Justice League #1 – “Born Again” – Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis/Kevin Maguire/Terry Austin
This one starts with Guy Gardner (or the One True Green Lantern, as he calls himself) sitting in JLA headquarters waiting for the rest of the new team to show up. As we saw a couple weeks ago, the old JLA was dissolved (and a couple of its members killed), but a new team got together after the Legends mini-series to carry on the legacy. But we get hints right away that this won’t be like any version of the JLA we’ve seen before. As various other members show up (Black Canary, Mr. Miracle and Oberon, Captain Marvel, J’onn J’onzz and Blue Beetle), we get a
lot of jokes and absurdist humour … mostly from Guy, who’s acting like a total dick to everyone. I know Guy is supposed to be a “likeable asshole”, but the way he’s written here he’s just an asshole. I don’t get the likeable aspect until Geoff Johns’ run on GL decades later. Anyway, things are a bit tense because these heroes have never really worked together before and J’onn is still pretty down about the old team falling apart. In Washington, business mogul Maxwell Lord is watching press coverage on the new League (along with a dozen other TV channels) and he seems to be cooking something up. At JLA headquarters, Guy decides he should be team leader 
and the others take exception to that, so he starts a big brawl. Batman and Dr. Fate walk in on the fight and Batman stops it by sheer intimidation, even getting Guy to sit down and shut up. Batman’s leadership style is a little intense, with him basically barking orders and expecting everyone to obey without question. Meanwhile at the United Nations in New York, Dr. Kimiyo Hoshi (aka the second Dr. Light, a heroine who debuted during Crisis) has a Justice League signal device, which was given to her by a mysterious stranger, but elects to ignore the call to their first meeting. Unfortunately, terrorists have invaded the building and are holding the entire general Assembly hostage, threatening to kill everyone. Dr. Light triggers the emergency alarm and the
League receives the call, but are surprised since they didn’t know Dr. Light had a signal device. Batman wants the team to be cautious and keep a low profile until they get a chance to practice as a unit. But the terrorist leader has a bomb strapped to his chest that he claims will detonate if his heart stops beating, so they can’t afford to hang back too long. Several Leaguers get inside and take out the terrorists, while Batman wonders how such a poorly-trained outfit got such a sophisticated bomb. J’onn frees Dr. Light and she blinds the terrorists in the main room, including the leader. Batman figures the leader 
is full of shit, so he evacuates the building and then walks away, leaving the leader to rant and rave. The leader blows himself away, but the bomb doesn’t go off. As reporters speculate on the events, we see Maxwell Lord watching on TV … and looking at the firing pin he left out of the bomb when he gave it to the terrorist leader. Despite the serious plot (and Batman’s grimdark attitude), this new JLA is mostly played for laughs … you can see why fans refer to it as the “Bwa-ha-ha” version of the League.
Infinity Inc. #38 – “Helix Takes the Stand” – Roy and Dann Thomas/Martin King/Tony DeZuniga
This one starts with Nuklon having a sexy dream about Fury, who he’s always kinda had the hots for. Of course, Fury is married to Silver Scarab, but he’s disappeared lately, leaving her wondering where he is, so maybe Nuklon’s subconscious figures he has a shot with her now. He wakes up and gets ready to head to court, where Helix have a hearing to figure out what happens to them. Yolanda (Wildcat) Montez arrives to give him a ride and outs the moves on him, but Nuklon’s so stuck on Fury he doesn’t even care. He must be nuts … she sure wouldn’t have to ask me twice. At the
courthouse, Beth (Dr. Midnight) Chapel and Rick (Hourman) Tyler bring Mr. Bones in. Rick is still freaked out after accidentally killing Wizard a couple issues back and Bones suggests he could replace Rick on the team, which really pisses Skyman off. Bones and the rest of Helix are reunited in the courtroom and they meet the judges in charge of the hearing. The other Infinitors arrive and the hearing starts, with Penny Dreadful telling the court about Helix’s history, which we saw in issue 26. (Basically, a weirdo named Dr. Love genetically engineered them in utero and they were all born with powers and various abnormalities.) The judges ask about Helix’s crimes and get mixed 
reactions from the Infinitors. Fury calls them “mixed-up kids” and doesn’t blame them for trying to kidnap her, but jade is less forgiving about Bones almost killing her, even though it was accidental. Wildcat is pretty generous too, blaming her own kidnapping on Carcharo. Tao Jones explains how Carcharo was engineered alongside the rest of them, so he talked them into joining his crimes. Kritter tells the judges how Helix grew up without proper role models to show them right from wrong and Bones reiterates that. Wildcat relates the fight with Carcharo and how Bones helped fight him (losing his leg in the fight), while Beth tells the judges that she’s gotten to know Bones while he was in hospital and thinks he’s not that bad. Wildcat’s parents show up and blow
Yolanda’s secret identity to hell. Her mother tells the court how Carcharo is their nephew and that she was part of Dr. Love’s experiments, but Yolanda turned out fine because she was raised in a loving household … something the rest of Helix never got. The judges send Helix to a psych hospital, but remand Bones into the custody of Infinity Inc, which pisses Skyman off to no end, but the team’s charter with the city means he can’t refuse. After the hearing, Fury gets a note from Silver Scarab and rushes off to Malibu to meet him. But instead of a loving reunion, she gets dumped, with Scarab telling her he never really loved her. As he takes off, we see his armour is different now, with a distinctively … Egyptian look to it.