X Marks the Spot
Massive comic book roster changes are nothing new. Either due to needing a rejuvenating jolt or just on a lark, comic book writers have re-worked the line-ups for "team" books.

Perhaps the most notable of these massive roster changes was that of the X-Men. (Duh.) I'm not even going to bother to go into the whole Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, yada yada yada thing. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, stop reading this article now.)

Since 1975's famous X-change, the X-line of Marvel comics have undergone an uncountable number of roster changes. Most recently, the complete upside-down, backwards, and inside-out modification made to X-Force book has been nothing short of awesome.

X-Force, now X-Statix, is an unusual hit. Axel Alonso's vision of bringing Peter Milligan and Mike Allred on board was nothing short of genius. The indy feel of the book and the pseudo-controversial topics combined with an interesting and ever-changing roster embodies the perfection of massive roster changes. Specifically for the purpose of boosting sales.

(Oh yeah, Wildstorm's Gen 13 seems to be doing this same thing right now.)

What About Larks?

I've also been a big fan of temporary roster changes that are done on a lark. (Yeah, I know that they also help sales, but sometimes they just don't seem necessary.

The main example I can think of in this case is 1990's Fantastic Four roster change. Sure Crystal and She Hulk rotated in and out of the book periodically. But that's not MASSIVE.

In 1990, we saw a brief shake-up which brought Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, and the Hulk into the line-up. Bizarre? Yes? Entertaining? Hell yeah!

JLA

This brings me to the latest of these roster changes. JLA.

JLA is by no means hurting for sales right now. And we've seen massive roster changes with the Justice League before. Remember Keith Giffen's hilarious run? Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Guy Gardner and company?

So what makes this one so unique? Nothing really. It's the familiar theme of "Oh, something tragic has happened to the big leaguers, so it's up to the second stringers to fill their shoes."

It's just that now, the "real" JLA is filled with all the DC heavy-hitters. Who could they possibly bring in to replace them? With Batman in charge of the replacement contingency plan, it's bound to be something very... thought provoking.

There are familiar faces in Firestorm, Hawkgirl, Green Arrow, the Atom, and newly promoted field commander Nightwing. It's the less familiar faces that make things interesting.

There's Jason Blood who has a bad habit of turning into the rhyming demon Etrigan. There's Major Disaster, a former grade D but edible villian of the Injustice League. And there's Faith, a completely new character. (Captain Marvel declined his invitation to join.)

This seems like a very unlikely group to take the place of Wonder Woman, Batman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Superman. But hey, if Batman says it's cool...

And this, is why I think massive comic book roster shake-ups are cool.