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Description
Consider for a moment that when you strip away the paranoia, backstabbing, and distrust that permeated and blackened the idealized view of the JLA in more recent years (despite those same things being some great storytelling, from Identity Crisis to Tower of Babel to Infinite Crisis to Crisis of Conscience to Cry For Justice) and recall that for a long time the JLA existed as DC's premier supergroup, the banding together of the best of the DC Universe into one title. Each character existed with a function to help center the group: Superman utilizing his wisdom, Wonder Woman the field leader, Aquaman the outsider, Martian Manhunter the most human alien of them all, Flash the moral center, and Green Lantern the showboat. Batman's presence, being the one with nary a power? His incredible ability to use his brain, deducing any problem presented to him and breaking it down one step at a time. This is especially why Batman is considered the most dangerous of the JLA, and why any clever villain would do well to take him out of the equation first before anyone else.

Batman's relationship with the JLA is probably one of the most fractured, due to him in recent years not being one to retain permanent ties to the group as in the past, and preferring to work in the shadows. This is made apparent after his expulsion from the League at the conclusion of Tower of Babel which saw Ra's al Ghul use his contingency plans in case any of the JLA go rogue against the group. A far cry from the early days when he was one of the most involved in the group's politics, despite leaving to head up his own team of heroes to take on missions the JLA didn't in the form of the Outsiders. But, much like the rest of the Big 7 Batman's presence on the team is often looked for and sometimes needed (though to be fair Green Arrow acted often as a surrogate to Batman when Bats was absent from time to time).

We're coming to the curtain call of Bat-Vember and its somewhat bittersweet that this is where things begin to get wrapped up, namely because I had such a ball doing this project that has yielded some of the tastiest figure work I've done in ages. The lesson I can continue to take from this is to always continue to improve and have fun above all else.

Description
Consider for a moment that when you strip away the paranoia, backstabbing, and distrust that permeated and blackened the idealized view of the JLA in more recent years (despite those same things being some great storytelling, from Identity Crisis to Tower of Babel to Infinite Crisis to Crisis of Conscience to Cry For Justice) and recall that for a long time the JLA existed as DC's premier supergroup, the banding together of the best of the DC Universe into one title. Each character existed with a function to help center the group: Superman utilizing his wisdom, Wonder Woman the field leader, Aquaman the outsider, Martian Manhunter the most human alien of them all, Flash the moral center, and Green Lantern the showboat. Batman's presence, being the one with nary a power? His incredible ability to use his brain, deducing any problem presented to him and breaking it down one step at a time. This is especially why Batman is considered the most dangerous of the JLA, and why any clever villain would do well to take him out of the equation first before anyone else.

Batman's relationship with the JLA is probably one of the most fractured, due to him in recent years not being one to retain permanent ties to the group as in the past, and preferring to work in the shadows. This is made apparent after his expulsion from the League at the conclusion of Tower of Babel which saw Ra's al Ghul use his contingency plans in case any of the JLA go rogue against the group. A far cry from the early days when he was one of the most involved in the group's politics, despite leaving to head up his own team of heroes to take on missions the JLA didn't in the form of the Outsiders. But, much like the rest of the Big 7 Batman's presence on the team is often looked for and sometimes needed (though to be fair Green Arrow acted often as a surrogate to Batman when Bats was absent from time to time).

We're coming to the curtain call of Bat-Vember and its somewhat bittersweet that this is where things begin to get wrapped up, namely because I had such a ball doing this project that has yielded some of the tastiest figure work I've done in ages. The lesson I can continue to take from this is to always continue to improve and have fun above all else.