By: Dan Jurgens (writer), Aaron Lopresti (penciller), Matt Ryan (inker), Hi-Fi (colorist)
The Story: I don’t know about you guys, but all this is giving me an urge to visit EPCOT.
The Review: While there’s nothing inherently wrong with the idea of JLI, its recreation does call into question the place of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents in the new DCU. Considering the UN’s fairly scant resources (and management skills—zing!), it hardly stands to reason the international body could sponsor one team of heroes, let alone two. I have a sneaking suspicion that rather than address this logistical conflict, DC will take their usual course of ignoring the issue altogether.
But let’s set that aside to focus on the logistics at hand. Jurgens doesn’t exactly start on the strongest possible foot, dragging us through an extended roll call of the team that includes a bunch of faces that never even make the cut (though that hardly means they won’t show up again later down the line). For those wondering, the folks giving the say on who’s in and out of the team are reps from Russia, China, and Britain. Not to get political, but in what possible scenario would anyone trust folks from those countries to jointly call the shots on anything?
It doesn’t help that team manager Andre Briggs emphasizes and reemphasizes some very unconvincing motivations for putting this new league together: “We’re at a volatile crossroads and…the old ways aren’t working.” I’m going to take a chance and guess that political science wasn’t Jurgens’ major in college, as the idea that one guy can just convince three unelected figures to back this costly, expansive venture on behalf of the world is too stupendous for words.
So if all the public discord in this issue distracts from the team’s formation, you can hardly blame them. Anyway, the interplay among the cast isn’t so engaging that you’d find it hard to tear your eyes away. With so many people talking at once, the dialogue certainly zips, but with few exceptions, none of them display much personality. Vixen, Fire, and Ice all seem to have the same levelheaded, straight woman voice, and August General in Iron hardly even speaks.
You have some bright spots. Rocket Red, with his stream of “Da”’s and broken English (“You would love Russian winter. Put hair on your chest!”) can be counted upon to provide some light comic relief. And Jurgens writes an appreciable Booster Gold—he ought to, having written the hero’s solo title for a fairly significant time. This Booster offers a nice mix of showmanship (“I have never, ever let my name or likeness be used to sell adult diapers.”) and professionalism.
While it’s great to see Booster bark out orders, and to see others take him seriously even with Batman around, trying to steal his thunder, you get the feeling he’s mostly taking on busywork at the moment. Plot-wise, you get your usual series of natural disturbances that turn out downright unnatural, caused by some forgotten ancient force and resulting in golems spitting out of the ground. It’s not a moon-claw threatening the earth by any means, but it’ll suffice, for now.
Lopresti has a solid, all-rounder style that can draw pretty much anything well, but the type of book he’s working on restrains him from the bolder, darker artistic choices he made on his Garbage Man feature in Weird Worlds. Subsequently, the whole aesthetic looks pleasing, but perhaps too bright to give much tension to the story. Much credit to Ryan, whose inks do much to bring out the dimensions to the figures, and Hi-Fi’s eye-catching colors.
Conclusion: Not exactly the thrilling escapade of the majors, but I suppose the JLI has to earn that. The only question is if it’s worth sticking around to see it happen.
Grade: C+
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – I’m also guessing Jurgens didn’t major in women’s studies, as evidenced by his largely coquettish choice of lines for newcomer Godiva: “Mmm. What about underwear? You have the…build for it.”
Grade
Conclusion