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Review: JLA by Mark Waid Omnibus

A buying review of Mark Waid’s JLA shelf: Tower of Babel, trust, scale and whether it belongs next to Morrison.

DCJustice LeagueMark WaidReview

JLA by Mark Waid Omnibus is a Justice League book about trust. That sounds smaller than cosmic threats and end-of-the-world spectacle, but it is exactly why the omnibus earns its place next to Grant Morrison’s JLA.

Morrison makes the League mythic. Waid tests whether that mythology can survive suspicion, contingency plans and the knowledge that Batman has imagined how to beat everyone in the room.

Why this omnibus works

The core reason to buy it is Tower of Babel. The idea is brutally clean: Batman’s private plans to neutralise the League are stolen and turned against his teammates. It is a superhero plot, but the real wound is personal.

That is what Waid does well. He writes the League as icons, but also as people who have to keep working together after trust has been damaged. The book is less about whether the heroes can win and more about whether the team should still believe in itself.

What else is on the shelf

The product data positions this omnibus beyond one famous storyline, with Year One and Heaven’s Ladder broadening the shelf. That matters because the buy should not be sold as Tower of Babel alone.

Year One gives the League an earlier, more formative texture, while Heaven’s Ladder pushes the scale back toward impossible DC spectacle. Together, they make the volume feel more complete than a single-arc collection.

The limitation

If you only want the most essential JLA omnibus, Grant Morrison is still the first stop. Waid is better as the companion shelf: sharper on trust, less definitive as the grand statement.

Some readers may also prefer one continuous run over a broader Waid collection. This works best if you like seeing one writer approach the League from several angles.

Buying verdict

Buy JLA by Mark Waid Omnibus if you already care about the Justice League and want the book that makes Batman’s contingency logic emotionally expensive. It is not the first JLA omnibus I would buy, but it is a very strong second one.

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