Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis' relaunch of the Justice League back in 1987 is a far cry from the serious super-heroics that once dominated the title, by turning the book into a comedy book that stars Batman! That's right, Batman not only used to hang around with this bunch of clowns, he was also their leader.

The roster in this version of the Justice League is vastly different from the super-powered gods we see inhabiting the group today in JLA. In terms of sheer firepower, they were rather...lame, for lack of a better word. With a line-up consisting of Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Oberon, Batman, Martian Manhunter, Guy Gardner, Mr Miracle, Black Canary and Captain Marvel, the first couple of issues were a hoot and a holler, a clever mix of goofball humor and traditional super-heroics. This three-issue story arc features the Gray Man, an old Silver Age villain of the old Justice League who has resurfaced with plans of assimilating the souls of the human population.

Meanwhile, in the Justice League's HQ, Guy Gardner picks a fight with Batman in what is considered by many to be one of the coolest comicbook slugfests ever. The sheer ferocity and intensity of this fight left me speechless before I burst my gut laughing. Teaming up with Dr Fate and the Creeper, the Justice League sans Guy Gardner combine their might to defeat the nefarious Gray Man. Captain Marvel quit the team following the battle as his inexperience caused him to be possessed by the Gray Man and nearly killed the Martian Manhunter as a result. Still, a villain is pulling the strings of the team behind the scenes, setting in motion plans that will set up a United Nations-backed international status for the team. With that, the book was re-titled Justice League International starting with the seventh issue, with new team mebers Captain Atom and Rocket Red joining.

This book was revolutionary and way ahead of it's time. It gives a very funny and yet realistic portrayal of what super-heroes do in their free time, and it is no different from the usual bickering, small talk, and arguments we have in our everyday lives. Writers Giffen and DeMatteis successfully humanizes these characters, even Batman, making them approachable and in a certain way, these charcters come off as no different from the rest of us ordinary mortals.

No review of Justice League can be complete without mentioning Kevin Maguire's beautiful art. It is highly detailed and very realistic, but these are not the main strengths of his art. Rather, it is his deft skill at portraying the facial emotions of the various characters that makes his artwork special. It is a skill that very few comic book artists have mastered. Not even legendary artists such as John Byrne, Jim Lee, Joe Quesada, Frank Miller, George Pérez, or even Jack Kirby, managed to capture the minute nuances of the complex human face as well as Kevin Maguire has. In fact, the only other artists that come to mind capable of doing so are Frank Cho, Alex Ross and Adam Hughes.

All in all, the Giffen/DeMatteis run on the Justice League continues to be my favourite portrayal of the team. Another favourite artist of mine, Adam Hughes, would succeed Kevin Maguire as the title's regular artist for the rest of the comedic tenure of this book. It was rather unfortunate that the quality of the book took a turn for the worse when Dan Jurgens came on board as regular writer. It became a standard superhero book with Superman leading the team with members including boring cardboard characters Maxima and Bloodwynd. Later writers such as Gerard Jones and Dan Vado could not lift the title out of it's doldrums before the title was finally put out of it's misery with it's 133rd issue.