Justice League of America - Issue 17
Featuring the twin menaces of evil tornadoes and wind-based copyright infringement
The Justice League (aka the Justice League of America, aka the JLA, aka Justice League International, aka Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)) is a collection of the DC Universe's greatest heroes (and also Green Arrow).
I talked about why I love the JLA in this piece here. Now I’m breaking down each and every issue of the comic book, from their very first appearance, with Atom-sized summaries. Enjoy!
The issue begins with the Justice League defeating villainous Pluto rock creatures, furious over the possibility that the ‘planet’ status of their home might someday be downgraded. But before Batman can give them a lecture on how improbable that might be, something even more improbable is revealed. Namely, that this isn’t the JLA, after all, but instead some kind of recreation of the team, fabricated by a reformed living tornado! (How does the tornado perfectly simulate the powers of all these heroes? Shut up. All tornadoes can, in fact, do this, which is why both Twister and The Wizard of Oz are now considered prequels to Zack Snyder’s DCEU.) Anyway, for some reason, this JLA-impersonating tornado then fights an evil, non-JLA-impersonating tornado - The Tornado Tyrant - and loses. Chagrined, the defeated Tornado Champion heads to Earth, recreates the battle there, learns how the real JLA would defeat a villainous meteorological event, before returning to its home planet to triumph over its twisted twister counterpart using a variation of that plan. A perfectly normal tale of perfectly normal events, founded on blatant copyright infringement by a sentient weather pattern.
Fun With Comics!
MVP
It’s The Tornado Champion, I guess. Because even though this looks like the JLA gathering together at issue’s end, with Flash cobbling a deus ex meteorologica explanation for how they sent a tornado to another dimension, it is, in fact, an explanation offered by a different tornado disguised as the Justice League. How, again, does the twister accomplish this, you might ask? And, once more, the writers of this book remind you to shut up!
Top Panel
‘They’re even more powerful than Adam Strange’. Boy, talk about damning with faint praise, Tornado Champion.
Villain Cryptic Crossword Clue
This new version of a classic villain is ripped, upset, and, at first, this young ruler annihilates nemeses totally. (7, 6)