one hundred and one lokis!

97 of 108.



The Roulette character was “rolled out” in JSA #28, which established her basic MO: kidnap and brainwash superheroes (or villains, on a slow night), pit them against each other in gladiatorial games, charge big bucks for attendance, dispose of corpses, repeat. She’s survived this long partly by preying on smaller fish: the sort of third- and fourth-tier costumed characters and superteams you might expect to see die in a crossover book. And since the Super Buddies now fit the definition of “third-tier superteam…”

You see where this is going.

( Mary Marvel and Captain Atom are normally top or second-tier, but they lose points by association. )

(96 of…105 108. I know, this numbering system is a mess, but I found some more stuff to include!)

More than a decade after they’d left the JLI, Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire returned in 2003 to do some more adventures with a handful of the JLI characters. Even the series’ old inker (Joe Rubinstein) and letterer (Bob Lappan) came back.



But you can’t go home again, and Giffen and company don’t try to. All the similarities to their earlier work throw the differences into sharp relief. Some of this is intentional: all the ex-JLI characters are in new life situations as we catch up to them, and they’ll face new challenges reflecting their reduced circumstances and shifts in American culture. Other changes…seem more accidental. ( But hey, little incongruities are the stuff of comedy, right? )