Justice League 3000 #12 (DC)

via 13th Dimension

writer: Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis

artist: Howard Porter

Here's the series that was originally conceived as a complete reunion of the "Bwa-ha-ha League" creator reunion.  Except artist Kevin Maguire was replaced with JLA's Howard Porter.  Clearly the writers, the inimitable duo of Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, are exactly the same!

I don't know if it was the Maguire/Porter swap, or ongoing interest in the "Bwa-ha-ha League" is never exactly what DC thinks it is, but Justice League 3000 has been struggling for relevance.  Time for Blue & Gold? 

Absolutely!

"Blue & Gold" are Blue Beetle and Booster Gold.  And not just any Blue Beetle, but Ted Kord, the one who was, of course, an original member of the team, and whose last and most famous moment in DC lore was being blown away by Maxwell Lord in Countdown to Infinite Crisis.  Later, Jaime Reyes took over as Blue Beetle, even at the start of the New 52, but a new incarnation of Ted showed up in Geoff Johns' Forever Evil.  The Ted here is not that Ted.  Booster jokes around about a time before Original Ted's death where he'd really let himself go.

And they steal this whole issue, by the way.  Your regularly scheduled Justice League a thousand years in the future (apparently having new usurped that era from the Legion of Super-Heroes) are backup players in their own series!  Does it matter?  Only if you plan to read any issues that don't spotlight Blue & Gold.

It's great, because Porter clearly does his best to channel the distinctive Maguire facial features in the issue.  I don't know if this is something he's done for other issues, but it's clearly noticeable in this one.  And much appreciated.

It's a pretty great issue.