Justice League United

I have been pretty open about this recently, but the current story arc in Justice League United is basically the most exciting thing going in comics. Not only does it involve a makeshift team of Stargirl, Steel, Robotman and Vandal Savage investigating a rift in time that's pulling in soldiers from a century of wars into a single village in France, and not only does that mean that we're also getting Sgt. Rock, Easy Company, the Creature Commandos, Frankenstein, GI Robot, GI Zombie, another Vandal Savage, and an unexpected ally in Hans von Hammer, the Enemy Ace, but the last issue ramped things up a considerable amount of notches when OMAC showed up. Now, Jeff Parker and Paul Pelletier are setting out to answer a question that readers --- read: me --- have been asking for years: What does it take to knock out the One Machine Attack Construct? The answer, as you will see in a preview below, is double robot punches.

Justice League United may not be long for this world, but Jeff Parker and Paul Pelletier are definitely making the most of the time they have. This month, in Justice League United #14, the characters in Alanna Strange and Stargirl's hand-picked team of superhuman operatives have jumped headfirst into a time-tossed battlefield where wars from across the century are collapsing into a single endless conflict. So just in case you missed it, I thought you should all know that there's a comic out there this week with Batgirl, Steel, Robotman, Vandal Savage, Sgt. Rock and Easy Company, the Creature Commandos, GI Zombie, GI Robot, Enemy Ace and.... well, there's one more that might be a spoiler, but I can tell you I'm pretty excited about it. So, spoilers follow!

Back when I was working at a comic book store, one of our favorite lunch break timewasters was trying to come up with the most improbable-yet-awesome Justice League lineup that we could. We'd throw our favorite characters in there, from OMAC to John Constantine, with friendly arguments over which one would work better, but we never once thought it was something that would ever actually happen. This week, DC released a "Sneak Peek" preview of Jeff Parker, Travel Foreman and Jeromy Cox's Justice League Unlimited, kicking off after the events of Convergence, and, well, it's happening. OMAC and John Constantine are on the Justice League together, and they're not alone. They're bringing in everyone. EVERYONE.

DC's recent announcement of a new post-Convergence lineup of titles offered promising signs of diversification at the publisher, with Gene Luen Yang, securing a high profile assignment on Superman with John Romita, Jr., and fellow Asian-American creators Sonny Liew, Ming Doyle, and Annie Wu picking up new titles, plus several LGBT creators on titles, including Steve Orlando on Midnighter and James Tynion IV on Constantine; and black author David F. Walker taking over Cyborg. It was great to see so many non-cis-straight-white-male demographic groups represented, both in characters and creative teams. These announcements go some way towards correcting ongoing imbalances in the mainstream comic industry, but as ComicsAlliance editor Andrew Wheeler noted in his coverage; "this is the superhero comic version of diversity, where ‘any’ feels like a victory; any non-white creators, any women, any queer representation. Any is not enough.” Thinking about that statement, a question occurred to me; “Are there any indigenous characters or creators?”

When Justice League United #0 ships to stores late in April readers will encounter a new roster of mostly familiar faces and one new hero, Equinox. A sixteen-year-old girl with powers tied to the changing seasons, Equinox is already notable ahead of her first appearance for being one of the few First Nations heroes currently appearing in superhero comics.