80-Page Thursdays: JLA 80-Page Giant #1!

For the next stretch, as long as I can find them, every Thursday we'll check out an 80-page comic! Not 64, not 100, 80-page giants only! Today, a favorite: JLA 80-Page Giant #1! Pound for pound, this may be one of the strongest 80-page issues you can find: stories from John Ostrander, Christopher Priest, Mark Millar, Keith Giffen, and more; with art by Kevin Maguire, Ken Lashley, Eric Battle, and more.

Ostrander leads off with a Batman/Superman story, where Bats investigates a murder with the victim's heart punched out, fingerprints burnt off, and a suspicious green bullet in a lead pocket. Gordon suspects a frame...but what if it isn't? Batman investigates and asks around, even if he has this one solved from the get-go. So should you. (A lead pocket wouldn't be invisible to Superman, for one thing; it would look like a big lead lump on someone.)

Next, in the satellite era, a businessman offers the team a billion dollar donation in "For Sale--the Justice League!" Only Green Arrow is suspicious, but the rest of the team consider him a paranoid crank since he sounds like a paranoid crank. This story also features Ollie and Hawkman butting heads, which I always enjoy.

While I sometimes wished Blue Beetle and Booster Gold would be taken at least somewhat seriously, it's hard when the funny stuff with them is done so well. Case in point: Blue and Gold vs. a mouse, in "Mousebusters." A classic of the form.

Todd Dezago explains why Red Tornado was sitting in the old JLA's cave at the start of Young Justice in "Tin Man's Lament," and Mark Millar takes a look at "the Secret Society of Super Villains" and some themes that he would later use in Wanted: a unified front of villains. Kyle Rayner takes J'onn's advice to heart in "Warrior's Heritage" before my favorite of the issue:

"Revelations" by Christopher Priest (of Black Panther and other stuff) and Eric Battle and Prentis Rollins: Wonder Woman joins Aquaman for an undersea rescue of treasure hunters. Beardy, hook-hand Aquaman just seems surly and grumpy, since he'd as soon leave the hunters to stew, and wishes J'onn or Supes had come...for reasons that become clear when he's tangled in Diana's lasso. It's a sharp story that does a lot in a little space, so check it.

As of right this minute, we'll have 80-Page Thursdays going into 2012! Which in theory means I should get a day off a week for a while, but in practice not so much. Next to my computer is still a pile of at least eight 80-pagers, so this may continue until March...