Justice League Dark Annual #1 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Mikel Janin (art), Ulises Arreola (colors)

The Story: You got swords—three of them!—and you got sorcery.  That’s some legit fantasy.

The Review: I’d never have thought this series could get an annual of its own.  Generally, you associate annuals with already established bestsellers that the publisher can try to exploit even more sales out of.  But as I noted in Action Comics Annual #1, DC has taken a different route with these kinds of issues post-relaunch.  Now that they have more importance and purpose, the annual can be an invaluable tool to close big storylines in a splashy way.

Ultimately, I’m not quite as enthused about the way this arc ended as I thought I’d be, but there’s no denying that Lemire delivers a fairly spectacular conclusion to the search for the Books of Magic.  On paper, it’s everything you want it to be: a big group of DC’s most prominent occult figures, facing off against fire trolls and wood spirits and evil sorcerers, in the most sacred land of the DCU, all to retrieve the very sources of mystic power.  What’s not to like?

For one thing, Lemire just breezes through the additions of Frankenstein and Amethyst to the cast, and Andrew Bennett’s return (not to mention Xanadu and Timothy crashing out of the House of Mystery while it’s half in ruins).  It’s like Lemire magically brings them all together without much effort or context whatsoever—which in fact is pretty much the case.  I know that with these characters and their powers, some sudden, nonchalant plot-twisting comes with the territory.  But when Lemire pulls that trick four times in a row, forcing everyone to immediately accept the situation with the whole “Evil rises; we need your help” yarn, it cheapens the story.

Lemire only partially redeems these storytelling transgressions by the enjoyable way he has this diverse cast interact.*  When you have people like Amethyst and Frankenstein in the same room, you won’t get your usual kinds of social pleasantries.

Amethyst: “Uh, is this a bad time to tell you that I really don’t like killing people?  I, uh, freaked out when I had to kill someone.”

Frank: “We fight evildoers who wish to destroy humanity.  Doing your best is all we can ask, m’lady.”  This while he chivalrously grasps her ladylike hand.

It’s also a bit disappointing that we have to sit through Necro’s whole recounting of where he’s been and how he got back to the world of the living.  It’s all a bit interesting, like finding the map to the Books in Mordru’s skeletal hands, but then it all boils down to your usual brainless thirst for revenge, which Faust accurately describes as “childish.”  Speaking of whom, there’s really nothing left to say about Faust or Mist as antagonists either; each falls neatly into the “Unscrupulously Crazed” and “Tragically Misguided” categories of villain, and offer little more.

Once we reach the climax of the issue, things start to look much better.  John’s cop-out on Necro seems perfectly fitting and Lemire smartly avoids a mushy exchange between John and Zee in favor of something more appropriately snarky (when Zee expresses relief John didn’t kill anybody, he scoffs, “For you?  Please,” before they smile wryly at each other).  And once we get to the actual Books themselves, they pull a complete 180 on all your expectations about their nature and function, launching the next arc in intriguing style.

Janin has his work cut out for him in this issue, what with juggling a massive cast of characters in an expanded span of pages.  To his credit, everyone looks quite as good at the end as they do at the beginning.  Consistency is Janin’s strength; inspiration is not.  You have about a half dozen mystics all slinging their spells at each other and it all boils down to electric bolts of various colors.  That’s a huge missed opportunity for creativity that always dampens any enthusiasm I have for the book.

Conclusion: Lemire has to pull a few implausible strings to get the story he wants, and even then it doesn’t have quite the excitement you’d want.  Overall, decently executed, but you end up more worked up by the promise of the next story than the resolution of the one at hand.

Grade: B-

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: * When I say “diverse,” I don’t mean in terms of racial background, as everyone in the issue, with the exceptions of Dr. Mist—and Frankenstein—is white as bread.