That's a good question, and I have a good answer. My favorite comics artist in the whole world, Christopher Moeller, wrote and painted it. Yes, that's right, Christopher Moeller isn't just a sketcher, or an inker; he's a painter, and every frame is hand-painted. It's amazing to see his stuff and compare it to the other stuff out there. We have to wait a long time to see his stuff (as it takes forever to paint 100 pages of comics), but it's always worth it.

Now, I don't know anything about the Justice League of America except from what I saw on Superfriends on Saturday morning television when I was a kid. And I doubt that was what a comics fan would call "authentic." So, this is all new to me. This is bad, in that I don't really understand all of the relationships between the members, but it's also good, as I know that Christopher Moeller isn't the normal writer for JLA books, and I don't have to worry about how he's changing things to fit his story. Here's the short plot summary: an ancient dragon is awakened in Switzerland. This dragon is evil and begins to enslave and terrorize the local town. Wonder Woman gets word of this from the Oracle at Delphi, but the oracle says that anyone who fights the dragon will also die. Fearing for her friends, she has to trick every other member of the JLA to keep them from heading after the dragon. So not only is Wonder Woman fighting against a dragon, but she has to fight against the rest of the Justice League, too.

Needless to say, there's a lot of action in this book. The dragon design is also very interesting. In the notes in the back of the book Mr. Moeller writes that he based the design on a horse, rather than a lizard, which gives it a somewhat unique look. The dragon also has some unique powers, but you'll have to discover that for yourself. Overall I liked it, though I did think it ended a little too quick considering the money I paid for it. But the art! Oh, man! So, it's a little short, but it's fully painted and probably very interesting if you already are into the other JLA stories DC publishes. If you want to see what a true artist can do with comics, at least flip through this puppy in the store to see if it's right for you.

JLA: Age of Wonder issue 1, by Adisakdi Tantimede, P. Craig Russell, Galen Showman, and Dave McCaig, 2003, DC Comics

Even though I'm not a fan of superhero books, I really liked this one. Part of it is the setting, as I have been on somewhat of a Victorian kick lately, but the story is great. It's neat to see how the different characters get their powers, either through alien intervention (a time-honored superhero tradition), scientific discovery, or scientific accident. The characters are all very human, too, with positive and negative aspects to them. Lex Luthor is handled excellently, as a sometimes partner and sometimes enemy; the stereotypical "capitalism gone wrong" bad guy.

The art is also very good. I'm not familiar with Galen Showman's work, but I have admired Mr. Russell for a while, especially his work on The Ring cycle. There is good period detail here, and the art enhances the excellent story. Definitely a title to check out if you have any interest in the time period and want to view it in a different light.

JLA: Age of Wonder issue 2, by Adisakdi Tamtimedh, P. Craig Russell, Galen Showman, and Dave McCaig, 2003, DC Comics

In the time between issues Lex Luthor has become the secretary of defense for the US army. Because he is drunk with power, he is working behind the scenes to foment US involvement in the first world war. In fact, he is secretly selling weapons to the Germans, including atomic weapons, which the Germans use on London. That was a big surprise. Lex is up to all sorts of dirty tricks, but the League of Science and some friends turn the tables on him when they discover his treachery and Superman comes back from whatever distant planet he had been marooned on.

This issue wasn't as good as the first one, and the authors really could have used a third issue to help spread things out; everything felt rushed here and you didn't have any time to get used to the characters. Still, it was a good read, and I'll be keeping my eye open for other Elseworlds titles.

JLA: Riddle of the Beast by Alan Grant and various artists, DC Comics

Of course, the whole reason I bought this in the first place was because it was fully painted. Unfortunately, it was fully painted by a whole bunch of people, all of which make the characters look different than the other artists. This leads to some jarring visual situations where in the middle of the action the artist will change, and suddenly everything looks different and it takes you a little while to figure out what is going on. A good chunk of the art wasn't even pleasing to look at (the Riddler was a giant spider creature. Who really wants to look at that in the first place?), so unless you are just trying to collect all the Elseworlds books I would leave this one on the shelf.

JLA Year One issues 1-3, by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Barry Kitson, 1998, DC Comics

The basic premise, as you could probably tell from the title, is that this series shows how the Justice League of America formed. Not a bad idea for a story. The League starts with five heroes (Martian Manhunter, the Flash, Black Canary, Aquaman, and the Green Lantern) joining up to fight some aliens and then deciding to stick around and form a team. A lot of focus is put on the tensions between the team members, which I liked. Aquaman doesn't handle human society well, and so he is put off by the Green Lantern's attempts at humor. The Green Lantern, on his end, puts all his efforts into getting into Black Canary's pants (or leotard, or whatever it is she wears), while Black Canary wants to be treated as an equal and not get pampered by the men. Oh, and she seems to like the Flash. Stuff like that, which makes for interesting reading.

And of course there are bad guys, some secret groups that is doing genetic experiments to take over the world, or something like that. There is also the requisite fight against a team of supervillains and all that good jazz. After three issues I can't really say a lot about them except that they are mysterious. However, these three issues were good enough that if I can find the rest of the series at a fair price I will probably pick it up.

Junkbotz: Rotogin issue 1, by Jay Lee, J. Korim, GJ Aguila, and others, 2003, Image Comics

The art here is good, and the coloring is really good. Everything here looks pretty cartoony, which I think is the intent. Sometimes things look too cartoony, but it's nothing too bad. The action is good, too, though things do move a little too fast for me. It seems that by the time things are really getting interesting the comic is over. Let's recap what happens this issue: someone goes to work and finds a crime syndicate is taking over his garage to host a fight. This person's friend comes looking for them and arrives just in time to watch the first fight of the night. And that's it. It's pretty mindless, but it's fun, so I'll probably get the rest of the series. I doubt it's something I'll keep forever and read it again later in life, though.

Jazz Age Comics, by Ted Slampyak, 2003, Modern Tales

Unlike most everything else I cover on this site, Jazz Age isn't a print comic. It is a webcomic (found at www.jazzagecomics.com), and the main story gets a new panel every week. The strips themselves are done in a Sunday, newspaper print-style, very much like Prince Valiant. The basic jist of things revolves around two characters in 1920s Boston, Massachusetts. First there is "Ace" Mifflin, a rather incompetent private eye. Second is Professor Jennings, an "Indiana Jones"-styled Harvard professor who gets involved in all sorts of world-hopping adventures.

What impresses me about the comic is the attention to detail and the obvious research that went into the story. The buildings, clothes, and language used seems (to me, at least) to be proper for a 1920s setting, and on the website you can see some of the research photos Mr. Slampyak used to build his drawings of downtown Boston. The creator is a very cool person, too. He was on a panel for historic comics at SPX and I was very impressed by what he had to say. He is also very good at marketing. The picture to the left is one of the "trading cards" he was handing out at the convention to get people to visit his site.

The first storyline at the site had a significant supernatural edge to it, as it involved a long-lost evil spirit imprisoned in a mystic artifact. I would have preferred something a little more "mundane" for an initial story, but it was pulled off so well that I can't really complain. As of this writing another story is just starting, so this is a great time to visit the site and check out some sample strips and decide if you like what you see.