Every Wednesday we take turns to delve into our trusty longboxes, pluck out a dusty back issue, and give you our thoughts. We’ll also try and place it in the context of the time it was originally published.

Our occasional trip through DC crossoverville now brings us to Millennium, the 1987/88 event that has bafflingly recently been collected in trade form (while the far superior likes of Armageddon 2001 are spoken of in the same breath as Marvel’s Clone Saga). Before DC had hit upon the technique of setting these annual crossovers’ in the respective books’ annuals, with individual tales that were largely standalone but at least followed the theme of the crossover, such events would tend to simply weave their entire narrative through a limited miniseries and various spin-off books. It’s not a hugely satisfying way of doing things, especially when the story is as weak as this (basically, the Manhunters are a bunch of red robotty things created by the Guardians of the Universe as a first attempt to run an “intergalactic police force” - the second attempt being the Green Lantern Corps. Manhunters now attacking the Guardians as well as Earth, yadda yadda yadda, secret sleeper agents planted among the supporting cast of various DC books in a Secret Invasionish kind of way, etc. etc.).

But as with all crossovers, it’s not like you can’t get decent issues out of it, depending on the creative teams at their time. Giffen, deMatteis and Maguire were at the absolute height of their Justice League powers at this point, and the curious thing about this issue - which sees a group of heroes, some of whom are current JL members, some former, mounting an assault on the Manhunters’ homeworld - is that it gives us the opportunity to see how they would have coped had they been allowed to have A-list characters in their team (in addition to JLI members J’onn J’onnz and Captain Atom, the team here includes Superman, Hal Jordan and Hawkman/Hawkwoman).

And the answer is… very well, as it happens. In the absence of characters like Blue Beetle and Guy Gardner, there’s less in the way of laugh-out-loud, outright character comedy. But deMatteis’ dialogue still absolutely zings, and there are a lot of character moments to enjoy. Most notably, there’s an excellent portrayal of the relationship between the two Hawks (Shayera having a blast, Katar grumpily wondering “why everyone feels so compelled to make jokes all the time”), but there are great little lines dotted throughout. Superman gets played entirely straight, of course, but his earnestness is used playfully rather than being made fun of.

The other thing the issue is notable for is the introduction of probably Giffen/deMatteis’ most famous creation - the woefully underqualified, walking catastrophe of a Green Lantern known as G’Nort. Despite the fact that his design hadn’t really been nailed down yet - he’s more “furry bloke” than out-and-out “walking dog” - he’s great fun in his first two-page appearance, cheerfully telling Katma Tui (apropos of nothing) that “They don’t even have a john in here!”, while being saluted by Superman for his bravery in taking on the manhunters alone (”By the way… uh… what’s a manhunter?”). It also draws some great comedy out of the usually-strait-laced Jordan: “Do you really think it’s fair, calling him a yo-yo?” “Believe me, Superman - I’m being kind.”

Topping it all off, as ever in the early part of the JLI run, is Kevin Maguire’s excellent art. Right from the first time I read this - and we’re talking almost twenty years ago, here - it made me think what a great job he’d do on a main Superman title, as he gets the character spot-on with a very Christopher Reeve-esque interpretation. He and colourist Gene D’Angelo also cope well with the storytelling handicap of having to draw almost an entire issue against a yellow background (the Manhunters having built their homeworld specifically to defend against Green Lanterns).

Despite being hampered by the constraints of a slightly naff crossover, team JLI were still able to turn out great comics. If anything, it’s only a shame that they were only given some of these characters for one issue - although, of course, you’d never want to trade Beetle, Booster and Guy for anybody. Nowadays, though, this particular issue still stands up well - it’s a little jarring if you try to just read it in sequence with the rest of JLI, but as a part of Millennium itself, it was by far the standout moment.

Tags: DC Millennium, J.M. deMatteis, Justice League, Keith Giffen, Kevin Maguire
Publisher: DC, Dusting Off