Comic Review: JUSTICE LEAGUE #1

 

Hey Tyrants!

This is my first article for GeekTyrant and I’m excited to join the team.

Last week kicked off DC Comic’s highly controversial ‘New 52’ aka Post-Flashpoint retcon with the release of Justice League #1. Now like many, I was crying foul over the whole ‘Marvel-izing’ of DC. Do all the women in DC really need to be wearing pants? Why is Barbara Gordon becoming Batgirl again when she had so transcended the character as Oracle? How does it make Superman hip to have his marriage to Lois erased? That last one was giving my ‘One More Day/Brand New Day’ flashbacks. To this day I have not picked up a single Spiderman comic. But anyhow…

I’m always willing to try something once, and some of DC’s updates intrigued me. So here are my thoughts:

WARNING: Spoilers below. Read at your own risk!

Quick ‘n’ Dirty Review:
As stated in the comic book this takes place five years in the past. We immediately see Batman (in an armored New 52 costume) fleeing from the trigger happy Gotham PD choppers and giving chase to a mysterious hooded assailant. He’s successful at the former, and because of that fails at the latter…until Green Lantern aka Hal Jordan shows up to even the odds.  This Hal is overly cocky to an extreme, which made him feel a bit cartoonish. Batman is rather annoyed with his interference, even though it saved his life.

The aspect that is very much hammered home in this inaugural issue is that in the Post-Flashpoint world, the good guys are just as feared as the bad guys. Also, most people outside of Gotham think Batman is an urban legend. Interesting twist…

But Green Lantern won’t go away, despite Gotham not being his city, Earth is part of his Sector of space. And it turns out that the hooded assailant is a very transformable alien his ring detected.

As GL and Batman track the alien, the two bicker and verbally spar, with some funny moments where Batman briefly swipes GL’s ring without him even noticing. The understated Batman being a cool but condescending know-it-all worked for me and made GL’s overly cocky nature bearable--a big improvement to the last time we saw a Jim Lee-drawn GL/Batman exchange (All-Star Batman & Robin).

The bad guy ends up blowing himself to high heavens thanks to Green Lantern’s lack of guile or strategery, but not before he shouts out a nice teaser of this story arc’s big bad. Most people familiar with DC Comics or JL will recognize the callout. Green Lantern and Batman surmise that the alien was in league with ‘That guy in Metropolis’. Green Lantern's words. Heh.

The pair fly to Metropolis in a Lantern-created green jet and almost immediately GL’s get trounced by a red and blue blur. The final image in Justice League #1 is a full page panel of Superman in his semi-armored New 52 costume asking Batman cockily ‘So. What can you do?” I’m guessing the ‘first’ Superman vs. Batman rumble is going down in issue 2 right?

Also, there was a B-plot involving Victor Stone pre-Cyborg enhancements. He’s a high school football superstar and his dad, who works on metahumans, is a non-present douche-hole. Or course he is!

The Good:
Jim Lee - I’ve been a fan of his work since I started reading comics in the 90s. He’s still one of the best comic artists working today and he keeps getting better! His characters all look heroic, yet still human. 
His cityscapes are layered, detailed but still vast. All the characters never felt static, even in quieter panels of the story. Interestingly enough, Lee already drew a fantastic Batman versus Superman fight during Batman’s Hush storyline, so we all know this battle will not disappoint.

Geoff Johns – I haven’t read much of his Green Lantern or Flash work, but I liked what he was doing here. This provided a nice set up for what’s to come. And I actually liked not seeing a full formed team at this point. How he presented Batman worked very well for me, very cool and superior but smarter and more understated than everyone in the room. It reminded me of how Batman was written in the first few issues of the Batman/Superman comic series.

In his very short appearance Superman’s playful arrogance was a surprise but in all the right ways. Making the Man of Steel almost like a big kid looking to show how powerful he is compared to everyone else in a cape and tights might be just what the doctor ordered for young Kal-El. I also liked how in this new world, Superman is not the national treasure we’ve seen Pre-Flashpoint. People are scared of him more so than any of the other heroes, and rightfully so when one considers just how powerful he is.

The Bad:
Nothing really struck me as horrible. Though I am interested to see where Victor Stone aka Cyborg’s story goes, do we really need to see another hero with daddy issues? Is that some prerequisite to be hip and cool in the DC-verse? Also, I would like to see one or two more JL members next issue.

Also, it will take me a while to get past Superman’s new red underwear-less costume :)

The Absurd:
It always amuses me to see how the authorities in comic books all but whip out Abrams army tanks whenever  they chase after the heroes. If only they could do that with the actual bad guys. Ha!

In short, I’m sold on what they’re trying to do here and I’ll definitely be back for issue #2 next month.

CCE

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