We will bring our Dueling Review coverage of Justice League #1 your way this afternoon when A) we get off work, and B) after we get our butts to the comic book store. Until then, here’s your chance to talk about Justice League #1. The midnight release saw long lines at some comic stores, and we learned that it became one of the top download files from the various bittorrent sites an hour after the book went on sale.
Did you get your copy of Justice League #1? What did you think? Did Johns and Lee bring the magic, or did the fumble on the one yard line and ruin everything? Lover or hater? Physical copy or LEGAL digital download? Here’s your chance to share your thoughts on one of the biggest changes to occur in the DC Universe in the last decade.
GO!
38 Comments
Spoiler-y?
I had high hopes. I really enjoyed the Batman/Green Lantern scenes. But this whole series seems very “I’ve seen it before.” Even the Batman/GL stuff was very All-star Batman.
Heroes fighting heroes until at the end they’re gonna be like, “oh hey! we’re on the same side! lets team up.”
And then more Darkseid. Honestly, can we give him a rest? I think if you’re gonna reboot, why not come up with a new villain? Perfect time to do so.
Plus, this seems like we’ll have to wait about 10 issues before there even is a justice league. No WW, no Flash, no Aquaman.
I just expected more from these guys. Instead, its just a younger JL. We’ve seen it all before. We’ve 51 others to check out… Some have got to be great.
Do you know how long its been since there was a Darkseid story line? of course you dont, you just like to spout crap lol. Use a new villain? no thanks, there needs to be an epic villain to give the jla a reason to form, new villains lack that kind of gravitas, and its actually been about 3 years since there was a major Darkseid story.
Do you know how long its been since there was a Darkseid story line? of course you dont, you just like to spout crap lol.
Please make sure that we’re not belittling others personally just because we don’t agree with their opinions… The internet lacks the visual and tonal cues that keep friendly jabs from sounding like attacks.
And it’s been less than three years since the last Darkseid storyline, as I recall.
When was “Final Crisis”? Answer that, and I’m pretty sure that was “the last Darkseid storyline” we had, so you’ll have your timeframe then. :)
You’re an asshole in real life, aren’t you?
I’ll say fumble, and I expected more out of this being the start of “The New 52.” Spoilers, the issue takes place in Gotham City with Green Lantern and Batman, arguing about how to save the city from an alien. Batman takes away his ring, and he whines about it. We then travel to Metropolis to see Cyborg playing football, and Superman being a menace. Green Lantern is punched through a Lexcorp sign, and we’re done with the issue. Took me 5 minutes to read it, and the artwork was nothing special. This felt like and Elseworld issue, and nothing more, everything about it, from the new costumes, to the dialogue between the “heroes.” Nothing was good. Even the way the two cities were represented felt wrong, I didn’t see anything in the Gotham area, that made me feel like this was a Batman issue, or anything in Metropolis that made feel like this was a Superman issue. I know Superman isn’t going to be from Metropolis in this universe, but everything else about his old universe still has roots there and it looked wrong to me . I really cant help but point out the dialogue between the heroes, it didn’t feel like it was aimed at adults, more like it children, would get a kick out of this. I’m 34, and been reading comics since High School, so my history starts back in the mid 90’s.
More and more lately, I reference a line from Star Trek Insurrection, and I think it will sum up how disappointing this was for me as a reader.
“Does anyone remember when we were explorers?” — Picard
Just the look on Picard’s face in that scene sums up all the feelings about “moving forward.” One sentence and all trekkies knew exactly what he meant. Do we all remember the first mission at Farpoint, and Q? Do we remember the early episodes involving Tasha, and the Romulan themed cliffhanger at the end? Riker before the beard? Worf in a red shirt? Geordi before he went to Engineering? And it means in this instance or any instance really, do we recall when comics were good, and we were excited about going to pick them up on Wednesday, or read about them in Wizard and Hero Illustrated.
I wanted more out of this issue, I wanted it to make me “remember.” This was a huge letdown.
Im 38, been reading since the early 80s and really liked the book didnt seem written for children at all. It reminded me of what I like about DC and its characters. I also love Star Trek but then you go and use Insurrection in an analogy. So you dont like jla 1 but you did like the worst steaming pile of crap to come out a Star Trek? I think your tastes are highly questionable lol. Just goes to show how different peoples opinions can be so different. I would recommend you dont buy the second issue if you really didnt like it.
All those things are things I hate .Tasha, Romulans, No-Beard riker, red-shirt owrf, Geordi not in engineering: All things that I think are bad. So I take this to read: Remember when comics sucked? Glad that’s over.
You were doing well until you quoated a line from Insurrection… the worst ST movie ever made.. Also you’ve been reading comics for 20+ year, you’ve probably read it all before then… the DC universe is dumb at its core, no amount of rebooting could save it…
All of Star Trek is good to me, some is better then others, but in the days where Alphas lasts longer than SGU or Caprica on a “Syfy” station. I’ll take what I can get. Yes, a 20 year follower in this industry, the mid 90’s introduced me to Comics and CCG, and both have stuck with me for a very long time. I was just so let down with this issue. I want to enjoy comics like I used to, and was hoping for this to not feel, as like I had been there before. This story was a cliche throughout, and left me with not wanting to read any of the other titles.
Stepping away to reference another movie, Batman Begins/Dark Knight. Those were great films, and left me wondering, wow, why can’t they tell stories like that in the regular lines nowadays.
More to the point, why do comics have to have splash pages as the default ending? This issue was to tell the origin of the Justice League, before they become the Justice League, that part I understand. So the long time readers have to ignore all the past history of these characters, and the arcs that we enjoyed over the years. Now we have a new League, and there not together yet. But from the cover, we know where there headed. Not all those heroes appear in the issue, but we can tell where there headed. Letdown, to know that we can already see that these characters will all eventually learn to come together in some way. The writer will lead us on the eventual path, make these heroes not trust each other at first, but through an event (battling Darkseid),they’ll learn to put aside their differences and trust one other, for the good of this planet. Yes, the story is familiar, and was a letdown for me as the reader.
I didn’t finish Flashpoint, gave up on it after reading Citizen Cold, and thought to myself, why pay for this? None of these stories will matter in the new universe.
This issue just came off as a huge letdown, for what was supposed to be “the start of a new line.”
come on man I love ST but Insurrection was an abortion and you know it.
come on man I love ST but Insurrection was an abortion and you know it.
Mileage varies for everyone… Just because one doesn’t like something doesn’t make it bad.
Yea, I gotta say “lapis2” needs to learn how to self-moderate better. I’m just as opinionated, and hopefully not as antagonistic! ^_^
Not spectacularly bad, but they’re not off to a great start.
Not awful.
Briefly: I found Hal’s attitude jarring and it was way too short. It’ll be January before the team is formed. I wanted to read Justice League, not Brave and the Bold. Nothing special going on here at all.
Well, at least they have 51 more chances to get one started right!!
I just read Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1. I enjoyed them both.
Can’t wait to read of the rest of the #1’s I plan to buy in the next 30.
I think there are going to be a lot of folks out there who for years (if they’ve been alive that long) have been referring to Batman as “a d&ck” and Hal Jordan as “a pompous jerk” who are going to complain about this version of these characters actually being portrayed as a d&ck and a pompous jerk. I mean, if this was “really” five years ago (2006) in the post 9/11 “age of cynicism” then I’d expect someone to throw in Jordan’s line about “just a guy in a bat suit” (which has been in infinite parodies).
One thing that I did enjoy in this issue were Jordan’s constructs. He hit one of Darkside’s minions with a fire truck. That was amusing and more visual than the old silver-age boxing glove.
While I’m also peeved that this series will start off with the “one hero at a time” introduction to each other as well as a completely new origin for Cyborg which will apparently be tied into another meeting with the New Gods that’s totally unnecessary. It makes the character seem like the “junior newbie token” whereas in the Flashpoint series he’s already an established hero and has been an established hero since his first days in the Teen Titans. The “daddy issues/Steve “Bionic Man” Austin complex” thing didn’t need to be redone.
I don’t mind the art. I didn’t follow Wildstorm so I don’t have that to compare it to and it doesn’t hark back to anything for me in the 90’s. Batman’s costume does look more like what I’d expect to see from a guy that’s basically a one-man Tactical Squad. I like the new Superman duds with the red belt and no underwear on the outside.
Superman vrs. Batman. Damn I wish I had a dollar for each time I’ve read stories on this since the start of the Silver Age. I’d be able to buy my old comic collection back. If the point of this series is to establish that in this reboot Bats is the “tactical leader” then he would obviously have to prove that his mind is more of a weapon than any of the incredible powers and abilities the others gathering will have. This will also be the moment where this writing team sets up the dynamics of the relationship between Bats and Big Blue. Frankly, Superman knocking a cocky young Hal Jordan’s you-know-what in the dirt was pretty amusing.
My finial take is I see some potential but I’m still not yet a fan of the concept of Justice Leauge (of America? Or are we politically correcting that out as well??) and Action Comics being “flashback” stories nor that it will probably be at least a year before we see the League established and any sort of team dynamic in place.
Would I have gone to a store at midnight to get this? Uh…hell no. Will I follow this title? For now, yes. Or at least until Earth-2 and the JSA return.
“I like the new Superman duds with the red belt and no underwear on the outside. ”
Now that those two are tuckin’ the briefs inside, is there anyone left in Marvel and DC who still rock the old fashioned underwear on the outside?
Now that those two are tuckin’ the briefs inside, is there anyone left in Marvel and DC who still rock the old fashioned underwear on the outside?
Wolverine.
10:00am EDT
Went to comic store and got my Physical Copy.
12:00pm EDT
No not a big DC guy I know of them but have not read any DC since Words Collide, but Me Likey. I do fell the magic. (And not those 2 sided cards)
I like the art a lot, I enjoyed that everyone knows of each other but no one has meet yet, was cool that Green Lantern was trying to prove himself to Batman and Batman not caring one bit. I can see way hard core fans will not like this updated and new feel, but I’m Lover for now!
Only thing that was annoying was all the ads (6 pages) for “The New 52”. I get it DC, you have some new comics coming out! I did like the Sketchbook at the end though.
Thanks to Steven, Rodrigo and Matthew for the recommendations on some of the other New 52 titles on the last podcast, I have added them all to my list.
Can not wait for the Duel!
For an issue 1 it felt like it was missing around 20 pages or like it was all action no exposition, why is Batman been chased and more importantly why is the use of deadly force employed? Is this the universe Flash returned to after Flashpoint? Seen how at the end of Flashpoint we see Bruce wearing the same costume as the one we see now I guess yes. It felt like a teaser for a direct to dvd movie rather then a comic book.
Still on board, just wearing a life vest for now.
I agree with if feeling like a teaser. I really think they should have gone with a double-sized issue. And that they had shown the whereabouts of all, or at least most, of the team members. There was nothing wrong with it, but perhaps the brevity.
Wait… now I’m confused.
(SPOILERS, Sweetie!)
At the end of Flashpoint, there’s that whole epilogue with Bruce and Barry (which I personally enjoyed) in the new DCU. In JL #1, the whole story starts five years in the past. Sooo… where in that time does Barry deliver the letter to Bruce? Before? After? And when Flash jumps on the JL party bus, will it be recognized that Flash and Bats are already close friends to the point that their secret identities are known to each other? Will Flash still remember Flashpoint, and the DCU of old? If not, wouldn’t it be kind of d*ck that Barry holds on to Bruce’s letter for all this time until five years after the beginning of JL #1? Or are we to assume that the DCnU is the universe from where Barry jumped into the whole Flashpoint shenanigans?….
My guess is that sometime after the formation of the JLA, Barry shows up out of the blue and gives Bruce the letter and explains what happened in Flashpoint to him. He doesn’t have the letter when they first meet or anything like that, he also doesn’t have the knowledge of the changes in this “new” universe either because he was part of the timeline when it was changed by this mysterious entity at the end of Flashpoint.
I think this issue was set in the far, far, far past, just so that we know how superheroes actually started in the new 52 universe – to define what their place is IN the new universe.
The timeline has apparently been “compressed”… meaning, I dunno, if Batman’s been Batman for ten years pre-Flashpoint, he’s only been Batman for four or five post-Flashpoint.
I loved the artwork, I really really loved the artwork – and I loved the constructs as well. The story… I’m looking at what this whole thing is going to turn out to be, and it frustrates me that the whole thing will be spun out over half a year or more. It just feels like this is the kind of story that ought to be… shorter. Or something.
Although there is only 20 pages for a comic book and I have no idea how they could make things better, so this shall suffice.
But does anyone else feel really weird that Supes, Batman and GL all read like they’re JUST out of high school? If there wasn’t 70 something years of history behind these characters and I just started reading this, it would fit in as a story of a new teenage supergroup. And it seems like that’s what they’re going for, identify-with-younger-people seems to be a popular way of doing things in entertainment… does anyone else feel that?
Or are we to assume that the DCnU is the universe from where Barry jumped into the whole Flashpoint shenanigans?….
I think that it’s another example of Barry entering a new reality and having his memories catch up with him later, as we saw at the beginning of Flashpoint.
so where’s the Flashpoint Talk Back page???
;-)
I might check out the Flashpoint #5 review for that, Brainy…
http://www.majorspoilers.com/review-flashpoint-5-of-5
I read flashpoint 5 and Jla 1 back to back liked em both. To all those people who seem to have sand in their vags about this first issue, did you really think the whole jla would be in this first issue? its an origin story, did you think a years worth of comics where going to be crammed into 1 issue? the characters have to meet, feel each other out, there needs to be a reason for them to form a team, and yeah thats where Darkseid comes in. And damn whats wrong with Darkseid? DC cant use one of their coolest villians every couple of years? DC doesnt pull him out as often as some of you seem to think they do, seriously hes no Wolverine (in evey damn book every month) guys.
This is my first DC comic, I really liked it. They really put a lot of attitude into the green lantern dialogue which helps speed character development. My one criticism would be it felt short, not much meat in the story.
I bought both Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1 and couldn’t be happier with each book on its own, and the two together as the omega and alpha of the DCU.
For Flashpoint #5, it was satisying to see that no matter what continuity we find ourselves in, Bats will /always/ find a way to do the right thing, no matter the sacrifice. The power of love between parent and child is at the heart of the end of Flashpoint, as illuminated by both the Flash and Batman.
For Justice League #1, we’re introduced to the brave new world through Green Lantern and Batman, and the essence of both characters is captured perfectly, with Bats as our lens through which we’ll explore the principal players – an ordinay man capable of extraordinary things not because of a magic ring or alien powers, but because of the power of the human spirit fueled by love for his parents.
I’m excited to be along for the ride!
I have loved JLA for the longest. Now I am putting it to rest. DC you have saved me money, but you have made my comic book store manager upset with me.
I liked the interaction between Batman and Green Lantern. GL comes across as a bit arrogant, thinking he can beat any problem with his ring only for Batman to show he’s not all powerful. I wasn’t surprised about Darkseid being mentioned as I have thought since i saw the preview that the alien was obviously a Parademon.
I liked what was there, which wasn’t much. For all the build up and hype, it was a pretty quick 1-issue story. They reallyl didn’t give me a lot to sink my teeth into. it felt more like a preview of the new universe, instead of a good launch. I can’t believe it wasn’t Giant Sized, or double length, or SOMETHING. To hype it up as the bi glaunching issue, but only a bare-bones 22 page story (a good one, but still.) with no preview page, or letters page, or community page, was a bit of a let down. It was good, but didn’t feel “special” like they told me it was. If I didn’t know already that this issue was a huge deal, I couldn’t have known by reading it.
I loved it (picked it up as a legal download through comixology last night).
I liked the new DC world that doesn’t know what to make of superheroes yet, I liked the interactions between Batman and GL and didn’t find it any less substantial than any other comic and was actually quite impressed by Johns’ ability to ‘show’ not ‘tell’ (I’ve never been one of his biggest fans).
Looking forward to the books coming out next week and issue #2 of JL next month.
So I guess this WAS a cover and not just a “promotional image”?
Anyone keeping a tally of how many promotional images turn out to indeed be the cover?
If you look at the DC Solicitations for September, the only one that did say promotional was the Batgirl image by Adam Hughes.
I thought during all the hubbub over (not?) Donna Troy vanishing from the JLI thing that it was said that those were promotional images and not necessarily covers?
I need to keep up with this stuff a lot better! Or was Wonder Woman’s NuDCU pants/no pants flippityflopping indicative of DC’s changing minds?