Weekly Comic Book Review

By James Robinson (writer), Mark Bagley (artist)

The Story: The JLA arrive at their headquarters only to find it empty and destroyed in this Blackest Night tie-in.  As they move deeper into unknown danger, they’re confronted not only with former teammates from past incarnations of the team, but a former loved one and a hated adversary as well.

What’s Good: Once they get passed the obligatory Black Lantern info dump at the beginning of this issue, Bagley and Robinson execute an effective opener to the Justice League’s arrival at the Hall of Justice that balances the right amounts of mysterious and foreboding.  Robinson uses this issue to basically write a JLA Haunted House story, and it works well in that respect.  This handling of the story also helps raise the creepy factor, which hasn’t always been high in some of the other Blackest Night crossovers.  Extra credit goes to the writer for a somewhat disturbing reveal towards the end of the story involving a… well, let’s say salt lick and not ruin it for you.

Bagley works a fair amount of magic here with what he’s given.  His double-page spread of the team entering the destroyed and vacant Hall stands out.  He also pencils the heck out of two action sequences in the book.  In the first, he visualizes Red Tornado’s powers in a dynamic and striking way.  The second involves a clever use of Dr. Light’s light-blast that, after a second to consider it, seems fairly obvious considering his murky makeover.  Credit should also be given to colorist Pete Pantazis for this great twist on his power.

What’s Not So Good: You know, you can put them in cool black costumes and transform them into heart-consuming zombies, but that doesn’t make the Justice League Detroit anything more than, well, the Justice League Detroit.  Therein lies the main problem with this issue of JL of A.  I mean, when your principal villain is Vibe, you’re maybe going to have some problems convincing the readers that they should be filled with fear.  Robinson tries his best to give a certain amount of weight to not only the Black Lanterns, but our intrepid heroes as well, but he doesn’t quite pull it off. The script never elevates this installment of Blackest Night above any of the other countless tie-ins out there, and that failure coupled with the C or D-List status of the main characters firmly places this issue ever closer to the bottom of the comic stack.

Nitpicker alert! Um, is Red Tornado mentally deficient?  Isn’t he an android?  Shouldn’t androids be smarter and better than humans or something?  Because this is about the fiftieth time that this guy’s body has been destroyed and it’s insane to me that he’s not better prepared by now.  Yeah, okay, Vibe has the ability to emit shockwaves in concentrated bursts and getting hit with those would suck if you were made of machinery.  However, I’d still be kicking myself at getting my ass handed to me by Vibe of all people.  Gypsy lasted longer than you, man!  Gypsy!  Let this be a lesson to you.  Really.

Conclusion: It’s an improvement from last issue, but the lack of appealing leads and the presence of dull villains continues to bring JLA down.  I look forward to the day that the potential of a Robinson/Bagley Justice League title becomes more than just potential.

Grade: C

-Joe Lopez

 

Filed under: DC Comics Tagged: | James Robinson, JLA, JLA #39, JLA Blackest Night, Justice League, Justice League Blackest Night, Justice League of America, Justice League of America #39, Justice League of America #39 review, Mark Bagley