Hey, let's all read Grant Morrison's JLA run

December 12, 2020 Zack Quaintance

By Zack Quaintance — Unbelievably, I just took a whole week and a half off from the nightly reading projects I’ve been doing basically non-stop since I started posting about one issue of Sandman per night in August 2018. That, however, was just a short break — we’re back this week with a new reading project, and it’s Grant Morrison’s full JLA run, illustrated primarily by Howard Porter.

If you’re new to these nightly reading projects, the premise is a simple one: we pick one run of relatively well-known comics, and we read one issue per day, Monday - Friday, until we’ve finished it. I also post a thread of thoughts about the issue, along with some favorite samples of artwork each weeknight, as close to 8:30 p.m. ET as I can get. I label it all with a hashtag, and I encourage others to do the same. The hashtag for this project is #GMosJLA.

There’s a bit of differing opinion online about the order in which one should read these classic Justice League comics, and so I got together with Comics Bookcase Senior Staff Writer d. emerson eddy to hammer out our own order, which you can find below:

JLA - A Midsummer’s Nightmare: Deluxe Edition: While not strictly part of Grant Morrison’s JLA run (or even written by Grant Morrison), Morrison has said this story is a prelude for their work, setting the tone while bringing together the Big 7 that would make up the team. We’ll be reading these comics this week, with issue #1 on Monday 12/14, issue #2 on Wednesday 12/16, and issue #3 on Friday 12/18.
JLA Presents: Aztek, The Ultimate Man: This, I believe, ran a bit concurrently with the start of the JLA run, but it’s important to the first arc, so we’re reading it ahead of time. We’ll be starting this volume on Monday 12/21 and wrapping it up on 1/1. Normally, we’d break for the holidays, but with the pandemic still raging this year, my own plans are curtailed, meaning I’m game to power on through, giving us a great start date for the JLA run proper.
JLA Vol. 1: If you’d just like to read-along for the JLA run proper, your start date will be Monday 1/4.
JLA Vol. 2, Pt. 1: At this point we’re going to read through JLA #15, the conclusion of the Rock of Ages arc.
JLA, Paradise Lost #1 - #3
JLA Vol. 2, Pt. 2: At this point we’re going to read the rest of this volume.
JLA Vol. 3, Pt. 1: At this point we’re going to read up through JLA #23.
DC One Million #1 - #4, and JLA #1,000,000, which comes between #2 and #3 here
JLA Vol. 3, Pt. 2: At this point we’re going to read #24 - #31
JLA Vol. 4
The Flash by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar
JLA Earth 2
JLA Classified #1 - #3