Comics Review: Justice League #1
The comics world has been talking about it for months, but this is the week that the big DC “relaunch” officially arrives. DC Comics released only two new issues this Wednesday, the final book of the “old” DC Universe, Flashpoint #5, and the first book of the “New 52,” Justice League #1. After JL will come 51 other new comic books in the coming weeks, all of them starting over at Number One. Not only is DC, the home of classic comics heroes like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and many others, starting its continuity over, all 52 of the new titles will be available for digital download the same day they come out in stores, previously a major rarity for the big publishers. Comics is at a crossroads, its audience shrinking and getting older. DC needed to do something drastic to attract new readers, and Justice League, the book where the big heroes all come together, is at the forefront of that effort. So, could it possibly live up to the hype?
Well, that depends. The first issue was pretty good, don’t get me wrong, but it was hardly mind-blowing. It’s very much the first chapter of a story, so don’t go in expecting any kind of closure. In fact, half the team depicted on the cover doesn’t even appear in the issue. Most of the story involves Batman and Green Lantern bickering when they meet for the first time to fight this alien bug thing. Superheroes are a fairly new thing in this world, as the issue is apparently set five years before most of the other New DCU books. Batman not only has to fight aliens, he also has to deal with police helicopters trying to shoot him. Hal Jordan, meanwhile, is obviously pretty new to his powers, and comes off as very sure of himself, much to Batman’s frustration. For his part, Green Lantern is shocked to learn that Batman is “just a guy in a bat costume” and doesn’t have any superpowers of his own.
And that’s most of the issue. It seems a little weird for an issue obviously intended to attract a bunch of new readers to completely leave out people like Wonder Woman and the Flash, but I guess we’ll have to wait a few more issues to get a handle on where all this is going. Writer Geoff Johns, arguably the biggest star working for DC right now, will have a difficult task managing so many different characters, so maybe by cutting things down he’s able to give us a better first impression. I actually did really enjoy hanging out with these two characters, both of whom have really distinct personalities right away. The question is whether new readers will stick around if Johns stays with the decompressed storytelling.
Many people had questions going in about Jim Lee’s art and his redesigns of the characters. Yes, he was at one time the biggest artist working in the industry, but that was more than a decade ago, and yes, many of the designs look like something out of the 1990s. But somehow I was okay with it for most of the issue. There’s nothing here that really knocks my socks off the way some other artists working today do, but it was big and exciting and action-packed. The various weird “constructs” that Green Lantern creates with his ring bring a whimsical touch that the material probably needs. I’m not really married to the old costume designs the way some people seem to be, in any case. I was almost surprised afterward that I didn’t think about how 90s everything looked while I was reading, which I suppose is a good thing.
But in the end it won’t be the first issue that makes or breaks the New DCU, it will be how many people check out the other 51 books coming down the line. I have a few I’m looking forward to checking out, like the magical team-up Justice League Dark, starring Zatanna, Constantine, and Deadman, among others, or Jeff Lemire’s take on Animal Man. Perhaps most importantly, I was able to sit down after a long day at work and download the issue instead of having to make an extra trip to the store. If anything’s going to drive up sales for DC Comics, it would seem to me that digital downloads are far more likely to do so than Jim Lee doing another redesign. I hope that readers still head out to their local comics shops, because, well, those feel important to the community somehow, but sometimes you just want to go home, sit down on the couch, and read about Green Lantern running over an alien with an imaginary truck while your cat curls up beside you. Here’s to many years of alien smashing to come.
Affiliates
