The best Evil Superman is back in comics

Justice League and its sequel/continuation Justice League Unlimited are criminally underrated cartoons. And maybe the best episodes were wrapped up in the Justice Lords, the show’s own globe-dominating, totalitarian version of the Justice League. 

The villainous team was introduced as a Justice League from an alternate dimension where an Evil Superman had used his laser vision to lobotomize President Lex Luthor and the Justice League had seized control of the human race from there. But over the course of a season-long arc — yeah, Justice League Unlimited had season-long arcs — the show revealed that the Justice Lords weren’t from another reality. They were from a potential future that appeared to be creeping closer every day. 

Now, thanks to DC Comics’ new Justice League Infinity series, set in the continuity of the cartoon show, we’re getting another story about the villains whose every appearance reminds the Justice League of the real potential that they’re headed down a dark path. 

What else is happening in the pages of our favorite comics? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of the books that our comics editor enjoyed this past week. It’s part society pages of superhero lives, part reading recommendations, part “look at this cool art.” There may be some spoilers. There may not be enough context. But there will be great comics. (And if you missed the last edition, read this.)

Justice League Infinity #1 is a smorgasbord of Justice League Unlimited favorites. Amazo? Check. Elongated Man and Booster Gold? Check. That subplot where the Martian Manhunter quit the League to live secretly as various human identities in order to learn to love humanity? Check! 

Yeah yeah yeah, the X-Men moved to a treehouse in New York and built a mech to fight a kaiju in some good old superhero hijinks but the real highlight of X-Men #1 is that Gerry Duggan is continuing his quest to put Murd Blurdock, alien space lawyer and parody of Daredevil, in everything he possibly can. 

I had never read a Sas Milledge-drawn book before, but I can’t say no to “teen hedge witchery with a light fantasy setting.” Mamo #1 rewarded me with beautiful art and this absolute hook of a double character introduction. 

Crush & Lobo is absolutely about Crush distracting herself from how her girlfriend broke up with her by taking a galactic road trip to meet her deadbeat dad — but it’s also got that good old Lobo space absurdism, which I think is a nice touch. To me, Lobo will always be the space pope of a fish religion. 

With the close of the Heroes Reborn arc, Avengers is kicking off “World War She-Hulk” — you know, like World War Hulk but with Jennifer Walters. The World War here seems to mean something a bit different, with Russia kidnapping Jennifer Walters and tossing her into the Red Room for brainwashing, transforming her into — what else — Red She-Hulk. 

It’s hard to pick one panel from Wonder Girl #2. The book starts Yara off with a beautifully rendered origin point — and Jones is bringing in so much from the wider (DC Comics) Amazon world while also inventing new pieces. How to immediately earn my loyalty for a Wonder Woman book: use the Amazons.