Mark Waid's Justice League

In the mid-1990s, the Justice League of America titles had dropped in sales and quality and DC looked to reinvigorate the line by canceling the existing titles and restarting with a classic line-up of their most recognizable heroes. The change started with Mark Waid's (co-written with Fabian Nicieza), leading to Grant Morrison's run on . When Morrison departed, Waid took over, initially with Morrison's preferred artist Howard Porter but followed in most of his run by Bryan Hitch.
Early Justice League writing
Waid's first forays into writing for Justice League titles began in the period between the Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis' Justice League run and the mid-1990s reboot, including a short stint on , a title that had a rotating cast of heroes who performed covert superhero missions. These early Justice League comics have not been collected but can be easily found in back issue bins. A fun diversion from this time is the Amalgam Comics one-shot that blends elements of the Justice League with characters from Marvel's X-Men franchise and pairs Waid with Howard Porter. Additionally, the Underworld Unleashed crossover event in 1995 also features Waid and Porter with Waid assembling many of the heroes who would appear in the rebooted Justice League several months later. Finally, 1996's imagines an alternate future for the DC Universe that is Superman-centered but stars several JLA characters and will be of interest to JLA or Waid fans.
*: "Be Careful What Your Wish For!"
*: "Take My Wife--Please!"
*: "Double Trouble!"
*: "Frenzy"
*: "Time and Chance", "Half and Inch", "When Titans Date"
*: "Negative Feedback"
*: "Judgment Day, Part Two: Split Decision"
*: "Judgment Day, Part Five: The Longest Yard"
*: "Silver Ages"
*: "The Gathering"
*: "Savage Legacy"
*: "The Frog and the Scorpion"
*: "Inquisition"
*: "Down Count"
*: "A League of Their Own!"
*"Underworld Unleashed"
**
***: "Underworld Unleashed"
***: "The Devil to Pay"
***: "Seduction of the Innocent"
*"Kingdom Come"
**
***: "Strange Visitor"
***: "Truth and Justice
***: "Up in the Sky"
***: "Never-Ending Battle"
JLA Reboot
* and : This comic draws together the classic founding line-up of the Justice League to face off against the dream-invading Doctor Destiny and introduces the new Green Lantern Kyle Rayner as well as Waid's long-time subject the Wally West Flash.
**"A Midsummer's Nightmare"
***: "True Lies"
***: "To Know a Veil"
***: "Daze and Knights"
*: While Waid did not take over the main JLA title, he did get to spend a year rewriting their origin with this maxi-series, co-written with his Flash collaborator Brian Augustyn. It was followed up with a in that reunites him with artist Barry Kitson and allowed Waid to tell some classic Silver Age-influenced stories.
**
***: "Justice League of America: Year One"
***: "Group Dynamic"
***: "Guess Who?"
***: "While You Were Out..."
***: "A League Divided"
***: "Sum of Their Parts"
***: "The American Way"
***: "Loose Ends"
***: "Change the World"
***: "Heaven and Earth"
***: "Stalag Earth"
***: "Justice for All"
**
***: "Those Who Worship Evil's Might"
***: "Lightspeed"
***: "A World of Hurt"
***: "How Many Times Can a Man Turn His Head?"
***: "The Man Without Fearlessness"
***: "Running on Empty"
During Morrison's run, Waid became the go-to back-up writer, penning three two-issue storylines before Morrison's departure from the title:
*:
**: "Synchronicity"
**: "Seven Soldiers of Probability"
**: "Mystery in Space"
**: "Strange New World"
*:
**: "Inside Job"
**: "Altered Egos"
*"The Silver Age": While not strictly necessary to understand his stint on JLA, it is worth taking a look at 2000's Silver Age event written by Waid: the storytelling is classic superhero work, it features a Justice League one-shot, and some elements of the story are revisited during his JLA issues. Several more issues make up this larger story from different writers.
**: "Pawns of The Invincible Immortal!"
**: "S.O.S. to Nowhere!", "Wonder Girl's Mystery Suitor!"
**: Dial "H" for HERO: "The Secret of the H-Dial"
**: "The One-Man Justice League"
*JLA: Heaven's Ladder: The proper real debut of the Waid/Hitch Justice League is this gorgeous oversized one-shot.
*: "Lost Pages". This brief story bridges some continuity between the Morrison and Waid periods.
*: After the grand scope of Morrison's League and its large membership, Waid pares the active Leaguers down to the founding seven members and Plastic Man, who face off against Ra's al Ghul in a plot that has ripple effects for the next year of Waid's writing on the title.
**"JLA: Tower of Babel"
***: "Half a Mind to Save a World" (a fill-in issue by Dan Curtis Johnson)
***: "Tower of Babel, Part 1: Survival of the Fittest)
***: "Tower of Babel, Part 2: Seven Little Indians)
***: "Blame" (by Christopher Priest)
***: "Tower of Babel, Part 3: Protected by the Cold)
***: "Tower of Babel, Part 4: Harsh Words)
***: "The Green Bullet" and "Revelations" (by John Ostrander)
*: A League fraught by internal conflict has to face a foe from mythology and then confront their own inner demons.
**"JLA: The Queen of Fables"
***: "Into the Woods"
***: "Truth Is Stranger"
***: "Unhappily Ever After"
**"JLA: Divided We Fall"
***: "Dream Team"
***: "Man and Superman"
***: "Element of Surprise"
***: "It Takes a Thief"
***: "United We Fall"
*: Tying together elements from , Waid goes out with a bang in a big story that is followed by a fill-in and the secret history of Santa Claus and the Justice League.
**"JLA: Terror Incognita"
***: "Came the Pale Riders"
***: "The Harvest"
***: "Mind Over Matter"
***: "Terror Incognita, Part 4: Dying Breath"
**: "Bipolar Disorder" (a Joker: Last Laugh fill-in from Chuck Dixon)
**: "Merry Christmas, Justice League -- Now Die!"
==See also==
*Mark Waid's Flash
Category:Runs