Dennis O'Neil's run on Justice League is sadly brief, as Volume 3 of Crisis on Multiple Earths sees him replaced by Mike Friedrich for one story and Len Wein for three. Friedrich's "Earth-- The Monster Maker!" / "Solomon Grundy-- The One and Only" tries to use the parallel Earths to advantage by telling the story of an alien and his symbiotic pet stranded between the two Earths, but it turns out to be boring fight scene after boring fight scene until the heroes figure out the kid is lost, not evil. Of vague interest is some interaction between the Robins of both Earths, but vague is as far as the characterization goes. The Robin of Earth-One borrows a costume unused by the Earth-Two Robin-- I can see why, because it's godawful, even if Neal Adams (acknowledged in dialogue!) did design it.

I found both of Len Wein's big event stories ("The Unknown Soldier of Victory!"/"The Hand That Shook the World"/"And One of Us Must Die!" and "Crisis on Earth-X!"/"Thirteen against the Earth!") very uninspired. They're old-school team-ups, where the Justice League/Justice Society/whatever team split up into groups and each fight mini-battle before uniting for the finale. Depressingly formulaic. Wein pulls in more and more obscure heroes, but does nothing to make you care about them. "The Creature in the Velvet Cage" is decent, but it explains something that didn't really need an explanation: why did the Sandman change his costume back to his gas mask one (um, because it's awesome and the purple one sucked?) and what happened to Sandy Hawkins?

Dick Dillin is still pretty awesome, though. Keep rocking it out on art, man.

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Volume Three reprints the JLA/JSA team-ups from 1971 through 1974, including the three team, three part team up that began in the 100th issue of Justice League of America. When reading these stories, I get a feeling that the writers and editors were saying to themselves, "How can we retell the basic story this year?" In 1971, Mr. Friedrich played with limiting the line up to characters who had counterparts on the other Earth. That particular team up seemed to focus on the theme of relationships. 1972's team up was the aforementioned three-parter sending the JLA and JSA on a quest to find the time lost Seven Soldiers of Victory. A year later, our heroes stumbled upon Earth-X where the Nazis won World War II. They help Earth-X's resident heroes, the Freedom Fighters, in a rematch. (These were comics I had actually owned back in the day. It was a pleasant surprise to turn a page and discover that Dick Dillin's image of Batman climbing the Eiffel Tower had been burned into my brain. Great stuff.) By 1974, the creative teams wisely tried a different tack and told a smaller tale focusing on the Sandman and his erstwhile partner, Sandy.
--J. ( )