CSBG Archive
I Love Ya But You’re Strange – The Justice League Goes to French Class
Every week, I will spotlight strange but ultimately endearing comic stories (basically, we’re talking lots and lots of Silver Age comic books). Here is the archive of all the installments of this feature. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have a suggestion for a future installment!
Today we look at one of my all-time favorite issues from the Justice League International era – the time that a bunch of members of Justice League Europe ended up in the same French class as the Injustice League! Hilarity courtesy of writers Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis and artists Bart Sears and Pablo Marcos…
The gist of the issue is as follows. Justice League International recently opened up a separate branch of the Justice League in Europe. However, almost all of the team members are American, so that causes a bit of a problem when they find themselves headquartered in France. So the members of the team who don’t speak French go to a night school to learn the language. Meanwhile, the comically inept Injustice League are in Europe (with the theory being that there are less superheroes there), but they, too, find themselves in a jam when they can’t rob banks effectively without knowing the language, so they, too, end up in French class – the same French class as the JLE, naturally!
This is the intro of the scene…
and here we see things play themselves to a fever pitch…
Do yourself a favor and pick up the issue (Justice League Europe #6) to find out what happens next!
(Note: This article first appeared as part of the Fools of April feature – BC)
14 Comments
ollienO
July 6, 2012 at 3:07 am
This issue is really fun
the part that always me really laugh is page 12 (presented above) “Haul our butts …” and the faces of all the present people
But it could have been set in any country
never met a teacher that looked like her.. ( bien que … )
But what buggers me most, when stories are done in france, si the fact that i never , or really rarely, recognize France, nor Paris
– JLI 8 as Blue Beetle and Booster in paris, and i never recognized the Eiffel tower in it 
( sorry mr Maguire, i love your art..but you dont know how to draw the eiffel tower)
(Unca X-men 200 is one of the well documented paris, but JR Jr and Claremont did many visits to france… )
Ivan Antonio
July 6, 2012 at 5:30 am
This issue is fantastic. I still have it, somewhere.
Anthony Strand
July 6, 2012 at 6:24 am
I love this story so much. One of my favorite issues of a sadly underrated series (by which I mean that the New York-based JLI gets most of the attention.)
Anonymous
July 6, 2012 at 6:35 am
JLI/ JLE just didn’t work for me at any level. Not funny enough as a comedy, not exciting enough as an adventure yarn. Always puzzled at praise it receives, but yes…. as I’ve often said…. I accept its all subjective.
David Serchay
July 6, 2012 at 8:20 am
It was collected in Justice League International Vol. 5
T.
July 6, 2012 at 8:59 am
While I love the Giffen-DeMatteis League, I’m not crazy about when you use them for this feature because the stories are strange on purpose. In my opinion, this feature works so much better when it’s a story that’s unintentionally strange. But you’re right, this is a damn good story.
Cory!! Strode
July 6, 2012 at 9:46 am
I loved this entire run, but MAN, the art just doesn’t work for me. All of the faces look messed up…I’m guessing Bart Sears was trying way too hard to draw facial expressions like Kevin Maguire.
Billy
July 6, 2012 at 9:52 am
Wait, wasn’t this arc featured before?
Brian Cronin
July 6, 2012 at 9:55 am
I’ve featured it for one or two other features, as well. It IS one of my favorites!
Andrew Collins
July 7, 2012 at 9:23 am
I didn’t like JLE as much as JLA but it was still a fantastic series and a nice compliment to the main book. This issue is easily one of JLE’s best…
phred
July 7, 2012 at 10:02 pm
Bwah ha ha.
Gooboo
July 8, 2012 at 9:49 am
The immediately post Breakdowns Justice League period wasn’t particularly good for either JLA or JLE, but I think it was worse for JLE (which is odd, because I think Gerard Jones was already working on the comic prior to Breakdowns). While there’s a few entertaining issues afterwards, the comic is pretty dreadful immediately afterwards, which is too bad because at its peak, I think it was actually better than JLA. I will also push that the first issue of JLE is damn brilliant.
Clutch
July 9, 2012 at 5:41 am
This is my favorite issue of JLE ever. Bart Sears had a cartoony style which suited the book’s tone. You’ll also notice that his women were always stacked. This period in DCU history read like a breath of fresh air.
Crusader K
November 17, 2012 at 10:02 pm
Honestly, the single funniest book I’ve ever read. That scene where Major Disaster is running thru options in his head and turns to see Multi Man with the chewing gum on his nose literally makes me snort and laugh out loud to this day! Thanks for posting!