In Remember to Forget, we spotlight comic book stories that I wish I could forget, but I can’t, so I instead share them with you all!

Today, I look at a really weird idea for an updated version of General Glory that came out in the midst of the "extreme" comic book era.

The early 1990s was a strange period for the Justice League International brand of titles. They were still one of DC's most popular group of books, but at the same time, it was definitely one of those cases where the end seemed a lot closer than the beginning. It was still popular enough, though, that they launched a SECOND spinoff title to follow Justice League Europe (by the way, I believe Mister Miracle was initially treated as a spinoff of the Justice League, as well, so I guess this would be the third spinoff title), with the quarterly series appropriately titled Justice League Quarterly. It mostly told stories that combined the two Leagues (typically, though, in practice that meant Guy Garner, Fire, Ice, Blue Beetle, Power Girl and Flash). Here's the thing, though, Justice League Quarterly launched with an excellent story that introduced a new corporate-sponsored superhero team known as the Conglomerate, led by former Justice League member, Booster Gold, who quit the League after one too many of his and Blue Beetle's harebrained schemes ended in disaster.

Soon after Booster Gold left the book (but before Justice League Quarterly), Orion and Lightray (who had joined following Mister Miracle's apparent death - he turned out to be an impostor) left the team, as well. So Justice League America was made up of Martian Manhunter, Guy Gardner, Fire, Ice and Blue Beetle. Five members was a bit light for a superhero team, so Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis then introduced a brand-new member of the team, General Glory, who was a clever parody of Captain America.

He was introduced in Justice League America #46 (by Giffen, DeMatteis and artists Linda Medley and Jose Marzan), where we learn that Guy Gardner was a huge fan of the fictional comic book character General Glory when he was a kid and so he went to go buy at an auction the first issue of the series. However, an old man keeps bidding against him for the comic book until Guy ends up spending five thousand dollars on the comic.

When the old man visits Guy and tries to get him to let him read it, Guy is aghast, but he is shocked when he learns that the man is the REAL General Glory and he had long ago forgotten the magic words that transformed him into General Glory and he knew that the comic book had them in there and so when he read the comic, well, voila...

The rest of the storyline involved General Glory's old Nazi nemesis trying to get his revenge on him. Plus, the fact that Glory was the one person that Guy would treat with respect (heck, he practically hero worshiped him).

Right after General Glory joined the team, though, the final storyline of Giffen and DeMatteis' run began and once they were gone, obviously the new writer was not going to keep a brand-new character on the team, particularly a brand-new parody character, so General Glory went off to limbo. He made a couple of appearances in Justice League Europe as a member of the Justice League reserves, but that was it, until the brand-new General Glory was introduced...an EXTREME General Glory!

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Most of Justice League Quarterly #16 is handled really well. The concept (by Paul Kupperberg and a bunch of artists, mostly Vince Giarrano, who handles the framing sequence, which is the majority of the over-sized issue) is that a cop, Donovan Wallace, is paralyzed after saving a kid from being shot. He ends up in the same hospital room as Joe Jones, who is dealing with heart failure. Jones regales Wallace with stories of General Glory's past, done in the style of different famous comic book eras.

First, a monster comic with art by Rick Stasi and Dick Ayers...

Then a Silver Age superhero story by Curt Swan and Jose Marzan Jr....

Then a Dark Knight parody by Khato...

Then an "extreme superheroes" parody by Daniel Rodriguez and Andrew Pepoy...

We then, though, cut to Donovan as the NEW General Glory, as Joe has passed the power on to him, and Donovan in action...is pretty much exactly like the "extreme" comics that the comic book story was JUST PARODYING!!

Dude has stars that turn into throwing stars!

Joe Jones dies at the end of the issue. The new General Glory made only one other appearance (I'm not counting a General Glory cameo when Guy Gardner opened up his superhero-themed bar and restaurant, as while it probably HAS to be Donovan, he's just in one panel and he looks like the old General Glory) when he was slaughtered in Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham's Justice Society of America run.

I enjoyed the parody stories, but there really was no call for an "extreme" update on the General Glory concept.

If anyone else has a suggestion for a story that you wish you could forget, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!