Following after Grant Morrison on JLA Mark Waid started his run with this great story. It's similar to the first part of Morrisons run since it starts by reminding you that Batman is the most dangerous member of the League. It also reminds you of just how paranoid he really is. Taking the concept of language as a pillar of humanities ability to communicate ideas as a uniting force that is taken away is how it starts. The meat of the story comes when the JLA are defeated, by one of their own memb...

This story is now classified as DC classics but it is not because of flawless art of mind-blowing story. It is because of one fact : Batman is paranoid nut-job who has been studying his colleagues from JLA to find their weaknesses and take advantage of them. This is the main reason why I dislike Batman so much but it makes a very good setup for a story. There are panels where you can see what appears to be a pleasant friendly conversation but in fact Batman is gathering vital information. The mo...

Batman is right. He almost always is. The Justice League is a dangerous crowd, and if they ever turned on mankind, for whatever reason, the world would have a serious problem. It would be a most bloody business; thus, safeguards need to be put into place. Batman must plan for the possibility; he must have a justice prepared as a last resort. He has studied his colleagues; he has learnt their weakness: he knows how to eliminate each and every one of them. But his plans fall into the wrong hands.

"The Justice League are among the most powerful beings on the planet, if you people can't see the danger in a out of control Justice League, I don't need a vote!". Batman, Justice League: DoomA very meh story; however, that is one of the coolest comic covers ever! This story kind of just further proves to me that Mark Waid is very overrated; he did an amazing job with 'Kingdom Come', but everything else of his that I have read is very meh, and this no exception. So I am familiar with this books

Seeing Batman's methods of taking down his JLA teammates is always fun, but also involves some weak plot points.Talia and Ra's al Ghul's ability to fool the automated defences in both the JLA Watchtower and the Batcave were entirely too easy and not believable. Same goes for the take-downs of Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. The mechanics of Ra's al Ghul's titular tactic of messing with the language centers of everyone's brains on earth was a bit sloppy and counter-intuitive.Basically, this book

Batman is the greatest superhero on DC's roster. The Aristotelian embodiment of perfection, he is the golden mean. Where mind and body meet, he is a perfect example of what made me fall in love with comic books. I may have wanted to find out I was a mutant when I hit puberty- silly, I know- but barring that, I wanted to be Batman. I thought I could be Batman. Because he wasn't bitten by a radioactive spider. He didn't come from Atlantis or Krypton. He isn't a telepath or an amazon. He made himse...

MINI REVIEW: Ra's al Ghul has penetrated Batman's database on the weaknesses of the JLA members and chaos ensues as the JLA is impotent and one of Batman's smartest villains goes about triggering WWIII. But the bigger issue is whether the JLA (come on, you expect the JLA to lose and then they won't do anymore comic series?) can trust Batman again.Interesting to see how each JLA member was defeated, most of it internal.Tower of Babel is a Biblical reference to how languages were created in the an...

The angst of this story is really interesting but the art was really hard to get past. I mean really, really hard. It was really a bummer to be honest.This gets at the heart of what most Bat/other JL combos reveals: the bats don't seem to trust anyone. The narrative constantly suggests that they're right not to: JL members turn on them, reveal themselves to be evil/weak/ill equipped to handle threats. Then here come the Bats to save the day with careful planning and strategy. In some ways, it's

This is often held aloft as one of the Greatest Batman Stories Ever, and I can honestly see why it's gotten so much hype. By and large, this is really a Batman story more than it is a JLA story. Yes, the JLA are all involved, but the crux of the story centers around the fact that Batman, in all of his solitary, secret, contingency-plan-loving hubris, has concocted plans to incapacitate all of the JLA in the event they turn evil. It's an extremely Batman-y thing to do, and Waid really leans into

JLA's worst enemy...Batman! I bought this in its single comic book issues, but I've chosen this TPB edition to be able of making a better overall review.This TPB edition collects "JLA" #43-46.Creative Team:Writer: Mark WaidIllustrator: Howard Porter KEEP YOUR ENEMIES... One of the most celebrated storylines about the Justice League, published on its now iconic run under the title of JLA, where the members of the JLA are attacked using carefully planned strategies designed to beat each of th

This just further proves that Batman is the strongest member of the JLA, hands down. If you think otherwise, you're crazy. He's the only human, yet he's the most prepared for any conflict. And even in the midst of a gigantic mistake made in this one, he still manages to fight to save the day and bring everyone together (with little to no JLA assistance). I LOVE IT.This was also my first JLA read, would like to check out some more..

Book Info: This collection contains JLA issues #42-46 and material from JLA 80-Page Giant issue #1.ABSOLUTE RATING: {2/5 stars}STANDARDIZED RATING: <2/5 stars>Before the main arc begins, there are some short stories that precede it, but I’ll just leave that discussion for the postscript. But as for the main story: As the power hungry and immortal ruler of the infamous League of Assassin's, Ra's al Ghul is one of Batman's most dangerous foes. For his latest plot against humanity, Ra's dev...

Often cited on lists of "Best Batman Stories," Tower of Babel has gained a reputation as a must-read Batman story.It's not. I think much of the praise heaped upon the story comes from the premise. It's a damn good one. Batman has created secret files on how to defeat the members of the Justice League. Ra's Al Ghul has somehow stolen the info and takes out the Justice League one-by-one. With them out of the way, he enacts a scheme to reduce the Earth's population.What should have been an epic sto...

Starting with a story that smacks of environmental allegory (but takes a surprising turn), then gets into the League-changing campaign of Ghul.I read this once before, and thought it was really crazy to see what happens when Batman's worst attacks were used in this way. And the impact is still the same - but the pedestrian exposition that follows - the equivalent of the supervillain explaining to the hero how he defeated the smartest enemies - is more than just superfluous. It's outright painful...

Am I the only one who thinks that if you're hanging out with Batman at least a couple of times a month, you should expect that he's keeping "secret" files on you? This is a guy who's the greatest detective on Earth AND who manages to be a celebrity billionaire while maintaining a highly fantastical secret identity; the dude clearly knows how to gather information and keep a lid on it.Anyway the Justice League gets all surprised and offended when they learn that the one member in their group who

Somehow, I prefer the movie adaptation JL Doom to the comic.

I am extremely disappointed in this book. This is one of those very rare occasions when a movie vastly outperforms a book. It's unfortunate that I saw Justice League: Doom before I read this because it took the same incredible premise as the book and hit it out of the park. In contrast, the book is silly and heavy-handed. The main idea of both is that Batman has created plans for each member of the Justice League in case they ever go bad and these plans are stolen by a villian who uses them to i...

Score: 3.95 out of 5Grade: 79% (B+) | GoodThe JLA are being picked off one-by-one as if someone on the inside kept a diary of all their weaknesses…Batman… Here is my review of JLA Vol. 7: Tower of Babel:The Good: THE ATOM AND THE JLA This book starts off with an interesting and thought-provoking single-issue. We have the Atom teaming up with the JLA to fight off a cancerous bacteria in a young boy’s body. Such a unique concept, yet it totally works! And not to brag or anything, but there were

I really liked the writing in this book (at least, the main story - the back-up tales, as usual, are forgettable). I wasn't too keen on the art, though, and that is what really held this book back, IMO. With a better artistic team, this book could've easily gotten 5 stars.I also think this storyline could've benefitted from 1 or 2 extra issues (and a better artist, but we've been over this already). As it is, some parts in this book are too brief.This was years ahead of Brother Eye and Infin...

I remember reading this trade back when it was first published, and enjoying it. Years later, I've become a slightly more critical reader and I've been reading some much better stuff. The end result is that I didn't like it quite as much as I had back then.The plot is not the problem here. The basic idea (Batman keeps secret files about each member of the JLA, including his strategies for defeating them) is fantastic, totally in character, and probably lead, in small part, to the events of the s...