Justice League Dark #24 - A Review

JM Dematteis can craft a psychodrama like no one else.  His Spider-Man story Kraven's Last Hunt still stands as one of the greatest comic book stories of all time and one of the best stories told from a villain's perspective in any medium.  His story of a reformed Joker - Going Sane - delved deeper into the mind of The Joker than any other story I've ever read and remains a personal favorite to this day.  He also did a fine job exploring the internal conflict of Hal Jordan in The Spectre, back in the days before Parallax was a giant yellow space bug.  It is fitting then that JM Dematteis should be the one to truly bring John Constantine into the new DC Universe. 

Let me clear - Jeff Lemire and Ray Hawkes have done a fine job of establishing Ol' Con-Job as the world's reluctant magical fix-it man.  Yet nothing in the Constantine title thus far has really spoken to the overriding theme of the late Hellblazer series - that as bad as various magicians, demons, angels and other horrors may be, nothing is quite so horrific as what one human being can do to another.  This issue largely concerns itself with John - pulled away from the conflict of Forever Evil by the House of Mystery - coping with his realization of this fact and the revelation that he may be all that's left to stop the evil posed by The Crime Syndicate of Earth Three. 

It's brilliant stuff and a must read for all fans of John Constantine.  Yet DeMatteis also takes care to make this all accessible to new readers, on the off chance there's someone picking this up who hasn't been reading Constantine, Forever Evil or Justice League Dark.  It's probably not necessary but it's a nice touch.


I've said before that Mikel Janin is one of the most underrated artists working today.  I'll stand by that statement even now, because his work on this issue is breathtaking.   The darkness of the world is apparent in every panel of this book but Janin makes that clear without resorting to heavy inks or an overly shadowy palette.

Bottom Line.  This is one of the best looking books on the market today and with DeMatteis's writing, it is well on the way to becoming one of the best.  I'll continue skipping Forever Evil in general but I won't be skipping Justice League Dark. 

Justice League Dark #23 - A Review

The artwork of Mikel Janin would be reason enough to pick up Justice League Dark #23, even if one had not read a single book in the Trinity War crossover before now.  Janin delivers a number of single-page splashes and double-page spreads that, on this rare occasion, do not feel gratuitous.  You welcome every glorious page, rejoicing at how clearly the action is depicted and how amazing everything looks.  


Jeff Lemire's script is equally impressive.  Commendably, he recaps the entire storyline thus far in the first few pages, not presuming for a moment that the regular Justice League Dark readers are reading the rest of the crossover.  As in the other Trinity War books, the best moments in this chapter have little do do with the combat over Pandora's Box and more to do with the interplay between the characters.  The greatest of these moments has the group of heroes being lead by Superman and Martian Manhunter learning just how far Amanda Waller went in her plans to pit the various Justice Leagues against one another.  Lemire's take on Superman, who is unwilling to put the lives of others before justice for himself, is particularly gratifying. 


I hadn't been reading Justice League Dark before this crossover.  I think I may have to reconsider that once it is over.  I've been enjoying Jeff Lemire's writing on other series and the artwork of Mikel Janin is some of the best on the shelves today.  That may change once the book goes back to more magic-based storylines but for now this is a must-read title for all fans of good superhero stories. 

Justice League Dark #22 - A Review

Something about Justice League Dark #22 clicked with me in a way that the previous chapters of The Trinity War didn't.  I have yet to put a finger on precisely what that something is, though I have pondered it as extensively as The Question himself seeking an answer.  Ultimately, I suspect it comes down to this being the first issue where all the characters are behaving like the heroes and anti-heroes I love.

Ignoring the New 52 origins of The Phantom Stranger (who is no longer a stranger) and The Question, this issue gives us visions of these characters as I think they should be in terms of personality and function.  The Phantom Stranger shows up promising aid yet offering little information save where to go next.  The Question shows up in the middle of a high-security facility to tell our heroes they're barking up the wrong tree and pointing them in the direction of the Secret Society of Super-Villains.  And then there's a host of smaller scenes (too many to recall completely) where the characters are allowed to be themselves and bounce off one another, such as when Wonder Woman manhandles an indifferent John Constantine and he, in retaliation, tries to magically entrap her.
   

The action of this issue moves briskly but smoothly.  Though there is some dissension between various heroes as to precisely what actions they should be taking, actions are still taken regardless.  No time is wasted on petty slug-fests for the sake of slug-fests and the focus on their respective goals is maintained throughout.

Jeff Lemire's love and knowledge of these characters comes through in every panel of this book.  More, this issue manages the neat trick of recapping the story thus far for those readers who might only be reading Justice League Dark and none of the other Justice League titles - something you don't often see in the third chapter of a multi-book mini-series!  Lemire also sets up the story for this month's issue of Constantine without breaking stride for a moment. 




Mikel Janin's artwork is, in a word, phenomenal.  The line work of this issue is clean with all the character designs crisp and distinctive, even in the long-range.  The inks are subtle - little more than division lines at times - with soft shading in the coloring being used to alter the visual tone of the character's faces.  I'm a fan of all the artists working on The Trinity War but if I had to pick the best of the series so far, Janin would be the winner.

Bottom Line - if you haven't given Justice League Dark or The Trinity War a try, this would be a fine issue to start with.  Good art.  Good writing.  Great character moments.

Justice League Dark #21 - A Review

Despite having greatly enjoyed Jeff Lemire's recent work on Green Arrow and Constantine, I haven't read any Justice League Dark since he and Ray Fawkes took over the title.  I only picked up this month's issue after being informed by my Friendly Local Comic Book Guy that it tied into the upcoming Trinity War.  It doesn't.  At least not in any way that is immediately obvious.


Thankfully Fawkes and Lemire make this issue surprisingly accessible despite it apparently being the final issue of a longer storyline.  I still wouldn't recommend it to new readers as I probably would have had a harder time following the action of this issue if I weren't already familiar with the characters involved.  Still, the script here is well-written and engaging.  Heck, I even overcame my general antipathy for Barry Allen in this issue, finding it fun to watch the science-minded speedster having to run around a mystical threat.   


One thing about this book that hasn't changed since the last time I glanced through it is the artwork, which continues to be some of the best in the business.  Mikel Janin is a phenomenal artist who fits an amazing amount of detail into each panel without making things cluttered or dirty.  Reportedly inker Vicente Cifuentes handled the finishes on the final half of the book but I didn't see any difference between the two halves.  Either Cifuentes is an incredibly skilled inker who was able to match Janin's stule perfectly or someone in the credits department of DC Comics is a liar.  I lean toward the former explanation, given Cifuentes' similar stellar work on matching Ed Benes' inking style on Batgirl.

On the whole, I was impressed with this issue and am starting to wonder if I made a mistake in not covering it sooner.  I'll definitely be following it through The Trinity War.  Perhaps even after that. 

Justice League Dark #1 - A Review

I’m probably one of the few who didn’t blanch when it was announced that one of the New 52 titles would be a Justice League book featuring John Constantine. It sounds like a joke but the case for why such a move would be necessary was made years ago by the late and lamented Unca Cheeks on his gloriously mad website. So it was ironically, with a good deal of hope and optimism, that I opened up Justice League Dark #1.

Most of the issue is told from the perspective of fortune teller Madame Xanadu., whose visions keep showing her a woman named June Moone – an ordinary woman who is bound to a spirit of wild magic known as The Enchantress. As three members of the Justice League barely escape with their lives after trying to confront The Enchantress, Xanadu has an epiphany and realizes that a diverse group of people with unique magical talents will be needed to stop The Enchantress and save the innocent soul of June Moone. In order of appearance, they are...

Shade The Changing Man – guardian of the M-Vest;. a garment that allows the wearer to change reality, even as they themselves risk being warped by it.

Zatanna – the Justice League’s magic expert, who casts spells through the use of backwards-spoken words.

John Constantine – a con-man whose talent for getting into and out of trouble may be the greatest magic he has.

Deadman – A selfish man in life, trapeze artist Boston Brand was cursed in death to walk the world until he helped enough people to earn his final rest.

Peter Milligan’s script puts us in the thick of it and sets the stakes high early on. It is ironic that our first glimpse of the new Justice League – at least, our first glimpse as they will be – should come in this book where they are so clearly out of their element. He does a good job of introducing us to just how serious a threat The Enchantress is.

Sadly, the our main cast isn’t as well established. We learn quite a bit about Madame Xanadu, Zatanna and Shade The Changing Man but John Constantine’s appearance is limited to one page. Yet even he fairs better than Deadman, who doesn’t get so much as a line of dialogue or an internal monologue to describe himself! While Deadman’s background was extensively covered in last week’s DC Universe Presents #1, it seems a bit of a gamble to presume that readers of this book would have read that book already.

Newcomer artist Mikel Janin does an amazing job on this first issue. Avoiding the heavy inks and shadows that are the bread and butter of most Vertigo-toned series, he has left Justice League Dark looking brightly colored and well-defined, for the most part. This might seem an odd choice given the title but I think it works, giving everything the look of a standard superhero book that is slowly coming apart as the “dark” invades. If forced to make a comparison to another artist, I’d say that Janin’s style is reminiscent of Terry Dodson but without the heavy emphasis on cheesecake.

Despite some of the cast not being as well developed as others, I rather liked this book. Fans of Milligan’s previous Vertigo works (particularly Shade The Changing Man and Hellblazer) will want to check this one out, as will fans of the Shadowpact. I dare say that anybody who enjoys good modern-day urban fantasy will get a kick out of this series as well. I enjoyed it. And I’ll be back for more next month.