Jla: Rules of Engagement

Rating:
Summary: Solid superhero comics with unique but VERY effective art!!!
Review: If you're a fan of mainstream superhero comics, this book should be right up your alley as a textbook example of solid craftsmanship. The scripts are straightforward and interesting (with the exception of Kelly's ocassional use of almost laughably naive and obsolete political allegories - but don't worry, because they're easy enough to ignore without them damaging your entertainment value!), but the art is the selling point here. Doug Mahnke is not a comics superstar, but he possibly ought to be. His work is very distinctive, to say the least, and while his art style possesses an off-center (perhaps even eerie) quality that would seem to make him an odd choice for a mainstream super-team, he manages to make it work through excellent layouts and storytelling.

Rating:
Summary: horrible book
Review: Kelly is one of the worst JLA writers ever, he has a native american character who is a walking stereotype hwo can't do anything but show up and beat the bad guys or cry over his people building casinos, never mind the casinos provide funding for the tribe that is badly needed, no this writer does not know how to play fair in his stories.

we have stories bashign the president and the war that are so badly done they suck any fun out of the story and come off like some horrible propaganda, i am not argung the views but how he did it, they stick out like a sore thumb instead of being subtle and are badly one sided.

the rest of the stories are average at best, nothing to see here that is important, you would be better off buying some Morrison JLA or Waid, but skip this, i have every JLA of this run up to 100 and the best i can say about this writer is the next 3 make him look almost good..almost.

Rating:
Summary: Filler material
Review: The issues this collects of JLA are not their best. The art is great, as is the coloring. However, story-wise, this is not the JLA at their best. It is a transitional period setting up things to come, not meant to be an epic storyline. Buy it if you need to complete a collection, but not as a good read.

Rating:
Summary: you can dig through it for some gems
Review: This is the thirteenth volume of JLA reprints, containing issues 77-82 of the series. The first story is a one-off by Rick Veitch, while the main content is two short arcs by Joe Kelly, "Rules of Engagement" and "The White Rage."

Veitch's story is entertaining and inventive, as the League encounters a memory-draining device. Kudos to Veitch for putting superheroes in a situation where intelligence and creativity save the day rather than an all-out battle.

The merits of "Rules of Engagement" lie in the League's ethical debates over intervening in an interstellar conflict in which neither side appears especially noble. I'm probably not the only one who thinks the militant "Paciforce" is an indictment of Bush-43's foreign policy, but the parallels with Earth politics are not childishly handled here: the race the Paciforce is out to conquer is governed by a classic JLA villain, so the League is reluctant to take sides. The real star is artist Doug Mahnke, though: his heroes are noble and statuesque, his very Mediterranean-looking Wonder Woman above all. The scenes where the League just stands around talking are every bit as visually exciting as the story's space battles.

"The White Rage"--making up half the book, unfortunately--is where I get totally lost. Kelly's new character "Faith" has a past so mysterious that the more gets revealed about her, the more convoluted and confusing her story seems. Faith's ex-employer, a CIA type named Manson, keeps company with neo-Nazis, a woman in S&M gear, and a floating, disembodied mouth. Who they are and why they do what they do Kelly never makes clear. It comes off as weird, but not the sort of brilliant madness associated with former JLA scribe Grant Morrison. It's just jumbled nonsense posing as originality and profundity.

My verdict: skip this trade paperback unless you're a completist. It is by far the weakest collection of JLA stories since the new series began in 1997, but Doug Mahnke fans should pick up the single issues 78 & 79 to admire the art.