldcast, a man who can control energy wavelengths;
Menagerie, a woman who is bonded to a bio-organic weapons crèche) work
with the JLA as an undercover team that would infiltrate criminal organizations
and take them down from within. The Elite has a world-wide reputation as a criminal
group. They wanted to use that rep to give them access to other illegal organizations.
Green Arrow joins the Elite
for a little fun with Deathstroke | | At the
end of JLA #100, we saw several JLA members disagree with the Big Three
and leave to work with Vera Black and the Elite. In Justice League Elite #1,
we see who is on the new team: Flash, Major Disaster and Manitou Raven. This issue
also shows that Green Arrow has joined in the fun, at least for this first issue.
We are also introduced to Kasumi, a sword wielding assassin that is working with
the team. The JLE are trying to infiltrate a terrorist group run by the
Blood Brothers, extremist hunters who wish to induct the world's deadliest assassins
into their ranks. Major Disaster tries to join, but is decapitated by Kasumi,
who is then allowed to compete for a position with the Blood Brothers. Deathstroke
the Terminator is also looking to join and ends up competing with Kasumi. In the
end, they are both inducted into the Brothers' ranks. In the background, the Flash
has been substituting body doubles at light speed for those seemingly killed during
these trials. In the end, we see Deathstroke has not been inducted at all, but
rather it was Vera Black herself under a holographic disguise. Vera has also recruited
a man named Naif Al-Shiekh, a covert agent in Saudi Arabia who has extensive experience
with meta-humans. He has agreed to act as the underground liaison between the
JLE and various world governments. Next issue, we'll get to see the Blood Brothers'
operation up close. This first issue is a great start to a great looking
series. Doug Mahnke's art has never looked this good. Joe Kelly takes the best
aspects of his JLA run and runs with it full-out here in Elite.
This is definitely a Justice League for the 21st Century. Having read this month's
JLA #101, which is in the questionable hands of Chuck Austen, it's good
to see one good Justice League series this month. Until Kurt Busiek takes over
that title in several months, we can be satisfied with Elite for kick ass
action, an amazing story and what will hopefully become an ongoing series rather
than the twelve issues for which it's scheduled. 5
of 5 Discuss Justice League Elite in our forum.
| 
