Collecting Justice League International #23-25 and Justice LeagueAmerica #26-30.

The collection begins with Justice League International #23, by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire. The JLI inspects the remains of a downed Khundian warship left over from from a recent alien invasion attempt. Meanwhile, Major Disaster and a group of second-rate villains find their own abandoned warship.

The JLI throws a recruitment party in #24, by Giffen, DeMatteis, Maguire and Ty Templeton. Unfortunately, the Khund warriors that were shrunken down in an earlier issues escape and start causing trouble. Meanwhile, Maxwell Lord becomes concerned that he might end up becoming a metahuman thanks to the detonation of the meta-gene bomb at the end of the Invasion crossover.

The JLI embassy in New York is still in a state after the fight with the Khunds in #25, by Giffen, DeMatteis, Templeton and Mike McKone. Blue Beetle and Booster gold duck out of clean-up duty to head out for a job. They have been employed to contain a vampire-like creature called Caitiff. Naturally, given that this is Beetle and Booster that we're talking about, things don't go quite as planned.

Blue Beetle is acting even more weirder than usual in #26 by Giffen, DeMatteis and Templeton. He has just tried to stab Oberon to death and now he is after Maxwell Lord. Thankfully, Huntress is on hand to help. The story continues in #27 as Oberon enlists the aid of Amanda Waller to try and find out why Blue beetle flipped out. It soon becomes apparent that Queen Bee, the leader of Bialya, is behind Beetle's condition.

Guy Gardner and Ice go out on a date in #28 by by Giffen, DeMatteis, Templeton and McKone. Unfortunately, Black Hand is waiting for them. In #29, Fire is practising her new powers from the alien meta-gene bomb with Big Barda when Barda realises that her car has been stolen and it had her Mega-Rod was in the trunk. Meanwhile, Kent Nelson arrives to try and help Blue Beetle with his brainwashing. The story continues in #30 Giffen, DeMatteis and Bill Willingham. Big Barda, Mister Miracle and Fire must deal with a street punk that has stolen Barda's Mega-Rod while Maxwell Lord offers Huntress League membership.

I used to really enjoy this incarnation of the Justice League. It was the Justice League, but fun! Unfortunately, I couldn't really get back into the team again. Maybe it was their sheer unprofessionalism or the way Blue beetle kept drooling over Wonder Woman. I could sympathize with the Martian Manhunter, seemingly the only professional one in the whole team. That being said, Guy Gardner might be a massive jerk, but at least he has more personality than Hal Jordan. At least Ice is there to add a little sweetness to the team. She is so nice that it makes you wonder why she ever hooked up with Guy. Fire seems cool as well, but she spends most of this collection sick in bed after the aliens detonated the meta-gene bomb in the big Invasion crossover.

The writing might not have been to my taste, but I did like Kevin Maguire's art. I really like the facial expressions he gives the characters. I just wish that he stuck around for longer. The other artists after him did fine work, but it just wasn't the same. I can't be too harsh on the series for occasionally being fun. Things got serious with the Blue Beetle brainwashing story line. Besides, my taste in comics falls more on the fun side of things to it would make me a hypocrite if I said that I didn't like the fun moments.

My rating: 3 stars.