WARNING! SPOILERS UP THE WAZOO! IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?


Title: Truth is Stranger
Release Date: December 2000
Writer: Mark Waid
Pencillers: Bryan Hitch and J. H. Williams III
Inkers: Paul Neary and Mick Gray
JLA Members: Superman, Wonder Woman, the Martian Manhunter, the Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Plastic Man.
Guest Stars: Batman and Queen Hippolyta.
Bad Guys: The Queen of Fables.

So what happens?
Thanks to an enchantment by the evil Queen of Fables, Wonder Woman is asleep in a glass coffin, but Green Lantern and the Flash quickly realize that a kiss from a handsome prince will awaken the beautiful princess -- since Aquaman is the king of Atlantis, he gets nominated for the job and retrieves Wonder Woman from Sleepyland. After that, the JLA zips over to the wicked witch's house and stops her from cooking Martian Manhunter and Plastic Man.

Unfortunately, the JLA still has no idea who the Queen really is and how to stop her, but Batman shows up, lugging the old book of fairy tales that started the whole mess. When the Leaguers give him grief about getting kicked out of the Justice League and demand to know what he's learned, Bats opens the book, which immediately sucks the JLA inside!

Meanwhile, the Queen is still tearing stuff up. She wrecks Wonder Woman's home at Paradise Island, then heads to Washington, DC to build herself a castle...

Elsewhere, the Leaguers find themselves inside a storybook world, wearing goofy medieval costumes. They meet a Huntsman there, who fills them in on the backstory: Once upon a time, the Queen ruled over a vast empire, but her cruelty prompted a group of sorcerers to banish her to a far-off land -- Earth. Using her magic to terrorize and torture people all over Europe, the Queen was the basis for all the major fairy tales. After marrying a king, she became jealous of her stepdaughter and gave the Huntsman orders to kill her in the woods. Of course, he let her go free, and the princess married a handsome prince. When the Queen learned that the princess was still alive, she started a war that killed thousands. Desperate to undo the horrors brought about by the Queen, the princess used an enchanted storybook to turn all that had happened into pure fiction -- it had never happened, and none of them had ever existed, except in stories. However, the Queen's time in the storybook had given her the power to tap the power in all fictional stories, making her even more powerful outside the book. But as the Leaguers return to the Real World (still wearing their medieval armor), they know that the storybook is the key to defeating the Queen.

And then they get attacked by swarms of horrid winged faeries. Another cliffhanger...

Cool Quotes!
Green Lantern, improbably trying to get out of kissing Wonder Woman: "Yeah! Lay it on her, man! Pucker up! Go!"
Flash: "Me? You!"
Green Lantern: "Me? I'm... No! Not -- I mean -- Dude, she's an Amazon! Princess! THE Amazon Princess!"
Flash: "Kyle, I'm not worthy either, okay? But we've got to do something! Pretend she's just a regular girl and stop acting like a schoolkid!"
Green Lantern: "You stop."
Flash: "You go."
Aquaman: "You both knock it off!"

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