Take yourself back in time to the mid-1990s. Crisis on Infinite Earths has come and gone. Batman's had his back broken by the monstrous Bane and long since recovered and taken back his mantle from Jean Paul Valley. Coast City has been destroyed, driving Green Lantern Hal Jordan into madness. Superman, the greatest hero of the age, has died and been resurrected like a figure from myth. But what of the Justice League? The premier superhero team in the DCU, the big guns, the first line of defense against any alien attack has lost most of its majesty. The team is no longer all that awe-inspiring in fact. While major heroes like Wonder Woman and Green Lantern go through massive changes in their own solo series, the Justice League has been split up into various different iterations over the years, typically filled with B and C-list heroes. Interest in the franchise has died down and sales are at an all time low. So DC decided that they needed to shake things up, breathe new life into the franchise, get the Justice League back at the center of their universe as the biggest, baddest heroes around. Enter Grant Morrison.This isn't the first work that Morrison wrote for DC. He already had various mini-series with Batman and Superman under his belt, along with individual runs on Doom Patrol and Animal Man. And while the majority of his works were all well-received I am tempted to say that this is the series that really put him on the map so-to-speak, as in it was far more mainstream a title than what he'd worked on previously. He stayed on this series for 41 issues and during that time it became the best selling book at DC. What's special about this book is the way that Morrison went about writing it. Noting how lackluster the previous incarnations of the team had been leading up to his run, Morrison really tried to drive home the idea that the core members of the Justice League were like physical gods striding across the Earth. Therefore, they only went up against the toughest, most cosmic type of opponents imaginable. It's no accident that after Morrison started his run a bunch of major events at DC, such as Final Night, revolved around the JLA and what they were doing to stop it. One thing Morrison was adamant on when he took the series on was that he wanted to be working with the the big guns of the DCU, the characters that after Morrison's run would come to be known as the "Big Seven": Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, and The Flash.That Justice League Animated film series that you love from 2001? Directly based off of this (Though naturally it made some changes, such as Hawkgirl being a main member of the team instead of Aquaman). I really don't think that I can emphasize the importance of this comic. This is the series that got the Justice League franchise up and running again and out of all the Justice League series there have been I couldn't imagine recommending any except this if I wanted to introduce someone to the concept. A little more on this volume of the series, I said previously that Morrison only had the team go up against major threats and you see that here. The first group of villains are The Hyperclan, a supposedly peaceful team that has been traveling space for centuries. They come to Earth claiming to want to make it a paradise and aid humanity, while at the same time doing everything they can to undermine the Justice League. I think that they were the perfect group of villains to start the series off with, as they make you ask the question: does the Justice League do enough to help people? Yeah, they stop cosmic threats and villains on a regular basis, but there are still far more problems in the world that they make no effort to deal with, but the Hyperclan does. This provides for an interesting contrast and really makes it understandable why people are supporting the Hyperclan as the story goes on.Every member of the team shines in this volume and even more importantly, to me at least, aren't out of character. Batman's intelligent, naturally being the world's greatest detective, but he's not talking down to Superman or Wonder Woman as if they're inferior to him. Superman's the most highly respected hero on the planet, but he also grew up on a farm in Kansas and doesn't think he's any better than the average joe. Aquaman is a king with dominion over the world's oceans, so comes off as a little arrogant on occasion. Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, is new to the superhero game and has to deal with filling his predecessor's shoes while also growing accustomed to the fact that he's seen as a major hero now. Really all the characters have a voice and no one is overlooked, while I think is absolutely critical for any team book. A book featuring a team where one character is constantly getting all of the attention and development is pointless. Thankfully Morrison understands this and each of his stories in this volume are wonderful. Don't know that i'd call this series the best thing he's ever written, but it's definitely a must have if you're a fan of any of his other work or a fan of the Justice League of America.The most common complaint I see with this series is the artwork, which to some extent I can understand. This was written in the 90's, which wasn't the golden age of comic book art by any means. This is certainly not the best art that the team has ever had. At the same time, I don't think it's terrible either. There are also somethings, like Superman's mullet, that were out of Morrison's control and were instead the standard appearances of the character's at the time the series was being written. I don't personally think that the art should be a make or break it thing for anyone in regards to this volume, because the writing is still so solid, but some people also value artwork more than others. I suggest that if you're not sure whether you'll like it or not you go to Google and search for ''Grant Morrison's JLA" or something similar and look at a few scans to decide for yourself beforehand.