Maxwell Lord’s great disappearing act continues as the former Justice Leaguers continue to struggle against a mindwiped world. Fire finds that her Checkmate post has been rescinded, which of course gives Max Lord the perfect opportunity to taunt Fire. Ice, Booster Gold, and Captain Atom, meanwhile, follow an old JLI signal to the Reyes’ household and welcome Blue Beetle into their ranks against a horde of O.M.A.C.s.

Giffen and Winick make Maxwell Lord more than the wafer-thin one-note threat that he could be, but to this point, they haven’t given Max the motivation to do what he’s doing. Why is Max Lord leaving Booster, Fire, Ice, and Captain Atom cognizant? What does he gain from their perceived ineptitude? Without providing Max with some significant motivation, this title treads a thin line between being innovative or repetitious.

Giffen and Winick manage to take the heart of the funniest era of Justice League history and play those characters as serious actors in a serious drama. This story isn’t played for laughs, and it works better that way.

Three issues in and three different art teams have delivered pages for “Justice League: Generation Lost.” In this issue, Giffen’s work with the breakdowns is most prominent. Dagnino’s pencils over top Giffen’s breakdowns seem thin and non-committal. There isn’t much to help the characters pop out from the backgrounds, and more often than not, the backgrounds are left for Hi-Fi to dabble in. The panel composition and camera angles are good, but it seems as though more detail could be employed. Dagnino doesn’t deliver much in the way of variance among his figures and faces, but he does provide a nice array of expressions for these characters as the attack and react to the problems around them.

Since their glory days, the characters from the Justice League International have spread far and wide. This issue begins to display how far the connections go, with more teased for the next issue. With the entirety of the DC Universe available to be visited (or is it revisited?) by the Bwa-ha-ha League under a more serious premise than the first time around, this title promises cameos and guest stars galore. I just hope the plot isn’t sacrificed in the name of cameos and guest appearances. This issue is a good compromise between moving the story forward and explaining the world around these characters, but it needs to keep moving forward.