Secret Origins Featuring JLA - Softcover

The Justice League of America was always a great opportunity to see DC's finest band together to save the world on a monthly basis and still not break a sweat. Yet it always worked best with a full roster of DC's Big Guns and, with Secret Origins, the (very potted) histories of six superheroes and a new JLA story are conveniently provided in one neat package. "Star Seed" is a by-the-numbers JLA tale, with the team sacrificing their powers to defeat an alien threat (thus making them "true heroes"). As he waits with a stricken mugging victim, Batman reflects on his genesis in the excellent "Gazing Back" as he waited "for a face as feral as the one life had shown me". In an entertaining "bartender-shooting-the-breeze" narrative Green Lantern Guy Gardner fondly reminisces the proud history and harsh tragedies of the GL Corps in "Guy Talk". As a young Amazon girl trains to be a warrior in "Vulnerability", Wonder Woman tells how she learnt that (what else?) with great power comes great responsibility. Despite being set in the unpopular "Electric Blue" period, "Who is Superman" see Clark Kent's parents being asked some unsettling and probing questions about Superman by Clark's old college buddy. Giving such vast and oft-referenced back-stories a fresh take in a mere 22 pages is not easy and, while they don't offer anything new, this does exactly "what it says on the tin"--making it a fine volume for new fans and completists. --Danny Graydon