Justice League of America Vol. 2: The Lightning Saga [Hardcover]

Brad Meltzer (Author), Geoff Johns (Author), Ed Benes (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 13, 2008

Number-one bestselling novelist Brad Meltzer joins forces with top comics writer Geoff Johns for this incredible graphic novel bringing together the DC Universes top super-teams! Two of DCs biggest super-teamsthe Justice League of America, featuring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and more, and the Justice Society of America, including Hawkman, Wildcat and othersjoin forces in this stunning hardcover volume! The JLA has discovered that several members of the Legion of Super-Heroes from the 31st century are in the present. With the help of the JSA, Superman and his team must track down all seven Legionnaires to discover why these heroes of the future have traveled back in time!

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up–In this rather melancholy book, the past, present, and future versions of the Justice League come together. There is a cerebral quality that is strong here, as the concepts of time, change, and personal interdependence are explored in remarkable ways. How I love proving Clark wrong, Batman states early on. Each chapter is drawn and lettered in a different way–from classically bold to ultra postmodern with extreme digitization (that's hard to read). Overall, this title comes across as a history of these characters. The Flash, one of DC's oldest, is drawn as an old man. The younger heroes–GeoForce, Dream Girl, etc.–stand around in awe of the Big Two, Superman and Batman. The latter, with his sour disposition, makes for the better read, although the story is frequently taken a bit far. A fascinating collection of meditations on where the Justice League has been and where it potentially will end up, The Lightning Saga is an intelligent and fun title.–John Leighton, Brooklyn Public Library, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: DC Comics (February 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401216528
• ISBN-13: 978-1401216528
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 0.5 x 10.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #54,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed bag, February 16, 2008

By 

N. Durham "Big Evil" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Justice League of America Vol. 2: The Lightning Saga (Hardcover)

The Lightning Saga continues Brad Meltzer's relaunch of Justice League of America, and crosses over with Geoff Johns' Justice Society of America. This hardcover collects issues from both series' (mainly JLA) as the Justice League (now also sporting Geo-Force as a member) and the Justice Society team up to discover why members of the Legion of Superheroes are trapped here in the present day, and just what their mysterious agenda is. Sadly, Meltzer's parts of the story just aren't all that interesting. The segments written by Johns, arguably the best superhero writer in comics today, are undoubtedly the best parts of The Lightning Saga, where as Meltzer's segments just seem kinda boring. All that being said, The Lightning Saga concludes with the return of a hero that departed back during Infinite Crisis, and the book also finishes up with an excellent issue called "Walls", written by Meltzer and with art by Gene Ha, in which Red Arrow and Vixen are trapped and running out of time. Justice League of America #0 is included as well (and features art from everyone to Dick Giordano, to George Perez, to the Kubert brothers, to Jim Lee among others), and the book as a whole includes great work from Ed Benes, Dale Eaglesham, Shane Davis, and Fernando Pasarin. All in all, despite an uneven feel, The Lightning Saga is a worthy read for JLA fans, and with seeds planted to lead up to Final Crisis, why not give it a try?

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sound & Fury, November 12, 2008

By 

Roochak - See all my reviews

This review is from: Justice League of America Vol. 2: The Lightning Saga (Hardcover)

For all the hard work that Brad Meltzer, Geoff Johns, and half a dozen pencillers and inkers have put into the title story of this collection, "The Lightning Saga" reads like an evening of Dungeons & Dragons enacted by characters who think they're in a Jacobean revenge tragedy. The reader is urged repeatedly to consider the pain of betrayal as one explanation for the characters' actions, yet by the end there doesn't seem to be anyone responsible for having done the alleged betraying. This is a story without a villain, despite walk-on roles for four of DC's bad guys; what we're left with, not to give too much away, is a story about a handful of 31st century heroes who've been sent back in time on a rather goofy suicide mission. Conveniently amnesiac on arrival, they succeed mostly in making nuisances of themselves.

If "The Lightning Saga" is all sound and fury, things improve drastically in the standalone story, "Walls." Red Arrow and Vixen, both seriously injured, have to rescue themselves from a collapsing building. The panels, on pitch black pages, get narrower and more claustrophobically oppressive as the heroes find themselves running out of time, space, oxygen, and hope. It's a virtuoso piece of visual storytelling by Meltzer and artist Gene Ha, easily the one must-read story in this collection.

The last two stories are more typical of Meltzer's comics writing in that they're both elegant fantasias on decades of Justice League history. "Monitor Duty" views the League as an extended family, a collection of soul mates, confidants, lovers, near-siblings, quasi-in laws, and real and virtual sons and daughters; it's all about the prickly love that makes a family a family. "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow," drawn by 23 artists, is a behind-the-scenes look at the friendship of DC's Holy Trinity: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Drawing on a dizzying archive of old comics and recent graphic novels, we watch the bond between these three extraordinary, difficult individuals fraying over the years towards a (possible) future in which they'll barely be on speaking terms; for now, they're the indivisible core of the Justice League, friends whose philosophical differences are implicit in their efforts to see the League in the context of a bigger picture. What's that old saw about good intentions?

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Justice League in Years, February 17, 2008

By 

This Reader (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Justice League of America Vol. 2: The Lightning Saga (Hardcover)

I recently picked up volumes 1-10 of the previous JLA series -- the one that started with Grant Morrison's very good "New World Order" -- and I have to say that over the course of 10 volumes I pretty much lost interest in the League. I loved Bruce Timm's Justice League Unlimmited cartoon, but as far as League comics go, they just seemed bland and unimportant overall (with the exception of New World Order, and the also very good Tower of Babel storylines.)

The previous series had lots of big action, but it didn't have much if any continuity. It didn't have character development, it didn't have a sense of history to it, it didn't even really have any character moments (again, with the exception of the two volumes listed above.) It was pretty much all big action with larger than life stories that in the end were all chaos and violence amounting to nothing.

I almost didn't buy the Tornado's Path (Meltzer's first collection) or the Lightning Saga because I'd honestly lost interest in the JLA comics over the course of the prevous 10 volumes. In fact, if I hadn't bought all ten volumes at once, I would have stopped after the first three or four most likely. I'm glad I had a change of heart and decided to give Melter's take a chance (based on his excellent Identity Crisis.)

Meltzer brings real character, emotion, and history to the series. His stories have continuity. He knows where the League has been, and he gives a sense that it's going somewhere. Reading Meltzer's stories, the League's past matters and it's future matters and its characters matter. I honestly don't think any of that was true for most of the previous JLA series. And because Meltzer makes you care about the character and grounds them in a world where the past seems to matter and consequences carry forward, it makes the action far more interesting (plus Meltzer just writes really good action sequences, his best being the JLA vs Deathstroke scene in Identity Crisis.)

I honestly came to care about the JLA again over the course of Meltzer's two volumes. And while I like longer story arcs better, I have to say Walls was an amazing stand alone story (that still, despite being a stand alone story, had some lasting reprecussions in later issues.) Monitor Duty was also very good and really showed the importance Meltzer places on characterization and the continuing story of the League. Too many League stories in the past felt like they happened in a vacuum, with no consequesnces, coming from nowhere and going nowhere. Meltzers stories felt like they evolved from what came before, like they mattered more, and like they would continue to matter as the League's story went forward.

The final issue in the Lightning Saga collection, issue zero, really exemplifies the epic, historical, character driven nature of Meltzer's work on the series, and was truly enjoyable and affecting.

Overall, I recommend both of Melter's Justice League collections -- the Tornado's Path and the Lightning Saga. To me, they are the Justice League done as they should be done, similar to the way Geoff Johns is currently doing the JSA -- like a team of real people with a real past and a real future. There's far more emotion invested in Meltzer's two volumes than in the first ten of the previous series. And boy, it was great to see Meltzer's and John's take on the Legion of Superheroes in volume two. They did a great job of instiling a sense of history and importance to the Legion in just five issues (and they made Karate Kid a much more interesting character than he's ever been.)