Fawlty Analogy: JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE #20-21, JLQ #8 (JLI 63)

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After defeating the Extremists, the JLE is confronting a new reality: they’re popular with French people now.

Back in JLE Annual #1, they got a huge hole blown in their front yard…



But all you have to do is avert one or two nuclear armageddons (armagedda?) and all of a sudden, the French government can’t wait to fill your crater with beach sand.



In Justice League International Annual #3, we met Basil and Sybil Fawlty Michael and Lisa Morice:

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And in JLE #20, Giffen, Jones, and interim artist Marshall Rogers (of 1970s Batman fame) decide that the one thing funnier than John Cleese as an embassy head is John Cleese as a would-be superhero. They’re not wrong.




Meanwhile, Kilowog is installing a hyper-efficient but somewhat delicate power source in the JLE embassy. Everyone else is relaxing in the yard to let him work without distractions.



You can see it coming, can’t you?






Kilowog catches up to the sound of creative British cursing…



And of course Michael fires the beam through the floor, and of course…



Kilowog warns everyone clear of the building, just in time…



Just as the Parisians were getting to like having the JLE around, the Paris embassy is closed due to its abrupt NONEXISTENCE. In the next issue, the team is setting up in London, where the staff has just been fired for comical incompetence.



This is a headache for everyone, but especially for Cap. From the beginning, he’s taken on all the team’s affairs, including diplomatic and business matters for which he’s not always qualified. Flashback to issue #2 follows…



So, now, he’s mulling over what this new post will mean when he and Catherine are called into the monitor room to Zoom with Max. Max says that since the team is already in transition, it's a good time to bring the JLE's chain of command in line with the JLA's structure. You know, the one where an apparent normal human in civvies handles the administrivia and a Superman-class hero focuses on leading the team into battle.




“…SAVE it for a few days, would you?”

It doesn’t take long for this shift in office duties to have practical implications. Power Girl comes charging up to Captain Atom with a British tabloid in hand. Apparently, a paparazzo has snapped a pic of PG in her bikini, and she demands to know what Cap is going to do about it. “Do?” the Captain replies.








Catherine is closing out a couple of member files late at night, for Wonder Woman and Animal Man, when Cap asks to come in.



Seems Power Girl’s picked up on the occasional sexual tension between Cap and Cath. I’m not sure if she got this gift to pay him back for his jerkitude or if she just assumed they were already banging.

Bonus story! Though “Yesterday’s News” appeared in Justice League Quarterly #8, it seems to fit about here in the chronology. Story is by Elliot S! Maggin, art by Tim Hamilton and Trevor Scott. It’s an unusual tale even by Maggin’s standards, but it pairs well with the above, as it's the other time a Justice Leaguer elected to stir up their boss's love life.

Max Lord gets upset about the TV news coverage of the JLI, though he seems more upset about the news anchor delivering it. Fire files that information away and then…asks Max to join her in a double date.






In the penultimate panel above, Bea’s in Sylvia Duani’s office to grant her a television interview. This provokes Max to no end, but Bea has another purpose in agreeing: she wants to ask Sylvia a few questions too, away from the TV cameras. And at some point, she recruits the rest of the JLI into her scheme. Including a surprisingly impish J'Onn J'Onzz.




Remember, five dollars in the Eighties was more like $12.50 today. Or a twenty? Pick the amount that makes Max look generous but not ostentatious.



There are a number of other potential outcomes here, Bea…I seem to remember the movie you’re referencing going a different way for the reunited lovers…



…but it’s sweet that you care.

Tuesday: An elderly Nazi and an elderly impotent liberal battle in the streets instead of just running for president.