By: Geoff Johns (writer), Jim Lee (penciller), Scott Williams, Sandra Hope, Batt, Mark Irwin (inkers), Alex Sinclair, Tony Avina, Hi-Fi (colorists)
The Story: Darkseid, wouldn’t printing ads on the back of milk cartons work better than all this?
The Review: Justice League Dark demonstrated, by negative inference, how important it is to give each member of the team an active role in a conflict. But more than divvying up the work for tactical purposes, it’s even more important, for long-term storytelling purposes, to give each character a distinct spiritual role within the team.
Unfortunately, Johns hasn’t succeeded in making his League anything more than a gathering of powerful super-beings—which is surprising, since Johns usually can’t resist making a symbol out of everything he writes. The problem is the characters come across so flat just in their personality that it’s hard to draw out any deeper substance from them.
Johns simply hasn’t used the team he’s brought together well. Take Aquaman. I don’t think he says much more than four lines the entire issue, and aside from putting his trident into Darkseid’s eye (which, really, is only copycatting Wonder Woman’s sword-trick two panels earlier), he serves no crucial purpose at all. Neither does Flash, for that matter, unless you count coming up with the one of the lamest team names ever in a craven ploy for heartwarming laughter. And after all that drama between Cyborg and his dad, Johns allows only a single throwaway panel and line to resolve it.
At least Johns takes some pains to finally give the only lady at this sausage fest something important to do. That said, when you think about her biggest accomplishment in the fight against Darkseid, all anyone really needed from her was her lasso. As charming as her naïve wisdom is (“The world belongs to no one. And everyone.”), she only seems to have value in the absence of others. Without Superman, she fills in as the team’s heavy hitter; without Batman’s leadership, she leads by example of her fearlessness. Once the boys come home, she’s back to fodder again.
Speaking of Batman’s leadership, who knew that he’d end up being the biggest team player of this whole group, not only encouraging each member to do their best (to Superman: “We need you”; to Cyborg: “You are our only shot”), but downright supporting the idea of them sticking together. I suppose it’s not the worst portrayal in the world (compared to Green Lantern’s annoying downership—“We’re not friends. We’re not a team. This was just a one-time thing, okay?”), but it certainly takes a little readjustment of your traditional idea of Batman.
But of all the characters Johns makes poor use of, the worst offense has to be the ill-judged choice of Darkseid as the lead villain. Let me clarify that: the idea of Darkseid as the League’s first foe is great, but bringing him in with little context to his godhood and with little showing to the magnitude of his depravities and horrors—well, I doubt many readers see him at this point as anything more than your typical, bulky galactic tyrant. It doesn’t help that Johns writes him as somewhat simpleminded: “He is mine. As is your world.”
Probably the most interesting things to come out of this issue is a startling revelation about Darkseid’s true motive (spoiler alert—“the search for the daughter of Darkseid.”), and the bits and pieces you can glean from the back-up feature starring Phantom Stranger and Pandora. It seems like Johns may have a multiverse-spanning epic in mind with these two—which doesn’t seem like the greatest idea, since he seems unable to write anything high-concept without making it sound petulant or simplistic: “You rewrote reality.” “I realigned it. I strengthened it.” “You think you did. You’re dangerous.”
Lee always delivers a slick-looking issue, which is perfect for the League, but every now and then little details get past him. For example, why does Wonder Woman, standing in the aftermath of Darkseid’s departure, look pristine, unruffled, and untouched? It’s worth mentioning Carlos D’anda does a fine job on the back-up, though his aesthetic seems more suited for a Wildstorm title than a confrontation between celestial immortals.
Conclusion: Overall, a highly disappointing affair, hardly deserving to be considered DC’s flagship title.
Grade: C+
-Minhquan Nguyen
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Conclusion