The crazy, crazy 70s. This was a time when someone in DC thought a good idea would be to have a bunch of villains band together and plot to take down the JLA and then take over the world. Or something like that, anyway. I never had the original issues of this series, though I was aware that after its cancellation, a lot of the hanging plot threads were picked up by Gerry Conway and finished during his run on JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA. When this trade paperback came out, I was intrigued enough to pick it up. As an aside, as far as I’m aware the second volume was never released as a paperback – I bought a digital copy as the hardback was stupidly expensive.

Anyway, as it’s a collection, there’s no deep dive here, just a handful of panels that caught my eye, like the reason the team get together:

That’s right – what else would motivate villains like Manhunter (who’s only pretending to be a bad guy) Star Sapphire, Gorilla Grodd and others if not the chance to have their very own butler!

And we all remember when Sinestro wore an earring, right?

And then there was the long-running plot line involving Funky Flashman, DC’s take on Stan Lee:

They may have taken the mick with this character but here we are 50 years later and who from DC’s hallowed halls is as well known to the general public as Stan Lee? Not this guy, I’ll tell you that.