The Just-Leave us-Alone Gang (or, "Quitters never win...winners never quit")

The always-eloquent H over at The Comic Treadmill has strong words for the current run of JLA as this once-mighty flagship of the DC Universe stumbles to a clumsy halt and disintegrates before our eyes prior to the title being rebooted post-Infinite Crisis.

The general theme of H's rant of: what a complete piece of garbage JLA has become after such a strong start. I gotta agree. And it got me thinking: JLA (or, Justice League of America, or Justice League America...take yer pick) has ended three times in the past twenty years. And each time it's ended with a whimper, not a bang. Each JLA series has wrapped up with the deaths of members, the general chaotic falling apart of the team, and especially in this current incarnation, angry accusations being shot back and forth across the bows of the DCU's big guns. In other words, heroes fighting heroes. Heroes blaming heroes. Heroes even hurting heroes.

Enough. I'm as interested as any little stuffed comics fan to see a new twist on the JLA, but why must we be made to hate the series...and even worse, its heroes...as JLA dies away? Do the creators feel they're producing vibrant, exciting work as they wrap-up storylines in preparation for being cancelled, or are they simply marking time until they can get off the book?

More to the point, why must each JLA series end in a Crisis or cataclysm or general crumbling apart of the team until it's not even worth calling them the Justice League of America anymore? Why do members quit and bicker and fight each other and why oh why do my heroes give up on their team? My mama always taught me that quitters never win, and winners never quit. How can I believe in my heroes if they don't feel the same way?

Here's the kind of reaction I want to see happen to someone saying "The JLA is over; it's not worth it anymore; I give up, I quit!":



The Superman I know wouldn't put up with giving up on the responsibility and dream of the JLA. The Batman I know would find a way to make it work when all around him is crashing down. The Wonder Woman I know would hold together the team with power and heart.

Here's the ending I want to see to a JLA series:

Superman: We did good. But there's so much more to do. We can't let the JLA die.
Batman: Agreed. Our work goes on.
Wonder Woman: Injustice will never stop, my friends. But neither will we. Neither will we.