Justice League is supposed to be the flagship title for the New 52. The first few issues have been rather good, can it continue to fulfill or is this just wishful thinking? Find out after the jump. . .
JUSTICE LEAGUE #4
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Jim Lee
Inker: Scott Williams
Colorist: Alex Sinclair with Gabe Eltaeb
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Cover Artist: Jim Lee and Scott Williams with Alex Sinclair
Editor: Brian Cunningham
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $3.99
Previously in Justice League: Earth is being attacked by unknown flying demon assailants (Parademons for those who haven’t figured it out). During these attacks, Earth’s greatest heroes are starting to gather together and attempt to beat back the forces. So far we have Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman. Meanwhile, the demons are kidnapping scientists and in the process have obliterated the body of one Victor Stone, whose father then uses the experimental technology in the lab to try and save him.
CHARACTER WITHOUT PROGRESSION
Victor Stone is becoming Cyborg, in case that wasn’t obvious, and is freaking out about it, mostly blaming his dad. Meanwhile, the other six are debating who should be the leader with Lantern arguing about who can do what, and why anyone should be the leader. The character moments here are great, with Aquaman showing up G.L. proving what he can do. The story, on the other hand, moves about thirty seconds as the group is attacked by the military, mostly to hit the Parademons, but they don’t care about the rest. After Cyborg confronts a Parademon, he flashes through a Boom tube, kind of learns of the evil plot, and ends up in front of the other six. With the League now together, it’s time to reveal the big bad, Darkseid (which we’ve basically known since the beginning). Seriously, that’s the issue. Like I said, the character moments are being well done and I like where it’s going, but there was almost no progress made this issue.
ACTION-Y
Jim Lee does a great job here. Everything looks great, I like the new costume designs, and even Darkseid looks kinda scary. The quality of the work here is high enough that I have nothing to pick out. There isn’t anything that bothers me, and all of it looks great enough that I have nothing to point out as being exceptional over anything else.
BOTTOM LINE: PROLLY WORTH IT
Like I said, Geoff Johns has done a great job on character interaction and showing the younger versions of these characters as they first meet. Jim Lee is doing a great job with the redesigns. Even the extras in this issue made it worth it. My only problem was the utter lack of progression in this issue, essentially two things happened, both within the last few pages, the League is together and the Big Bad has appeared. Unfortunately, this lack of story drops what would have been a great book down to just a good one. Justice League #4 still earns a decent 3 out of 5 stars.
4 Comments
I enjoyed this issue, even with the “Big 90’s” art. I am really enjoying the writers of the books with Aquaman using the years of comic material from the old character to juxtapose the “Wolverine of the Ocean” that they’re not portraying Arthur Curry. His reaction to Hal Jordan’s challenge was hilarious. In all the years of seeing Darkseid’s minions fought this is the first time I’ve seen them eaten by Great White Sharks and it was great! The fact that they now let Aquaman USE that trident as a weapon is great as well. So now the whole new “original” gang is here with Cyborg taking the place of Martin Manhunter. And, ironically, gaining a new origin based on the DCU’s fear of metahumans and alien invasions.
Did I also mention how glad I am to see Steve Trevor back in the Wonder Woman mythos?
Well, Darkseid is back. Which is confusing because now we have no idea how Batman ended up “dead/time skipping” due to the changes in the history of the DCU from Flashpoint but I guess we’ll get that somewhere down the road. Until them I’m enjoying a return to Jack Kirby’s neigh-omniponent big baddie and just enjoying the ride.
I have noticed the lack of story progression to be the trend these days. It’s like writing is so expensive that they have to have as few story arcs a year as possible to save money. People might say that they are padding the issues for Trades but a good Trade has more plot than this.
I just wish Hal Jordan would quit with the smart ass remarks and not be so condescending to the others. Take his ring off and he would not be there.
It was a fun, light read that was still quite satisfying. I’m especially enjoying the current emphasis on trying to make Aquaman a bad ass from day one. We were running low on ways to mock Aquaman and now we’re being given new material!