"They do the JLA's dirty work!
Conflicting goals causes a schism amognt the World's Greatest Super-Heroes. As a result several members of the JLA choose to do undercover work with Vera Black and her super-powered team, the Elite. Their first assignment: infiltrate a small brotherhood of assassins gathering to hit a major political target.
Heroes find themselves suddenly allied with deadly foes. Can this group function effectively enough to do their job? And if they can't, what will happen to the world?"
This one is a really weird book because it features a couple of really great comics (Action Comics 775, and JLA 100) and then a pretty boring main section of the book (the first four issues of the JL Elite run). Those first two comics are brilliant, and AC 775 is a modern classic, but JL Elite is a book that I own all of, and yet it's still a near total stinker, an attempt to create a more mature and realistic comic within the DC Universe that just falls apart due to the fact that none of the non-established characters are terribly interesting.
Taking it piecemeal, AC 775 is the excellent 'What's so funny about Truth, Justice and the American Way', the best set up of who Superman is and his ideals in modern comics. If you've just seen Man of Steel and want to know why it's problematic and doesn't hold true to the character of Superman, read this comic.
What's great about it is that it shows a Superman who is thoroughly interesting whilst still managing to be a paragon of virtue - for anyone who says that Superman is boring, this is a comic in which he collapses lungs by flying at five hundred miles a minute, and shuts down the bad guys psychic abilities by cauterizing the part of his brain that gives him superpowers using just his eyes. It's unexpectedly badass, and shows just how powerful a let loose Superman is, even in comparison to some of the most dangerous villians going.
It's also one of the most hopeful issues going, a theme which is carried over for JLA 100 which features every single nation on earth teaming up to fight a single super-team alongside the Justice League, all so that the personification of Earth won't destroy humanity.
But the actual JL Elite issues are so lacking in hope as to feel like a different writer altogether. Joe Kelly talks in the intro about wanting to create a team that straddled the line between being a force for good and doing bad. It's a big issue, but I'm not sure this is the format for doing it. Ironically it's the Dark Horse, Wildstorm, Image and Vertigo stables where these stories are being told better. It's books like The Authority and Planetary, the very books that Kelly was writing 'What's so funny ...' in response to that are telling these tales better and first.
It's hampered by a cast that's utterly, unrelentingly dull. The character who really stands out is Green Arrow, who spends most of his page time seducing the wife of Maintou Raven and quitting the team in disgust. So, not a huge win here.
Basically this all boils down to one thing; this isn't a good book, but it does feature two really great comics. You should definitely get those. Just ditch the rest of the book before you do.
Also Try:
Grant Morrison; JLA
Brian Michael Benis, Dark Avengers
Jeff Parker, Thunderbolts
Warren Ellis, The Authority
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