Justice League of America #26

I've never been a big fan of Alternate Reality stories, for the simple reason that they're really not much more the Imaginary Stories.

In other words, they don't really change anything, because when reality is restored, everything is back to normal. The only Alternate Reality story I can remember that had lasting consequences is Marvel's House of M, which took away the powers of most of the mutants - but even that is slowly being overturned, as more mutants pop up every month.

And it's such a well-worn story idea that there's precious little in the way of new ideas to be found in there.

So it is with some trepidation that I approach the new issue of the Justice League of America. The cover isn't encouraging, with doubles of every JLA member except for Vixen, and that's because it's her story. Laughably, an editor has placed the phrase "Not an Elseworlds!" above the title. Hey, if it looks like an Elseworlds, smells like an Elseworlds and walks like an Elseworlds, odds are, it's an Elseworlds.

But whatever you call it, the story focuses on Vixen's attempts to undo the changes caused by the wicked god Anansi. She teams up with the alternate JLA, who are happy to help, which is rather surprising since they know going in that their realities will change. Not many people would buy into that.

The art by Ed Benes, as always, is quite good, though he lets his cheesecake instincts get the best of him sometimes. I'm not really complaining - just making an observation. The double-page splash on pages 19 and 20 is a good example - he gets maximum mileage out of Wonder Woman there.

At any rate, the story's a bit thin, and the resolution teeters on the brink of being silly - but it's good to see the resolution of the long-running storyline with Vixen's mixed-up powers.

But I can't help but hope that future stories will stick to the "real" world. Oh, you know what I mean.

Grade: B-