3 out of 5

While this is by no means a bad or boring collection of issues, I do think it’s worth noting it is the least engaging of what’s considered the Morrison run on the title, and perhaps that can be attributed to a good chunk of the trade not being the core team of Morrie and Howard Porter, as well as this covering about the midway point of the run, allotting for some plotting waffling.  Coincidentally the most boring “heroes flying outward against a flat background” cover of the trades.

The collection kicks off with JLA Secret Files vol. 2, written by Christopher Priest with some early pencils by Yanick Pacquette – far from the more intricate work the artist would later deliver with Grant on Batman, Inc. but successfully following the kind of bombastic style Porter had initiated on JLA – which explains how Bats secretly inserted Oracle into the group.  It’s got some funny tech talk (gotta rewrite those dlls!), and isn’t really an action piece, anchored around Oracle’s inner narration, but Priest gives us a well-paced story and it’s a nice intro tale.

After that we jump into the trade’s best bit with Prometheus Unbound, which gives us competent run-for-their-money villain Prometheus, and also sets up some Grant elements (like the Ghost Zone) that would later come into play.  The JLA struggling with itself (this is a villain just out, really, to take down justice) is a theme with Grant’s run, that would end up supporting his grand, unifying conclusion, and the bad guy he creates in these issues is a great counterpoint for that, and shows off the writer’s skills at juggling a team and using them in unique ways.  Arnie Jorgensen does art on a couple issues, but as we’re going to see in this collection, it seems that Grant’s script cues bring out some good mania in his artists; Arnie might be a step behind the layout sensationalism of Porter, but his Morrison-directed pages are still very kinetic.

Here’s where we hit our rough patch: Two two-issue arcs by Mark Waid.  Waid is absolutely a valuable writer, capable of greatness, and his Midsummer’s Nightmare series is what set us up for Grant’s JLA rejigger.  But he’s quite prone to falling back on comic pop sensibilities, which, to me, means writing things a bit too much like comic books.  This obviously works for a lot of people, but I find that this equates to excellent opening arcs for Waid-driven books that get followed up by underwhelming more-of-the-same, e.g. villain reveals, McGuffin chases, etc.  It’s all extension work until he cam stumble back on to another great arc.  The single issues are fun, but they’re popcorn; he sets you up to feel like you’re going somewhere and is skilled enough to make the writing continue to imply that, but 30 issues in you turn around and realize you haven’t traveled all that far.  This is especially obvious when stuck into the middle of Grant’s writing, as Morrison almost always plays the long game, and that certainly applied to JLA.

So Mark’s first story, about manipulating luck, is fun, though its over-and-done format marks it as filler, but his followup Adam Strange tale falls into that “comic book” format, with logic and characters rolled out just to serve for a momentary sense of urgency.  Waid is funnier than Morrison, which is a plus, but paired with Porter on one arc and Jorgensen on the other, the framing suddenly becoming more standard, it seems to suggest (as mentioned above) that Grant’s writing has been largely responsible for encouraging the artists’ energy.

We finish back with our core team for a Starro story, but already somewhat derailed by Waid, its easier to coke by criticisms: That this story feels might familiar.  The dream layer and meta-comic book narrative read suspiciously close to what Waid did in Midsummer, and it makes one wonder if Grant just wanted to “officially” bring some of those concepts into “his” arc, so he could tweak then to his design.  This is coupled with Starro having previously appeared in a then-recent JLA secret files as well, and let’s face it: The creature’s mind control shtick is sort of a one trick gag.

Strength in Numbers is just one piece of a classic run, but it gathers together issues that capture the low point.  Important stuff does happen herein, but it’s also something of a pause and then transition point to the latter half of that run.