Sunday, December 14, 2008

Mike McKone & Mark McKenna JLA vs. Xotar Pin-Up (1997)



It's a McTeam to adore, specifically McKone, a long time favorite comic artist of mine. He was one of those fellows tapped for the unenviable task of continuing the JLI in the fashion of Kevin Maguire, and did a fine job on their quarterly spin-off title, but on his own terms. In this somewhat anachronistic pin-up from the JLA Gallery, he depicts the then-current JLA line-up battling the original Weapons Master. An underwhelming and largely forgotten foe, Xotar appeared in the second Justice League of America story ever. However, as of 1997, the heroes he would have fought had been altered by retroactive continuity to include Black Canary and exclude Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, the latter of whom's diary was integral to the story. I fought to preserve Post-Crisis continuity for a long time, but I now recognize how foolish and diminishing that inclination was. Thankfully, so has DC Comics, especially advocates like Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns.

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