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scans_daily*(a 3,000-Year-Old Meditating Alien Detective/Interpretive Dancer/Brawler/Commanding Officer Who Wears X-Suspenders Across His Bare Chest)
Adam Hughes joined Justice League America with this issue, and a couple of costume redesigns showed his influence right away.
Ice, you can wear whatever makes you comfortable. So long as it doesn’t hinder your fighting ability. This is a superhero team, not a Hooters. But your complaints would make more sense if your previous uniform, and Fire’s, hadn’t made you both look like Vegas showgirls who’d just lost a knife fight.
I’ve visited L.A. beach parties with less sideboob in them. At least that outfit covers you from neck to toe, and you could probably have a tailor relax the fit if you wanted.
In the post-Giffen days, Dan Jurgens didn’t seem too fond of Fire’s second costume, and gave her an (admittedly entertaining) excuse to get a third one…
…but that wouldn’t last. The Hughes look would become standard enough for the characters that they’re still using it, with adjustments, 35 years later.
Back to this issue. It’s time to promote Dr. Fate again! The promotions will continue until morale improves.
We cut to Oberon explaining the mess to a skeptical fire department, and then he has to explain it all to Batman…
Maguire set a high bar for facial (farcical?) expressions, but Hughes is no slouch there either. There’s a lot of funny stuff I have to trim hard for space here, including Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, and Mister Miracle choking on meta:
This is the first note of real discord between Blue and Gold since they became friends back in issue #4, though Beetle mistakes it for their usual mild squabbling. Feels like fun and games now, but this may foreshadow bigger trouble for the duo in about six more months.
Max welcomes in the new Dr. Fate but is a little distracted by her changes…
It’s just as well Max doesn’t get Dr. Fate’s deal, or he might be calling Child Protective Services. “I ‘merge’ with my stepson, who’s old for his age, and we become something so much more!” Yuh-huh, tell it to the judge, Linda.
Its squickier elements aside, late Eighties-early Nineties Dr. Fate had some interesting takes on the late Eighties-early Nineties concept of gender. DeMatteis and Giffen import some of those ideas into the League’s reactions to Fate here. Here’s a little more with Fire and Ice, and a scene where Oberon’s trying to orient Fate and Huntress:
Things shift toward serious business as the issue progresses. Something is destroying villages in the Balkans, leaving them burning and vacant. The JLE is on the scene, but there’s little information about what they’re fighting or how it’s going. Sue Dibny alerts the JLA, then frets at the monitor while Catherine Cobert hovers behind her…
Other observers include two powerful beings, one almost as old a character as superhero comics themselves, and one debuting with this issue who bears a familiar name:
This Gray Man/Grey Man (the spelling varies from scene to scene, sometimes from panel to panel) tells the Spectre he isn’t like his lonely, rage-choked predecessor. “To serve the Lords of Order--! What more could a man ask?” What indeed? Certainly not world domination! Why would you even suggest that? Ha ha, you so CRAZY.
In JLE #7, Part 2 of “The Teasdale Imperative,” we join the JLE in the middle of a battle that’s shaking up their belief in what’s possible…
Big props to Captain Atom for his PPE practices. If he’d been on the team when they faced their last infectious outbreak, that might’ve gone differently.
Both Leagues are divided on whether these are “real” vampires or not. The creatures act more like traditional zombies: near mindless, given to swarming, most dangerous as infectious agents--and they’ll get called zombies more often as the story progresses. The real issue, though, is that many Leaguers aren’t willing to accept vampires OR zombies exist…and you won’t believe which ones are being all Dana Scully about it.
You fool, Beetle, you absolute moron. How could you even suggest to the post-Crisis Batman that vampires exist? You CLOWN.
The zompires scatter as the sun comes up, so that’s one tick in the “Aaaaa! Real vampires!” column. J’Onn, Cap, and a nameless general meet to discuss strategy. That strategy has so far been containment rather than extermination, but that could change. And Cap, a superhero but also a military man, has a perspective somewhere between the other two.
Batman and Ralph check out a hunch of Bats’ by pulling one of the hidden zompires into the sunlight. Ralph reminisces about the old days…
But Bats would rather focus on the present. Ralph finds him a sleeping zompire and pulls said zompire out into the sun.
The, uh, “mysterious” silhouetted figure disappears, leaving the shorter, bespectacled man talking to himself, Manga Khan-style. Turns out the object of his ire is an alliterative plutocrat with a hair situation as unfortunate as his lack of empathy (PICK ONE):
A) Lex Luthor
B) Donald Drumpf
C) Gladstone Gander
D) Simon Stagg
“Irwin Teasdale,” hm? Not the first time Giffen’s dragged the unlikely name “Irwin” into a superhero context.
There are a few bonding scenes between the heroes as they wait for the sun to set. In one, Dmitri wins my heart all over again.
He’ll do it again next issue, too.
Fate meets the Spectre for the first time, and he gives her a rare compliment. But she still wishes Eric were here…
Same energy.
Monday: “The Teasdale Imperative” ends with a boss battle/kaiju fight.
Adam Hughes joined Justice League America with this issue, and a couple of costume redesigns showed his influence right away.
Ice, you can wear whatever makes you comfortable. So long as it doesn’t hinder your fighting ability. This is a superhero team, not a Hooters. But your complaints would make more sense if your previous uniform, and Fire’s, hadn’t made you both look like Vegas showgirls who’d just lost a knife fight.
I’ve visited L.A. beach parties with less sideboob in them. At least that outfit covers you from neck to toe, and you could probably have a tailor relax the fit if you wanted.
In the post-Giffen days, Dan Jurgens didn’t seem too fond of Fire’s second costume, and gave her an (admittedly entertaining) excuse to get a third one…
…but that wouldn’t last. The Hughes look would become standard enough for the characters that they’re still using it, with adjustments, 35 years later.
Back to this issue. It’s time to promote Dr. Fate again! The promotions will continue until morale improves.
We cut to Oberon explaining the mess to a skeptical fire department, and then he has to explain it all to Batman…
Maguire set a high bar for facial (farcical?) expressions, but Hughes is no slouch there either. There’s a lot of funny stuff I have to trim hard for space here, including Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, and Mister Miracle choking on meta:
This is the first note of real discord between Blue and Gold since they became friends back in issue #4, though Beetle mistakes it for their usual mild squabbling. Feels like fun and games now, but this may foreshadow bigger trouble for the duo in about six more months.
Max welcomes in the new Dr. Fate but is a little distracted by her changes…
It’s just as well Max doesn’t get Dr. Fate’s deal, or he might be calling Child Protective Services. “I ‘merge’ with my stepson, who’s old for his age, and we become something so much more!” Yuh-huh, tell it to the judge, Linda.
Its squickier elements aside, late Eighties-early Nineties Dr. Fate had some interesting takes on the late Eighties-early Nineties concept of gender. DeMatteis and Giffen import some of those ideas into the League’s reactions to Fate here. Here’s a little more with Fire and Ice, and a scene where Oberon’s trying to orient Fate and Huntress:
Things shift toward serious business as the issue progresses. Something is destroying villages in the Balkans, leaving them burning and vacant. The JLE is on the scene, but there’s little information about what they’re fighting or how it’s going. Sue Dibny alerts the JLA, then frets at the monitor while Catherine Cobert hovers behind her…
Other observers include two powerful beings, one almost as old a character as superhero comics themselves, and one debuting with this issue who bears a familiar name:
This Gray Man/Grey Man (the spelling varies from scene to scene, sometimes from panel to panel) tells the Spectre he isn’t like his lonely, rage-choked predecessor. “To serve the Lords of Order--! What more could a man ask?” What indeed? Certainly not world domination! Why would you even suggest that? Ha ha, you so CRAZY.
In JLE #7, Part 2 of “The Teasdale Imperative,” we join the JLE in the middle of a battle that’s shaking up their belief in what’s possible…
Big props to Captain Atom for his PPE practices. If he’d been on the team when they faced their last infectious outbreak, that might’ve gone differently.
Both Leagues are divided on whether these are “real” vampires or not. The creatures act more like traditional zombies: near mindless, given to swarming, most dangerous as infectious agents--and they’ll get called zombies more often as the story progresses. The real issue, though, is that many Leaguers aren’t willing to accept vampires OR zombies exist…and you won’t believe which ones are being all Dana Scully about it.
You fool, Beetle, you absolute moron. How could you even suggest to the post-Crisis Batman that vampires exist? You CLOWN.
The zompires scatter as the sun comes up, so that’s one tick in the “Aaaaa! Real vampires!” column. J’Onn, Cap, and a nameless general meet to discuss strategy. That strategy has so far been containment rather than extermination, but that could change. And Cap, a superhero but also a military man, has a perspective somewhere between the other two.
Batman and Ralph check out a hunch of Bats’ by pulling one of the hidden zompires into the sunlight. Ralph reminisces about the old days…
But Bats would rather focus on the present. Ralph finds him a sleeping zompire and pulls said zompire out into the sun.
The, uh, “mysterious” silhouetted figure disappears, leaving the shorter, bespectacled man talking to himself, Manga Khan-style. Turns out the object of his ire is an alliterative plutocrat with a hair situation as unfortunate as his lack of empathy (PICK ONE):
A) Lex Luthor
B) Donald Drumpf
C) Gladstone Gander
D) Simon Stagg
“Irwin Teasdale,” hm? Not the first time Giffen’s dragged the unlikely name “Irwin” into a superhero context.
There are a few bonding scenes between the heroes as they wait for the sun to set. In one, Dmitri wins my heart all over again.
He’ll do it again next issue, too.
Fate meets the Spectre for the first time, and he gives her a rare compliment. But she still wishes Eric were here…
Same energy.
Monday: “The Teasdale Imperative” ends with a boss battle/kaiju fight.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-10 08:33 pm (UTC)"No such thing as vampires? Well call me I, Chopped Liver."
no subject
Date: 2026-01-10 08:53 pm (UTC)That's an impressively terrible security system.
Thank goodness none of the JLI decided to wear a hat.
(Looking at you, specifically, Ted Kord. You and your terrible fashion sense.)
-"you just don't like the fact they write me wittier than you."-
...
... sorry, just... needed a moment to process the thought that all this time, up until now, Ted was supposed to be the witty one.
And like any zombie story, there's that one person who insists on trying to save the zombies, even when it might not be sensible.
Hopefully, nobody on either team is going to be the idiot who gets bit and decides to hide it from everyone else.
Looking at you again, Ted...
no subject
Date: 2026-01-11 02:52 am (UTC)DC has been struggling to find something to do with Doctor Fate for decades. I get they don't want him to come across as a knock-off Doctor Strange, even though Fate came first by many years, and Constantine has the Vertigo-level magical side of things sewn up, and Zatanna has fishnets going for her but... The rotating cast of "who's under the helmet" hasn't helped much. (I kinda liked Hector Hall...) I really don't feel like the current holder of the role has had any real impact either.
That's to say that some of the decisions in the title at this time were -definitely- weird. Kent and Inza and then Eric and Linda and then Kent and Inza again and wait until we get Jared Stevens...
I can't say I ever really -liked- these redesigns for Fire and Ice, but I wasn't exactly in love with the old designs either so... *shrug* They sure do have sticking power despite how '90s they feel. Tora's original outfit basically being the same as Ingrid's, thus further muddying the difference between the two Icemaidens (before Ingrid returned and we learned the truth behind the substitution...)
no subject
Date: 2026-01-11 11:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-11 03:45 pm (UTC)I'm surprised this doesn't show up more often in lists of weird/bad/embarrassing comics moments. I suspect Doctor Fate had a lot of reader turnover; later stories don't spell out the stepson thing and then it becomes moot. And maybe some of us have repressed the memory.
The way Linda explains her deal to Max here, it seems like she and Eric were just a couple of adults who met one day and felt drawn to each other, and then Nabu told them they weren't just horny, they were supposed to merge into one mystic being, and then they did. I didn't realize how much MORE bizarre the series was until I did my homework for these posts.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-11 03:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-11 10:08 pm (UTC)And it’s funny how much both of these have “stuck” as Bea and Tora’s look. They’ve had others, of course, but this seems to have settled as their iconic looks.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-11 11:48 pm (UTC)Or she just really likes the haircut she got with it?
(which, to be fair, does work for her.)
no subject
Date: 2026-01-11 11:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-12 01:12 am (UTC)