Okay, I might have some controversial takes here. But now I'm working on the Justice League titles, including Forever Evil, as it is a Justice League event.
I'd almost forgotten there was a JLI with the New 52. There might as well not have been. It failing seems like it necessitated Justice League of America, which existed to give the main Justice League a government controlled team to fight in the lead up to Forever Evil. I kind of liked the JLA team, and wish they had actually had a book with stories about them.
Justice League, the flagship title, gets off on some terrible footing. I've said it before, and I've not changed my mind: Johns and Jim Lee are a terrible team. They seem to play into each others worst instincts. I feel like Johns is trying to write a combination of Morrison's epic JLA and Giffen/DeMatteis's sitcommy JLI, and it does not work. So I doubt it will come as a surprise when I say that Justice League gets monumentally better after its first year. Throne of Atlantis is fine. Trinity War's biggest problem is that it was billed as an event unto itself, when it was really just a prelude to Forever Evil. I genuinely like about 85% of The Darkseid War.
Forever Evil, which I feel has a bad reputation, is a pretty solid event book. I mean, the concept is just the Legion of Doom fights the Crime Syndicate. The motivation is just that scene from The Rocketeer where the gangsters refuse to help Nazis. I think there is a question of how seriously you take the book. The book does not wink; it presents itself as deadly serious. But it still gives you moments like this:
where Bizarro gives Luthor, in the middle of some self-important musings, a pretty flower. If you take the whole thing seriously, it is dark and unpleasant and humorless. I think the book expects you to laugh with it as it steers into being completely the darkest thing every. Idk, its grimly silly in a way that I mostly find pretty amusing.
Following Forever Evil, I think Justice League is strictly excellent. The Amazo Virus story hits a little different now, but I guess any story about an unstoppable virus rapidly infection everyone on the planet likely does.
I've just started on Justice League Dark. A realization has been building, and maybe I'm doing the guy a disservice when saying this after reading a lot of New 52 stuff, but I don't think I like Peter Milligan. I don't X-Statix. I didn't like his Stormwatch. I think his JL: Dark is simply confounding. Maybe if I'd read his Shade the Changing Man or Hellblazer stuff I'd get him, but I just don't. However, I am nearing the point of the book where Jeff Lemire takes over and his stuff I do like.
Finally, there is Justice League 3000. I remember being very excited for Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire doing a new Justice League book, then very disappointed when Maguire departed, replaced by Howard Porter (who does what I would call career best work on the book). I was so disappointed I didn't read it at the time. It is not "bwa ha ha" JL stuff, at least not to start; it is cynical, post-apocalyptic Giffen sci-fi. It does slowly morphs into 'bwa ha ha' as it goes, particularly after the first storyline finishes after issue 10. It mostly seems to be the creative team having fun with non-standard versions of big characters and a world and setting that no one cares if they blow it up.