Is it possible to out-Morrison Grant Morrison? Well, no, probably not. I was planning on saying yes, but I just reread this week's issue of Batman, and I still understand only about 7% of it. So, no, you probably can't out-trip the guy.

But anyway, Dwayne McDuffie sure gives it a good shot with this issue. It's all 'metafiction-y' and whatnot, with an African spider god acknowledging that he owns all the 'stories' of the world, including the histories of our favorite heroes, and can change them at his whim. The merits of this issue are still entirely dependent upon how the next issue plays out, but I've got high hopes. But either way, this issue's worth a read just to get a glimpse of 'Cowboy Batman' who is totally badass. None of the other rewritten origin stories were particularly intriguing (unless I'm missing something about the new Green Lantern character... is there a history with that guy? Anyone know?) but I'm still pumped to read about a 'Paladin' led Justice League next issue.

I also noticed something about this current volume of JLA that I found sort of interesting. As much as the relaunch seemed to be about Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman getting a team together, there hasn't been much of a focus on them (or other big names like GL and Flash) in this series. And the issues that have, like the Injustice League arc, pretty much sucked. This volume has been much more of the 'Red Tornado & Vixen Show, Featuring Red Arrow, Black Lightning, and Hawkgirl.' And I think it works best that way. They're taking the old Justice League International approach, with characters that don't have their own books, and putting the 'big guns' in supporting roles. It makes for good reading. Even if I do really miss Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter.