Kicked off with the first chapter to Tom Peyer and Rags Morales' new Hourman series (debut mid-99), the Hourman of 853rd Century takes time out to learn about all the big events in the JLA's history. Well, he has no choice, since the Flash is having vivid (ahem) flashbacks to each Earth-shaking event. Kind of slow (surprisingly) but a good look at Wally's take on each of the bigh events (see below), and how each one affected him (as they always seem to be hardest on him, credit to Peyer for pointing that out). Morales typically does great art, his Black Condor series really showcased his talent with shadow, but I think the inker on this story, Dave Meikus, is totally unsuitable to his style.
After the feature, the second half of the book takes a brief look at each major event (a brief write up to the side, a huge pin-up, and a timeline underneath). The pin-ups are a great attraction, with Jose Louis Garcia-Lopez doing the Crisis, Tom Grummet on Legends, Darryl Banks rendering Millenium, a totally cool Invasion by Frank Fosco, a Dusty Abell working of War Of The Gods, a kick-butt Armageddon 2001 by Kevin Maguire, Eclipso by Greg Luzniak, Scott McDaniel on Bloodlines, Dan Jurgens doing his baby Zero Hour, a no-holds-barred Tony Harris drawing of Underworld Unleashed, Stuart Immonen on Final Night, Ron Wagner's Genesis, and a groovy Greg Land shot at DC One Million. The last three pages are a closer look at the many computer generated worlds (by Pat Garrahy) used as the backdrops for the DC 1,000,000 covers.
While feeling a little cheated for my $7.50, I still enjoyed JLA In Crisis, but I think to blanket this under the JLA moniker is simple exploitation. DC Universe in Crisis is a much better title, and much more fitting. I would have liked another story, though.