Je t'aime (surtout) JLE - Justice League Europe #1

How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down On the Farm After They've Seen Paree?

Justice League Europe #1

Cover Date: April 1989

Released: 28th February 1989

⋅ Writers: Keith Giffen / J.M. DeMatteis ⋅ 

⋅ Pencilers: Bart Sears  ⋅ Inkers: Pablo Marcos ⋅ 

⋅ Colourists: Gene D'Angelo ⋅ Letterers: Bob Lappan  ⋅ 

⋅ Editors: Kevin Dooley / Andrew Helfer⋅  

So I owe this comic an apology...

That being that all through the last post about JLI #24 about how all of the plot development set up about Pee Gee was going to be ignored going forward to her being a part of JLE. Well, at least she name-drops the Lords of Chaos a couple of times! Actually, she seems really intimidated about joining the JLA, giving it some real cache that doesn't seem to be something if you look at it from the outside. 

The first half of the issue is introducing all of the main characters, and here we get something we've not seen before blatant sexism! Considering Power Girl's origins is kind of amusing in a disturbing kind of way. Wally's Flash gets the worse of it being apparently interested in only two things money and women, almost the first thing he does is hit on Pee Gee, and unfortunately, she doesn't get a chance to hand him his balls on a plate. He's not the only one with Elongated Man (Ralph Dibny) literally drolling over another woman, with Sue unfortunately just brushing it aside as if it's just something that just happens.

The only one that comes out of things well is Captain Atom who seems to have a rather pleasant relationship with Catherine Cobert, the non-heroic JLE liaison for the Paris embassy. It probably helps that most of their dialogue is about the general stress of dealing with starting a new job, though as this book is very much a soap opera we'll see how this unfolds! 

In the second half of the issue, after the team are all bough together, we get the plot starts properly. Someone turns up dead in the hallway of the embassy, who has a British passport but as we find out later is apparently a Nazi! Power Girl is the one who checks to see if the man is deceased, showing some impressive capeage, what with massive flowing capes being very much the style of the era. 

She's also the first to release that the mob that attacks the embassy are mind control, taking care not to harm any of the people. We also get some the rare appearance of Wonder Woman, who's technically part of the team and takes place in the fight, but won't be part of the team going forward. It's hard to see it now, what with a major blockbuster (however you feel about it) and an influential animated series, but for most of the other editors and writers the Justice League wasn't considered important and they didn't want their characters sullied by being part of the team!

Once everything dies down Captain Atom seems determined to solve this mystery that was literally dumped on their lap!  

It's weird that this is really the first comic of this era that seems to be of it's era, the casual sexism now jumps out at how bad it looking back at it from the 21st Century. And it's something that I have to get past as this is a really good team up comic, and in this issue it used Power Girl really well, she probably one of the few characters that gets to do anything to drive the plot along. Hopefully things will settle down and we'll get more of the great story and less of the unfortunate parts.