Justice League #12 - A Review

Four words sum up Justice League #12 - Too Little, Too Late.

Quite a lot happens in this issue. Unfortunately, most of it is things that should have happened several issues ago or shouldn't have happened at all. I mentioned in my earlier reviews of this series that the villain of the current story arc - Graves - was ill-defined in terms of both powers and motivation. For some reason, this final chapter opens up with far more exposition than we ever had before regarding not only what happened to Graves and his family but we also get a clear explanation of just what happened between Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor in the five year gap between Issue 6 and Issue 7. We really could have used this information earlier!



Issue #12 also features the first time we've see a Hal Jordan in this book who is portrayed as having an ounce of common sense, being the only Justice League member to see through Graves' manipulations. It's also the first time we've seen Hal Jordan acting like a noble hero instead of a horny frat boy, making a noble - though probably unnecessary - sacrifice in the name of team unity.

But the big story here - at least, in the minds of DC Comics' PR Department - is the beginning of a romance between Superman and Wonder Woman. To say that this romance comes out of left-field and feels entirely driven by editorial fiat is putting it mildly. Even Geoff Johns at the height of his powers is unable to sell this story.



Jim Lee's pencils are as strong as ever, though the look of the finished artwork is somewhat uneven. This is probably due to a team of nine (yes, NINE!) inkers being responsible for the first 28 pages of the book, many of whom have completely incompatible styles. Some pages are so thinly inked as to barely have any definition at all. Others are oversaturated with shadows, completely obscuring some details.

When the New 52 began a year ago, Justice League was meant to be DC's flagship title - a task it has largely failed in. More often than not over the past year, this book has been disappointing, seeming rushed and incomplete. Come to think of it, maybe that makes it a perfect flagship book for the New 52...

My Thoughts On The New Justice League Team

SOURCE: Geoff Johns and David Finch Add Stargirl, Catwoman, And More To The Brand New 'Justice League of America'

I couldn't he happier about this.

I noted repeatedly in my reviews of the current Justice League book that Jim Lee and Geoff Johns - while both talented creators - don't play off of each others strengths very well. Johns has always been at his best focusing on the hidden depths of an ensemble cast (JSA, Teen Titans, Avengers) and Lee is at his best when he's allowed to depict big action scenes with larger than life characters.

I can see there will be some accusations of trying to ape The Avengers movie. You have a guy with a bow, a woman with no powers in a leather catsuit and the whole thing is led by a career military man who believes in the idea of superheroes being needed to face the threats the military can't deal with. And no doubt the Geoff Johns haters will scream about him playing favorites by bringing back Stargirl.

Let them squawk.

The fact of the matter is this has to have been in the works for a while. Saying that Green Arrow and Catwoman are the same as Hawkeye and Black Widow is to do a disservice to all four characters. And Stargirl was a great character, one of Johns' finest creations and we need all the strong, moral, competent female heroes we can get in American comics these days.

Besides... I don't think it's Justice League without Martian Manhunter. And I'd like to see Johns do something with Green Arrow because Heaven knows nobody else seems to know what to do with him! Ditto that for Hawkman. And the cynic in me just wants to see if someone can make Vibe work beyond a one-note stereotype in the same way that the recent DC Nation short did.

I suspect if anyone can it's Geoff Johns.

Justice League #11 - A Review

Two things have become clear to me, reading Justice League #11. The first is that a good villain requires some definition in order to be truly effective as a character. This issue finally let me pinpoint precisely what is what about the villain Graves which bothers me so much. Namely that it's taken us five issues to find out what the hell he was, what his powers were and precisely why he blamed the Justice League for the deaths of his family. And that knowledge instantly transformed Graves into a much more compelling villain.



The second thing that became clear is that Geoff Johns really should not pair up with artist Jim Lee under any circumstance- their styles are too different. Heaven bless him, Johns has tried to bend his scripts to meet Lee's strengths... but it just doesn't work! Johns is at his best when he is writing conversations between characters and Lee is at his best drawing splash pages. Tellingly, the best bits of this book are when Johns explores the conflict between the various personalities of the Justice League and the best bits of Lee's art are on the pages with no dialogue.



Justice League isn't a bad comic, per say. But it is a troubled one. The artwork is gorgeous, but there's little story to hold it up. The character dialogue is snappy but the good moments are all too brief. Frankly, if it weren't for the promise that next month's issue is going to boast major consequences for the new universe, I'd probably drop it. After next issue, I still might.

Justice League #10 - A Review

I think, at times, there are two Geoff Johns writing at DC Comics and Justice League #10 lets us see them both at work.



Half of this issue reminds me of the Geoff Johns writing Green Lantern.  The Geoff Johns I remember from JSA and Hawkman.  This Geoff Johns was a master of characterization - a comic geek made good.  He knew the characters and loved to play them off one another, exploring the relationships between them. 

We see this Geoff Johns in the scene where The Justice League - still relative strangers after five years working together - discuss a new villain who is apparently fighting their greatest foes and attempting to learn their weaknesses.  The conversation winds up turning to how little they know about one another and how little trust there is between them.   This is, at the same time, hilarious and troubling.  Hilarious because of Johns' knowledge of the essential core of the characters and troubling because it is hard to believe that any version of The Justice League should be this unfamiliar with one another after five years.


This leads us to the other half of the issue and the writing of the other Geoff Johns.  The Geoff Johns writing Aquaman.  The Geoff Johns who, I am sad to say, we have seen a lot more of in recent months.  The Geoff Johns who is so busy trying to tell more than one story that he makes a muddle of things.  Ironically, it is in repressing his usual tendencies to write great dialogue and cater to the strengths of his artist Jim Lee that Johns turns the last few pages of this issue into an unreadable mess. 


Jim Lee is a good artist when it comes to detailed covers and action-packed splash pages but he's not - at least in this issue - a greatest visual storyteller.  Compounding this is the palette used by the coloring team of four artists, which does little to make the panels that are meant to be a flashback to the origins of new villain Graves and the panels that are set in the here and now distinct.

The back-up story involving the new Shazam continues to plod along.  Strangely, we see signs of the first Geoff Johns here in his dialogue between Billy and Freddie.  Sadly, even the finest Geoff Johns dialogue cannot hide the fact that - thus far - the new Shazam comic is sadly lacking in magic, both literally and figuratively. 

There are no superheroic exploits to be found here - only the tales of a bratty teenager who has been hurt too much by the world and the totally unrelated story of an obsessed mad scientist trying to open a door.  There is no correlation between the two halves of the story and it is, to be frank, dull as dishwater.  The artwork by Gary Frank is quite good, but I think - on the whole - DC Comics would be better served handing the whole Shazam franchise over to Mike Kunkel or Art Balthazar and letting them restart the series as the kid-friendly power-fantasy it was meant to be.

Justice League #7-9 : A Review

I think Justice League would be a better book if it had more of The Justice League in it.

That may seem an odd comment but I stand by it.  Since the opening six-issue story arc, this book - despite having numerous action scenes involving The Justice League - hasn't really felt like it was about The Justice League.  The Justice League is present but there is little depth to that presence.  And up until Issue #9, the main focus of the stories has been on someone other than The Justice League members themselves.

Case In Point; I just did a page count on Justice League #7 and determined that after cutting out the Shazam back-up story, just over half of this comic's pages are devoted to The Justice League fighting a monster created by mad science.  But it doesn't feel like it.  The action sequence is just fluff building up to the real focus of this issue.  And that focus is fixed firmly upon one Colonel Steve Trevor.

In the five years since the Justice League formed, Col. Trevor has become a sort of spokesperson/government liaison for the team.  In theory, this means his job is to field questions from reporters after every incident the Justice League gets involved in and deliver requests from the League to the US Congress and vice-versa.  In practice, Col. Trevor's job is to discourage reporters from openly questioning the efficiency of the U.S.A and convincing various Congressional committees that issuing demands to people who could potentially rip the planet in half is a bad idea.





This could be boring except for the fact that Geoff Johns has developed Steve Trevor far beyond his usual role as Wonder Woman's dude in distress.  Steve Trevor is, in a word, badass.  He's a man of action who chafes at being stuck in a glorified desk job and yet he sticks with it for reasons beyond merely serving his country or protecting the world.  I hesitate to make the obvious comparisons to Nick Fury because Col. Trevor, as written here, is much deeper than that.  

Gene Ha was the guest artist on this issue and he proves to be a fitting choice.  Perhaps most famous for his work with Alan Moore on Top 10, Ha's detail-oriented style is, for my money at any rate, a better fit for this material than Jim Lee's more bombastic pencils would have been.  Ha draws a mean action scene but his ability to put layers into scenes of people merely talking helps to elevate this book. 



Issue #8 may as well have been titled "Everyone Hates Green Arrow".  Again, the Justice League is present for most of the issue but the focus this time is upon a superhero who isn't a League member and his efforts to impress the team into asking him to join.  Again, we don't really get any insight into any of the League members beyond the basic information we've already gleaned in the opening story-arc.  Superman is a  nice guy.  Wonder Woman likes fighting.  Aquaman is a tight-ass.  Batman is a tighter tight-ass.  Hal Jordan is an asshole.  The Flash is a wimp.  And Cyborg... uh, is there.  




This whole issue feels really uneven, being chiefly comprised of a series of interludes where The League confronts some crisis taking up the main story of another DC Comics title (Night of Owls over in Batman, The Cultists from Justice League Dark, etc) and Green Arrow shows up to help out... much to the annoyance of most of the Justice League. Hints are dropped as to Aquaman having some prior dealings with Green Arrow (hints that were also dropped in the Green Arrow book) but no details are given.  Later, Oliver Queen refers to his own dark past and becoming Green Arrow to make amends for his own personal sins but we are not given an inkling just what his past crimes might have been.


What's really vexing to me is that despite so little being said about Green Arrow's backstory, Geoff Johns still gives the character of Oliver Queen more depth and development in this one issue than Ollie's gotten in his entire DCnU series so far.  And I'm uncertain if that's a complement to Johns or a commendation of the current Green Arrow book and all three writers who have worked on it in the past nine months.





The artwork by Carlos D'anda is as uneven as the story.  Consider the shifting size of Green Arrow's mask in the above page scan and how it seems, at times, to go over his hairline.  There's also a continuity error in the earlier pages, where the arrow Green Arrow shot into an Amazo robot is not visible in any far shots of the robot until Green Arrow points it out.


Thankfully, Jim Lee returns to the art duties with Issue #9 and with him returns the Geoff Johns we all know and love from JSA.  This time, the story is focused on The League.  This time, we get a lot of the little character moments Johns is famous for, as most of the team gets brief flashbacks amid the action of the issue that lend further insight into their characters and their backgrounds. 



These scenes give this issue a depth that the previous two issues lacked.  You wouldn't think that a quick panel or two of Clark Kent remembering being the last one picked for teams back in high-school could add so much to the story but it does.  And even though most of these scenes merely highlight what we already know about the characters (i.e. Hal Jordan has authority issues, Barry Allen is a goody-two-shoes, Cyborg has issues with his dad), we do get some new information, such as precisely why Wonder Woman and Steve Tervor's relationship fell apart.

Of course the one thing that everyone picked up on in this issue was one of Bruce's memories involved a letter - a letter that looks suspiciously like it might have been the one that the Batman of the Flashpoint universe, Thomas Wayne, asked Barry Allen to give his son.  What does this mean?  Who can say?  Personally, I'm less interested in the state of the universe and more interested in the state of the characters and this issue does give us more information on that.




In all this talk of character, it occurs to me that I've said little about how this issue sets up a storyline involving a new villain who is out to destroy the Justice League.  But then again, what little we see of the man called Graves is mostly set-up.  No doubt we will be seeing more of him in the coming months.  Yes, I am still reading this book.  For all it's faults and unevenness, it is still a good read.  And if you haven't given it a shot yet, I highly recommend jumping on with Issue #9.

52 Catch-Up: Justice League #1-6

The biggest problem with Justice League is that it was not the book DC Comics needed to start off The New 52 nor was it the book most readers were expecting. Most of the fans were expecting the Justice League title to start off with a freaking huge end-of-the-world scenario, as the World's Finest heroes unite to save us all. They were not expecting an origin story. Eventually, they got both, but I fear few had the patience to wait for things to build up.

Origin stories and big-team books are the bread and butter of Geoff Johns, who balanced large rosters of heroes and introduced obscure or brand new characters throughout his long run on JSA. Despite working with an active roster of at least a dozen heroes most of the time, Johns somehow found ways to give every single member of the Justice Society a little bit of space and time to grow. He may not have managed it every issue, but he gave everyone a chance to shine once in a while.





Johns manages the same trick here, though it takes him four issues to get all of our major players introduced and teamed-up. As I noted in an earlier review, we only see half the team in Issue #1 and even then Superman only shows up on the last page! It also takes half of the six-issue opening story arc for Victor Stone to be transformed into Cyborg and he adjusts to his newfound powers in record time. This is a pity, because Johns puts a lot of heart and conflict into the scenes between Victor and his scientist father and there is a lot of drama in the conflict between the bright but gifted athlete who seeks his father's respect for his talents and the brilliant scientist who is too obsessed with his work to be a proper father.



Sadly, all of this is scrapped when - in an effort to save his son's life - Victor's dad turns him into a guinea pig and transforms his son into one of the superhumans he finds so fascinating. Does Victor come to forgive his father for what he did? We don't know - Vic is too busy running off to save the day by that point and there's no exploration of the fact that while Vic's finally earned his dad's respect at the story's end, it's only because Vic has become a part of his work. Perhaps this conflict will be explored in future issues? I hope so.

Still, given the limited amount of time he has to work with the more established heroes, Johns does an admirable job of establishing the character's personalities in the midst of the action. Batman is established as a cool and collected but somewhat arrogant. Green Lantern is portrayed as strong-willed and courageous but also hot-headed and quick to anger. The Flash, ironically, is slow to action and a reluctant hero, at best. And Superman - in keeping with Grant Morrison's portrayal of the character in Action Comics - is far less of a Boy Scout than most modern readers may be used too.





With Issue #3, Johns hits his stride and I must confess to liking his portrayal of Wonder Woman here much better than the way she is shown in her new title. This Diana is still new to Man's World, very enthusiastic about everything and completely clueless as to just how terrified most people are to have a sword-wielding amazon in their midst. She is a warrior, yes, but she is also the kind of woman who will stop everything to heed a child's words. Or share an ice cream cone. :)





And yet, despite this bit of humor at the start, she is portrayed as being incredibly capable in a fight and the best pure warrior out of all of the heroes. Which is, to my mind, precisely as it should be. She is an amazon, after all - fighting strange creatures should be second-nature to her and she should be enthusiastic about battle, though she doesn't go out of her way to seek it. And her response to the men around her being surprised at her skill? Picture perfect!





Not surprisingly, given that he's done so much to redefine the character in recent years, Johns gives Aquaman one particularly awesome response to Hal Jordan's question regarding just how a guy who breathes underwater, talks to fish and carries a trident can possibly help them in a fight against alien invaders.

Rule Number One: Do not question the use of a man who can command sharks.

This brings to mind a complaint that was delivered to me by my friend Patrick, whom it should be noted is the son of a United States Air Force Veteran. Patrick was somewhat bothered that, in the first issue, Hal Jordan was basically the comic relief compared to Batman and that - based on what was going on in Green Lantern at the same time - that Hal was basically being portrayed as the most incompetent idiot ever. Even granting that Hal has always been portrayed as quick to act and slow to plan, it still bothered him to think that someone like Hal had ever been allowed into the Air Force... even in a work of fiction!

I see his point. And truth be told, Hal is something of a butt monkey for the first four issues. Apart from Barry Allen's portrayal of being scared to death of doing anything heroic that doesn't involve being in a lab studying a doomsday device, most of the other characters aren't give much in the way of negative traits compared to Hal. Batman and Aquaman are both arrogant and assume they should be leading the team. Diana is naive and a wee bit bloodthirsty. And Superman, in a clear about face from his usual portrayal, is cynical of the military and police. But Hal? Hal's role in the first four issues is basically akin to that of Eric in the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon - he is the comic relief, there to make the other characters look better, except when he is meant to do something heroic to the surprise of everyone.

Then in Issue #5, it changes. And Hal Jordan is suddenly the Hal Jordan I grew up watching on the SuperFriends cartoon. The guy who always saved the day when Superman was down and out. The guy who never gave up, even as he was facing an enemy armed with a weapon specifically designed to destroy him. The man too brave to back down ever. And eventually, the man who comes up with a plan (with some prompting from Batman) to take down Darkseid.

I haven't said anything about Jim Lee's artwork yet and that's because there's so little that I can say. At this point, Lee's style is fairly well established and - like opera - you either hate it or you love it. Me? I love it. Though Lee's visual storytelling falters a bit in Issue #6 (seriously, how did Batman get his cape and cowl back?), Lee's greatest strength is his ability to create poster-worthy splash pages.

I think the ultimate problem with Justice League is that Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, while both fine creators on their own, are ill-suited to partnering with one another. To use a track metaphor, Lee is a sprinter where as Johns is a marathon runner. Lee is always at his best when he's depicting high-action, fast-moving scenes. Johns tries to accommodate him with his scripts here, but the best scenes are the ones where the action slows down and Johns just lets the characters talk. But Johns doesn't have the time to develop the deeper characterizations he became famous for in JSA and Hawkman. And the book suffers a little for it. It isn't bad... but it isn't the home run it should have been.

52 Pick-Up - Week Three, Part Two

JUSTICE LEAGUE #2 - Now THIS is more like it! For those who were turned off by the lack of action in the first issue, be assured that this one has a lot more action and a lot less Green Lantern and Batman bickering. Granted, most of that action is The Flash, Green Lantern and Batman fighting Superman as EVERYONE bickers with one another... but at least there's some variety. Still no sign of Aquaman or Wonder Woman yet but the Cyborg subplot has kicked into overdrive. Johns writes a very funny first meeting for these heroes, while still managing to have everyone seem in-character and Jim Lee's artwork is as fine as ever. This is on my pull list.

SUPERGIRL #2 - Do you like comics where two heroic characters fight over a misunderstanding just after meeting one another? I hope so, because that's pretty much all that happens here. Superman finds Supergirl, who attacks him because she's still confused and frightened. By issue's end he's convinced her that he is her baby cousin, who she remembered baby-sitting three days earlier and started explaining the effect of Earth's yellow sun on Kryptonian. Another book that is slowly getting started but one that is well worth reading.

WONDER WOMAN #2 - Boy, did this title go south in a hurry! While I'm not as upset as some by the revelation that Diana is an illegitimate daughter of Zeus (Don't forget - in the DCAU, it was suggested that she was the daughter of Hades and Hippolyta) I do agree that the portrayal of the Amazons, who have reverted back to being man-hating stereotypes, leaves much to be desired. There seems little reason for these Amazons to have an ambassador to the outside world. Then again, we don't know if Diana is an ambassador or not. Indeed, apart from the revelation of her parentage, Diana continues to be a cipher and all we learn of her in this issue is that she prefers to fight with a staff in combat games! The art is serviceable but that's not enough to keep me buying this book.

Justice League #1 - A Review

Reading Justice League #1, I'm reminded of a game I played at many a party as a child, where everyone reached into a box, felt around and tried to guess what it was they were touching. I make this comparison because coming into this Brave New World that DC Comics has created for us, I can feel out a few details and make out a general shape... but I'm still completely uncertain just what it is I'm holding. And that is a good thing in these days when on-line spoilers and Previews Catalogs take a lot out of the surprise out of being a comic reader.

We are put right into the middle of the action, with a narrator explaining that as this story opens, the public is largely ignorant of the existence of superheroes and what little they do know frightens them. This is already a dramatic shift from the status quo for much of the DC Universe, where super-powered protectors are largely beloved. Most of the issue centers upon Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and Batman (Bruce Wayne) reluctantly joining forces as they both chase down the same mysterious figure in Gotham City - a figure that Green Lantern insists is an alien...

A lot of the characterization here will be old hat for Green Lantern fans. Geoff Johns had established an adversarial relationship between Bruce Wayne and Hal Jordan once before in Green Lantern: Rebirth, continuing it into his Green Lantern series. The same conflict is laid bare here, with Batman depending on fear and shadows to operate while Hal uses light as a weapon and isn't afraid of anything. Put them together and hilarity ensues.



Thankfully, Johns does make both heroes accessible to those people who haven't seen either the Green Lantern movie The Dark Knight with Hal explaining his position as a Green Lantern makes him responsible for policing a whole sector of space and Batman explaining that he doesn't have any super powers... eventually.

The art by Jim Lee is pretty much what you'd expect - all-around excellent. If you're a fan of Jim Lee's art style (and I can't think of any person I know who isn't) then you'll love the art in this book. If you don't, then you won't. It's just that simple.

Are there any downsides to this issue? Well, yes. One big one is based on the expectation, coming in, that we'd be getting to see the whole Justice League as depicted on the cover in this first issue. There is No Flash. No Wonder Woman. No Aquaman. There is no big, epic superhero smackdown.

Instead, we get a fair bit of set-up, with Green Lantern and Batman forming an unlikely alliance as they journey in search for another new hero - the so-called Superman of Metropolis. There's also a brief break from the action as we focus on a young star athlete named Victor Stone, whom long-time comic readers will recognize as the boy that becomes Cyborg.

This is good stuff - don't misunderstand me. I had just expected a more high-action start given that this is the flagship title of the new line. Thankfully, though this issue wasn't quite what I expected, I enjoyed it immensely and intend to add this one to my pull list next month.

If you are a fan of good superhero stories, you must read this book!

DC Comics News From SDCC: Day Two

High Res Art From Supergirl, Superboy, Action Comics, and Superman Revealed!

New Supergirl costume to end complaints about up-skirt shots by eliminating skirt completely!


High Res Art From First 8 Pages of Johns/Lee Justice League of America Released!

Looks suspiciously like eight pages from unreleased All-Star Batman and Robin issues.


Grant Morrison on the new Superman costume: A 17 year old wouldn’t want to wear a suit his mother knitted

Morrison then notes new costume is better than original design, which featured ripped jeans and $30 T-shirt from American Apparel.


JMS says Superman: Earth One sequel will reveal that Clark Kent cannot have sex.

Much like your average Babylon 5 fanboy.


Mike Johnson says Supergirl is largely about the character figuring out her own origin.

Because the previous stories where she had no idea who she was or what she was doing on Earth were SO well-received...


Grant Morrison: "You can’t pierce Superman’s skin, but you can pierce his heart."

Later adds, Okay, you COULD pierce his nipples with a Kryptonite needle. But that costume was rejected too."

Batman #614 - A Review

Written by: Jeph Loeb
Penciled by: Jim Lee
Inked by: Scott Williams
Colored by: Alex Sinclair
Lettered by: Richard Starkings
Editor: Bob Schreck
Publisher: DC Comics

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Batman verses the Joker, mano-a-mano in a good old fashioned “smackdown ‘da clown” fight. Been there. Done that. Bought the T-shirt. Right? Perhaps. But at no time in recent memory has the classic battle between good and chaos been portrayed with such vivid imagery, nor such skillfully crafted words.

Much has been written about how Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee have revitalized this book and a character who has suffered more poorly-conceived mini-series and gimmick-driven crossovers in the last decade than any other superhero. And they have done this through the remarkably simple means of giving the fans what they want: Beautiful artwork and good writing that doesn’t require a bachelor’s degree in Batology to understand what is going on along and exposition that doesn’t read like it came out of a history textbook.

That’s the first thing I noticed in this story. The exposition flows forth in the action, as Batman remembers all the pain The Joker has caused him and his friends during the fight. At these moments, Lee’s art echoes that of scenes from famous Batman stories of the past, capturing the same scenes but in Lee’s distinctive style. This gives those unfamiliar with the exact instances of Bat-history a chance to understand just WHY Batman pushes himself so much harder when he is facing The Joker. The plot thus far is also explained quickly and simply, with Batman looking at the now dead body of the friend who saved his life… and the Joker standing over him with a gun.

Those who have been following the story of Hush thus far may wish to know that the identity of the mysterious “Hush” who has been orchestrating a number of attacks on Batman is revealed in this issue. But I’ll keep quiet as to whom they are here… no pun intended. I will say that Loeb’s tendency for foreshadowing as well as Lee’s gift for visual references and tributes to classic Batman stories should give the sharp-eyed all the evidence they need to play detective, even before the final page is unmasked.

Even without the mystery, Batman is a worthy addition to your collection. And those of you late in joining us might wish to look for the new Batman: Hush Hard Cover Trade Paperback, also released this week. The $25 dollar price tag may leave you screaming at first but the quality of the story inside (along with some new pages of original Jim Lee art) will leave you stunned silent.