justice league of america: sanctuary

by Alan Burnett, Dwayne McDuffie, Ed Benes & more

collects Justice League of America # 17-21

the premise: A group of villains seek out the JLA for protection against the Suicide Squad, which wants to exile them to a prison planet.  Plus: solo stories spotlighting the Flash and the Human Flame.

the lowdown:  Boy, it's really not hard to see the problem here, is it?

This collection opens with a three part arc guest-written by Burnett, in which the JLA becomes aware of the Salvation Run planet and squares off with the Suicide Squad.  It's a story that was bound to be told at some point.  Not much actually gets accomplished in the arc, though, so while it makes sense that the JLA would be involved, their presence to the meta-plot is more or less inconsequential.  Burnett plots it competently enough, though apparently no one bothered to tell him that Black Canary is the current leader of the team.  

This arc is drawn by Ed Benes, whose work grates on me more and more.  He clearly is talented, and is serving his fanbase well, I'm sure - but I'm not in the target audience.

The three Salvation Run issues feature backups by McDuffie, and appear to be designed only to tease later arcs on the book.  They're fine, but a distraction interspersed as they are with the Squad plot.  McDuffie returns on the final two issues, both one-shots.  Those are drawn by Ethan Van Sciver and Carlos Pacheco and look terrific.  But at their heart they're really just placeholders designed to tease other storylines.

And that's the problem with this book.  Here's a five-issue collection - the first three issues show part of a meta-plot that plays out in another book.  The fourth comes closest to actually being a complete story but really just plays off events in Flash's title.  The fifth is a setup for Final Crisis.  Nowhere in this book do any of the writers actually tell THEIR stories.  This is one of DC's flagship books, and it's been almost entirely subjugated to editorial meta-plots.  The people dictating plots to Dwayne McDuffie aren't as creative as McDuffie is, and they don't know how to construct a story like he does.

the verdict:  I have already pre-ordered the next volume, so I'll be around for that.  Barring something unforeseen that will be it for me.  Not recommended.