Green Lantern Volume 6 The Life Equation Review

Posted on April 17, 2016 by dreager1

Alright, we’re back with more Green Lantern comics! In this one, the New Gods step in so we take a little break from the main plot that’s been going on. It’s just how it goes with Tie ins, but as long as the event is really good this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think Green Lantern is a little underpowered here and it shouldn’t be so easy to develop a counter weapon to the Power Ring imo. This volume has a lot of action and is setting things up for the Darkseid War so it is a must read.

The New Gods hack into the Green Lantern database to find out more about the rings and they also want to take Kyle Rayner since he may be helpful for the Anti-Life Equation. The Green Lanterns decide to retaliate which leads to a full scale war with the New Gods. They will need some backup though and this quickly results in the Sinestro corps, Black Lantern Corps, Star Sapphires, Blue Lanterns, and all of the others to emerge. Can they get along long enough to deal with these guys though?

We really see just how strong Orion and the other New Gods are in this comic. It is good to see them look so powerful because they honestly should be. If they were lightweights it just wouldn’t make that much sense. There is still a lot of plot hax in how they are able to bust through the Green Lantern constructs so easily with their anti ring weapons though. It is consistently said to be the greatest weapon in the universe so there shouldn’t be any kind of counter to it.

At least it helps to strengthen my opinion that Hal is easily the best Green Lantern. He reminds the others that their constructs can always come out on top as long as their Will Power is on point and he never backs down. He does lose to Orion in their initial meetup, but it was hardly a fair fight. I’d like to say that he would have won in round 2, but then the Black Lantern had to wreck it. It was a bit of a low blow although Hal didn’t seem to mind, which was a little iffy. Hal’s done a great job of leading the GL Corps while the Guardians have stepped down and attacking the New Gods immediately was certainly the right move. Getting some backup was also wise since they would have been completely overwhelmed with sheer numbers otherwise.

It was a really awesome scene when Black Hand (Leader of the Black Lanterns) was able to animate the Source Wall and reawaken all of the people there. That included the big villains from the previous GL arcs and a lot of legendary monsters who were known as the strongest of the strongest. Even the New Gods really paled in comparison to these guys and they were soundly defeated. Naturally Black Hand couldn’t keep control of them for very long and he started to perish due to the Source Wall effect, but even for just being temporarily it was impressive and the best visual in the collection.

I focused on the New Gods part a lot, but the final 3 issues do go back to the main plot. Hal decides to take a little vacation to relax from the galaxy threatening situations of late, but soon realizes that it is hard to get away from it all. The Flash and Guy Gardner effectively remind him that his job as a Green Lantern is something that he can’t get away from. After having a talk with Star Sapphire as well, Hal makes a bold decision. He’s going to quit the Green Lantern corps. The universe is still very upset at the group for the Power Ring controversies so Hal decides to pose as the villain to clean the rep of the group.

He stages a betrayal with Kilowog and flees with one of the Power Batteries. Only Kilowog knows the truth so now he is on the hunt from every single star system and galactic group across the universe. For all we know, even the Justice League will be against him. It is going to be very hard for Hal to survive for long on his own, but he’s a survivor so he can take care of himself. I’ll admit that I’m not super thrilled about this decision. Hal was just coming into his own as a leader and we could have certainly had many great stories that could have come from that. Well, the idea of Hal being a loner as a while can be cool too.

As for the other characters, Sinestro had a good role in this collection. He aided the Green Lanterns when it counted even if he proved that he still can’t be trusted to stick with the mission in the end. His main goal is still to protect his own interests, but he did make a difference. He’s a fun rival to have for Hal. Kilowog’s also a pretty nice mentor and at least Hal can always count on him. Star Sapphire’s decision to part ways with Hal, but still leave him with some hope seems a little dicey, but hopefully that drama is essentially over now.

Orion was surprisingly likable in this issue. He knew that the All Father was being very unreasonable and corrupt. He didn’t mind mentioning this to the guy’s face either and it’s why rebellious characters can be good to have at times. He can also back up his tough talk and there’s no unnecessary romance with Wonder Woman to keep him down here. Mogo is cool as always and the rest of the Green Lanterns are fairly useful. The comic has a good cast and even the All Father may have learned his lesson. He claims that he will go back to his original mission of protecting people from Darkseid rather than becoming another villain so we’ll see if he is true to his word.

As always, the artwork for the Green Lantern collection is nothing short of excellent. All of the fights are really fun to look at. No other title does space fights quite as well as the Green Lantern series and that’s good since this series needs a lot of space action scenes. Adding in the New Gods also helped to connect this to the rest of the DCU and while that’s not necessary for a good GL comic as the previous graphic novels have shown, it is always fun to see. I’m definitely ready for the Justice League to show up as guest stars, that would be a blast! There is not a single panel where the artwork looks off.

Overall, Green Lantern continues its run of quality issues with this collection. The stakes may not have literally been as high as some of the older ones since the Galaxy was on the brink, but nonetheless they felt just as high. The war between the New Gods and Darkseid will surely have universal ramifications and the fact that both sides seem fairly corrupt is a sign that the Green Lanterns are going to have to work overtime to stop them all. As long as Hal is the leader of the Green Lantern corps, I’m sure that they are going to go far. Of course, with Hal no longer being the leader, the status quo is certainly going to be shaken up. I wonder how long the series can possibly go without Hal going back to his role. It’s an ambitious decision, but this series can pull it off. Hopefully by the time Hal joins up with the Corps again they will have beefed up their tranks a little. I want the Corps to be a universal threat like the good ole days. Right now they are really light on manpower so I’m thinking that some new recruits are in order. Maybe bringing in Supergirl and Cyborg for starters. Even better….another Hal Jordan from a different universe!

Overall 8/10

Green Lantern Volume 5 Test of Wills Review

Posted on March 18, 2016 by dreager1

It’s time for one of the newer Green Lantern volumes. Hal’s had a rough time, but the last volume saw him taking over the Corps. He definitely didn’t really want this to happen, but now that it has, he might as well make the best of it! His decision to limit the use of the Power Rings really heats things up here and the villain groups aren’t afraid to use this to their advantage!

The main plot of this graphic novel involves a group of shapeshifters who infiltrate Mogo. They manage to knock Hal Jordan out and go on Galaxy TV to declare (While posing as Hal) that the Green Lanterns will hunt down anyone who uses the Lantern energy as it all comes from a supply at the end of the universe and if it runs out, everyone dies. (At least their emotions will) Technically, this story is true aside from the Green Lanterns all being extremists, but the universe quickly panics. The Lanterns must die now! Just about every planet turns against the Green Lanterns and this seems like it could be the status quo for quite a while. It’ll be hard to get people to forget this.

The shapeshifter problem isn’t over yet either. There lies a planet very much like Krypton in the universe and its citizens gain incredible amounts of super strength and speed when exposed to the sun. The shape shifters want to copy their forms and then bathe in this legendary sun liquid on a planet that will complete the transformation. These shapeshifters are really hard to detect because the transformation is just about 100% authentic. Hal needs to figure it out quickly though because having a lot of Evil Supermen in the universe would definitely not be a good idea.

Shapeshifting plots are always interesting because it’s very hard to stop those guys without plot hax or a lot of specific scenarios. Let’s just say that the heroes are not successful here and the shape shifter has her way for quite a while and even gains the Superman abilities, which was interesting to see. The Green Lanterns are powerful, but they are out of their league against someone like this. The group had a pretty good plan for dealing with the villain though and while I think they probably should have gotten owned, it didn’t feel to plot hax’d and their plan was a good one. I didn’t care for the villains aside from the one that got the cool super powers, but it’s always intriguing to see more alien species. I currently know of more Marvel kinds than DC ones so this helps to even the odds.

Another plot during this collection involved the Red Lanterns as the Green Lanterns find an enraged Supergirl while in space. Since when is she a Red Lantern? Well, in the comics it felt like that happened for a while, but to the characters it probably seemed random. Even worse is the fact that nobody knew who she was. Man, Hal Jordan’s seriously out of the loop right now and it just shows that he needs to get back on Earth. Too bad he’s effectively banned from going there since it’s Red Lantern territory now. Yeah…long story. It was great to see the Kryptonians get so much hype here though. Hal implies that Superman would completely wreck the Green Lantern core if something happened to Supergirl and he’s right. As it stands, I could easily see Superman decimating all of the Green and Red Lanterns teaming up. They’re simply not ready to fight him just yet.

The Red Lanterns got their own issue in this collection since it dealt with the Supergirl situation. It was interesting to see an issue from their series. I don’t think it’ll be nearly as good as Green Lantern since the cast isn’t quite as good and aside from Guy Gardner (Who’s not exactly the greatest main character) I can’t think of any real notable players. The fight against the Shadow Thief was neat, but Red Lantern abilities never look as good as Green ones. Seriously, those guys are always coughing. Atrocitus is coming closer to Guy’s faction though so it’ll be interesting when they fight again. That guy was always a big threat so having him return would definitely up the stakes.

Hal Jordan is still my favorite Green Lantern and he does a good job of keeping everyone in check in this volume. You can tell that he’s more experienced and in control than he was in the old comics. Let’s ignore the Justice League issues in the New 52 since he lost all of his development and the whole thing is one big plot hole anyway. Hal realizes that he needs to listen to other opinions now that he’s the leader and he does that ASAP. He’s no longer the space flirt that he used to be and he’s only worried about Carol, not even to get back together with her, but because Kyle died so right now things are rough for her. I’m expecting them to fight though since the Star Sapphires are antagonistic towards the Greens. (For good reasons, since the Green Lanterns want to control the universe’s levels of light) We even get to see some of Hal’s family like his brother and nephews. They’re neat and it’s always good to see that a hero has someone that he can talk too.

For a while Spider Man had Aunt May and Superman typically has Lois. With his family around, Hal can spitball ideas and also get a grounded perspective. I definitely haven’t heard of his bro or nephews before, but they seemed pretty decent even if they were pretty mean to Simon Baz. Poor Baz, he never quite hit it off in the comics, but I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of him. He is the last Green Lantern on Earth after all. John Stewart was also around and he’ll be having his own subplot for future issues as he needs to find someone who was replaced by the Shapeshifter a while back. The whole thing is super embarrassing for Stewart and it’s why I say you should always be careful where romance is involved. Still, what’s done is done and hopefully he’s able to find her quickly since the universe is a big place.

There’s a fairly big cliffhanger at the end here as the New Gods are finally making a move. They want the Anti Life Equation and they seem pretty shady so for the Darkseid War I wouldn’t be surprised if both sides end up being villains. It’ll be fun seeing the Green Lanterns take these guys on and I’m assuming that it’ll tie into why Green Lantern headed for Earth in one of the Justice League volumes that I read. Is it time to call in the Calvary? The Justice League can certainly tip the scales of any fight after all.

As always, the art is very good for this graphic novel. The fights are very eye catching and I never tire of the beam wars. I’m hoping that Hal completely forgets about trying to conceal light since that would mean the fight scenes can’t be as grand. He’s already starting to move away from that idea, which is definitely a good start. It’s always very easy to read through the comics since the art is so exceptional. It was also neat to see Batman on a few of the covers even if he didn’t actually get to appear in the issues. Ah well, I suppose that will have to do for now.

Finally, I’ve also got to note that it was impressive as always to see Hal hold his own in a fist fight against an opponent who by all accounts is stronger and faster. Note that this is without the Power Ring. Hal’s always had the most will power out of any Green Lantern and he always looks very skilled in his comic series. It’s one of the reasons why the Green Lantern franchise is one of the best parts of DC. Hal makes for a consistent main character and the plots are always interesting. This current plot about how everyone is dealing with the concept of limited energy is a good one and the universe is so big that there are so many plots to keep up with. We thought that Earth was a big place, but when you compare that to a universe, it makes sense that there are so many things happening. The Lanterns just have to tackle one problem at a time. Next problem on the list? Saint Walker. His refusal to help the others out is coming dangerously close to forfeiting innocent lives and that’s where you’ve got to draw the line between a cautious fighter and a bad character.

Overall, This is another solid Green Lantern comic. There’s a lot of action and the plot is very interesting. There are really no big negatives to speak of here. Hal Jordan definitely shouldn’t get one shotted from any blunt weapon and I still consider him to be one of DC’s power houses so that was a moment of plot hax, but it was a rare one. For the most part, Hal takes care of business and beats up anyone who gets in his way. I’m also glad that he keeps on springing into action instead of staying at the base like a leader is supposed too. That kind of thing has hurt many good characters and I don’t want to see that happen to Hal. An active main character is a good one! I’ll be reading the next volume very soon so stay tuned!

Overall 8/10

Green Lantern Volume 4 Dark Days Review

Posted on January 27, 2016 by dreager1

Time to continue the Green Lantern saga although it unfortunately does take a bit of a step down from the last arc. The first half is relatively down to Earth, which isn’t bad, but I don’t really care for the villain. The second half pops up out of nowhere and it’s pretty interesting. I definitely wouldn’t have minded that being the main part of the arc since things get cosmic once again. This plot sound intriguing to you? Well, let’s jump in!

Hal Jordan is alarmed to find out that the Power Rings are not working very well. It nearly costs the Green Lanterns everything in their fight against Larfleeze. Hal doesn’t need this extra stress because things aren’t going very well between him and Carol Ferris. The source of the ring issues are with an all powerful being known as Relic. Due to tie ins and other plot lines, he really pops up nowhere in this series. He’s suddenly in a portal vision kind of thing so Hal charges in to help along with Star Sapphire and most of the other Lantern types. This even includes the Red Lanterns.

Relic is an ancient being who was once just an ordinary guy. Unfortunately, his reality blew up because the universe ran out of light. After dying many times over, he found out that the universe inevitably ends because of the Lantern corps. The energies from their rings actually come from a big well in the Source Wall. He took it upon himself to take down all of the Lanterns to prevent them from ever using the energies again so he is storing them inside of these machines and then plans to bring it to the wall to replenish the well. It’s actually a fairly well thought out plan. He’s even made himself immune to the Lanterns through his high tech equipment and expendable drones. Hal has a tough choice to make since stopping Relic could mean the end of the universe, but not stopping him will mean that the Guardians of the Galaxy (That’s what the Corps do) will be powerless.

Well, no worries, Kyle and friends are here to help. Kyle remembers that he is essentially all powerful and steps into help by going through the wall and then Relic also gets stuck inside. That’s one threat down and Kyle is effectively written out of the plot for a while. At least that means there is less drama between him and Carol. It was a short, but good arc. Relic made for an incredibly powerful villain. He couldn’t quite top Volthoom, but it is cool how DC keeps on throwing in more cosmically powerful guys in the GL series.

Sadly, this experience basically traumatized Hal Jordan and he has decided to make it his job to stop Lantern users from using the rings unless absolutely necessary. Carol warns him that this is a bad idea since the Green Lanterns will essentially be making the laws without any say from the other colors and that will just lead to a tyranny. Hal doesn’t want to hear it though and it looks like the various colors may be gearing up for yet another war….that’s just great. Keep in mind that the well didn’t run out until several thousands of years had passed so these measures are rather extreme.

Moreover, the rings are necessary and there’s no way that Hal can police the entire galaxy. If anything, he’s just going to weaken the team’s morale. Already quite a few members have quit, granted those characters are all pretty cheap. It’s still not good to start talking about getting rid of the rings or limiting one’s use during a fight. That’s the last situation where you will want to be holding back since it can be the difference between life and death. After the Relic arc, there was a quick little scuffle as Hal and Kilowog apprehended a Star Sapphire who had evaded them earlier, but let her go in exchange for capturing her clan. It was an intriguing move, but technically one that saved them all some bloodshed so maybe it was worth it. I didn’t care much for the Star Sapphire as a villain as she mainly just messed with Hal’s emotions the whole time and didn’t strike me as much of a fighter.

The whole situation is pretty sad for Hal since Carol friendzoned him out of nowhere and basically traded up for Kyle. This will be good for Hal in the long run, but in the short term he’s definitely not taking it well. At least now he can focus on being the leader of the GL Corps in the meantime, which is another subplot. The Guardians realized that they messed up one too many times so they’re taking a step back for a while. Hal should make for a good leader, especially since he doesn’t care much for rules. That’s why it’s alarming to see him act so drastic about the rings issue.

Things are tough for Guy Gardner as well since he was sent to be a Red Lanterns member while undercover and became their leader. The place is very savage so Guy has to always be watching his back or it’ll be game over. With Hal set on taking away their rings, Guy’s going to have to come to blows with his old partner. Kyle got a huge power up here as he controlled all of the powerful ring entities for a brief period of time and he’s gone on another mysterious quest. It’s a shame that we don’t see Kyle as a fighter too often anymore since he’s always acting as an all powerful sage. It comes with the territory I guess.

Geoff Johns isn’t writing the comic anymore so I’m sure that the new writer has a lot of changes planned. Hopefully most of them are good, but I’m definitely not a big fan of the increased romance thus far or the new Lanterns who were just recruited since they don’t seem to be likable characters. John Stewart may become more of a main character though so that’ll be cool. I also like the fact that the Green Lanterns live on Mogo now instead of Oa. Having a home world that can actually defend and fight back is quite useful. Not to mention the fact that it can actually move.

As always, the art was extremely good for Green Lantern. The colors leap off of the page and it makes all of the fight scenes very exciting to watch. Space fights are usually awesome, but it still takes skill to not get sloppy during the action scenes and just throw energy blasts all over the place. The character designs are on point and everything feels right artistically. While the Star Sapphire wasn’t my favorite opponent, she did have some decent fights. The battle against the Orange Lanterns was great as well and likewise for the Relic fight. It had a cosmic feel to it that’s always great to see.

Overall, This was a good Green Lantern comic even if it could have been better. Things will get trickier for the heroes before the situation gets better so they better buckle up for a tough ride. It’s similar to how everything went wrong for Peter Parker in Next Chapter for the start of the series before things eventually smoothed out. I can see why writers want to start the heroes off in a tough situation as long as it isn’t at the expense of character development. I recommend this volume and it has a lot of action consistently throughout the adventure. I’m just wondering where Simon Baz is at this point. Also, how will Green Lantern balance his days as leader of the Corps and being back to active duty in the Justice League? Should be interesting that’s for sure. Either way, no matter who is writing the series (So far) Green Lantern is still the best space adventure series in all of comics and I don’t see him leaving that position. Even more controversially, I may consider him to be the strongest cosmic hero in all of comics…but that’s a story for another day.

Overall 7/10

Justice League Starcrossed Review

Posted on January 16, 2016 by dreager1

Justice League Starcrossed is a film that I’ve seen countless times in the past. It’s a classic that has withstood the test of time and still proves to be one of the best western films of all time. It makes sense as this film ended the Justice League (pre Unlimited) series and that was the greatest American cartoon of all time. It’s about time that I give this title a proper review.

Hawkgirl’s people arrive on Earth and let its inhabitants know that the Gordanians are planning to attack Earth so the Thanagarians (Hawkgirl’s people) will protect them. The Justice League agree to this, but Batman never trusts someone without having a plan in motion. He quickly figures out that this is all just a ruse, but is unable to help the Justice League escape. They are all kidnapped and upon breaking free they must figure out a way to retake their planet. The governments have been taken down and Earth is virtually defenseless. Not to mention that Hawkgirl is a traitor and can no longer be trusted. Things will have certainly changed when this is all over.

It’s a great plot and the film never breaks stride with its quick pacing. I’d also like to point out that the opening credits were very well done. It was essentially the main theme of the show and in the background you got to see a quick recap of the show for new viewers who could be tuning in. Of course, this is the Justice League so there’s no need for a very detailed recap. Everyone knows who the main characters are after all.

The film continues to start off well as the Justice League quickly try to stop the incoming alien threat before the negotiations begin. The first epic scene of the film is definitely when the Thanagarians betray the League so then the first fight occurs. Obviously, I’m going to call for a good amount of plot hax as the heroes should have easily crushed these aliens. I don’t care how much prep time they had, it wouldn’t be enough to take out this powerhouse group of heroes. Don’t even get me started on Wonder Woman losing while on the Watchtower!

That’s to be expected though so by and large I’ll let it slide. Having a depowered Superman for part of the film did help the drama angle since he couldn’t just fly in and wreck everyone. His fight against one of the Thanagarian soldiers was definitely solid. Once he was back to full power for the climax, I figured that the villains were definitely toast. Superman and the others really laid waste to the army with ease. If anything, Hro Talak is lucky that Superman had to go save Batman since he would have been crushed otherwise. At least against Green Lantern he was still able to stand in the end. Few can hope for much more than that after fighting the Man of Steel.

The Justice League had to go undercover for a little while so it was nice to see Clark Kent back in action. It’s times like these where having an established alter ego is so useful. Batman and Superman would pass the Thanagarian security checks. Green Lantern and Wonder Woman would have a tougher time if they don’t have some kind of ID. I feel like the Flash is the best off in this case though. With his speed, he can be in the next country the instant that someone spots him. The effects of the gravity wore off rather quickly after all. If anything, he could have ran everyone back to Batman’s place, but I suppose that this is more discreet.

As mentioned, Hawkgirl’s betrayal is one of the pivotal parts of the film. The League takes a vote on whether to allow her back in or not and my vote would certainly be on the nay side. Hawkgirl had a chance to be one of the Justice League heroes and blew it. Now she must deal with the consequences for that. It’s one thing to be confused and not take sides in the fight during the beginning (Which is still murky) but Hawkgirl’s been fighting alongside the League for a very long time. She knows that they are not villains and has no reason to doubt them. When the Thanagarians explain that the League is not being cooperative, Hawkgirl should have immediately helped the League. With or without her, they should have won the initial skirmish, but siding with the Thanagarians was the part that sealed the deal on Hawkgirl’s status as a traitor. That was when she crossed the line.

On a side note, I don’t like how she was able to find the Batcave. That’s a little too much hype. Sure, she’s a spy, but this is Batman that we’re talking about. You can’t find his base so easily. Hawkgirl may have tried to help in the end, but that’s what we call “Too little Too Late” It’s one of the main reasons why Hawkgirl is my least favorite member of the core Justice League. ~~Still way better than Green Gullible Arrow though.~~ I was never able to root for her again after this.

I’d also like to note that I was thrilled by the fact that the Justice League was able to get free without Hawkgirl’s help. It would have been a little insulting if they had needed her to break free and instead it was Wonder Woman who was able to initiate the escape. It’s also in character since Wonder Woman is a warrior born and raised. The next best candidate would have been Batman and he’s always pulling off things like this so I’m fine with the switch. Notice that Wonder Woman freed Batman first. The scene where the Justice League broke out was one of the best parts of the film. It was a great fight scene and definitely the moment where the League began to get the upper hand.

Back to Wonder Woman, her role here was really good and she actually outshone most of the League. In one scene, the Thanagarians are picking on some humans and Wonder Woman decides to step in. Similar to the time travelling adventure in Unlimited where she broke someone out of jail. Being impulsive is always a good trait for a hero and you’ve always got a duty to protect people even when it’s tricky. Batman is usually willing to let the villains have their way for a little while before stepping in so that he can win in the end, but that’s not Wonder Woman’s plan of action. Of course, it helps when you have god-like abilities. She’s certainly the MVP here.

Of course, this is the Justice League. They all look really good in the film with the exception of Hawkgirl. Green Lantern may have been suckered, but he does a good job of getting past that and helping to save the world. I really don’t think that his Power Ring can be sliced in half like how it was in the film though. Power Rings don’t break, no matter what kind of magic disruptor hits them. It doesn’t even run on magic after all. Flash’s role is a little smaller than some of the others, but he’s a solid hero as always. When he actually lets loose with his speed, he’s able to take down a lot of the fighters at once.

Martian Manhunter actually looks a little bad as well when you consider that he never told anyone how Hawkgirl’s mind was impervious to telepathy. A little sketchy eh, but trusting in your comrades is not necessarily a bad thing. He also went all out against the general and nearly broke him as he figured out how to use the controls. Running straight into a laser was a little iffy and he didn’t do as well as the other League members, but he did fine. Batman is Batman. As always he came up with the plan of action and even provided the safe hideaway for the heroes. Without Batman, the heroes would not have known about the Thanagarian’s true purpose for a little longer. (Again, it makes Hawkgirl look uncharacteristically naive not to realize what was happening though. I just can’t buy the explanation that she thought she was in the right)

Superman was sadly taken out of the first fight right away, but he bounced back and showed the Thanagarians why they call him Superman. He could have probably taken out the whole army on his own if necessary. This is still the greatest portrayal of Superman and seeing him in the DCAU universe is always great. Of course, his big character arc would soon start in Unlimited so the character won’t be going anywhere. Hro Talak’s a fine main villain I suppose. I like the character design although I naturally think that he could have been cooler without the romance with Hawkgirl. The film had quite a bit of romance with Hro Talak, John Stewart, and Hawkgirl, but luckily it didn’t take up too much of the film. It was also mostly the drama part of the romance that was in the film as well since tensions split them all the whole time. That’s the best way to handle romance so I’ll give the film some props for that.

Finally, I’ve got to give the government props for trying to fight back. They didn’t look so good and it would have been cool for them to have done some major damage, but they didn’t hesitate and went to back up the Justice League once and for all. It makes you wonder how things changed so much for the Cadmus days. For all we know, it had already started though. Whether the government trusts the Justice League or not, they were the best chance during the Thanagarian Invsion so it makes sense that they would team up. Still, I’ve always liked how the government aides the Justice League and it’s definitely the ideal situation. When an alien invasion comes knocking, then you have the government along with the Justice League. Again, I feel like the government should have been able to put up more of a fight since they’ve been shown to have some really high tech armaments in the past. It’s a mild complaint though and the general did his country proud.

This won’t come as a surprise, but the soundtrack is very good for this film. I believe that it’s the first time that the big opera theme comes into play. It happens in this film during the final fight with Green Lantern and the leader of the Thanagarians and it also played in Justice League Unlimited when Doomsday was kicking Superman’s can. Seeing the main theme is also good and the theme that plays when the Justice League are evading the authorities is classic. I’ve seen this film so many times that I can basically play out any scene in my head and even remember the music. It’s the sign of a true classic.

Naturally, the animation is also quite good as well. Like the show, Starcrossed’s animation has really held up through the years and I still consider it to have some of the best animation in all of somics. It’s definitely hard to top and you can really feel the action scene. Each blow has weight behind it and that’s something that newer films have a hard time of matching at times. Apparently one scene has some recycled footage, but you definitely wouldn’t notice that while watching it. The character designs are all on point as expected.

Overall, Justice League Starcrossed is a superb film and one of DC’s all time best. It loses to Justice League Crisis on Two Earths, but that is probably it. I’d put this at second followed closely by Batman/Superman Public Enemies. This was the perfect way to wrap up the Justice League series and start the Unlimited Saga. I’m sure that everyone was saddened to see the end of an era but it signalled another bright time just about to begin. If you’ve never seen this film before, then I highly recommend that you fix that transgression. All comic book fans should watch this film to see how you handle an alien invasion and why the Justice League shall never be surpassed as the ultimate comic book team. It’ll also get you hyped for the upcoming Batman vs Superman film since that will be a prelude of sorts to Justice League.

Overall 9/10

Justice League Volume 6 Injustice League Review

Posted on January 9, 2016 by dreager1

It’s been a while since I’ve read a New 52 Justice League adventure. I read a few volumes from the Morrison run, which was a lot of fun so now I can really compare it to the current versions of the League. It is still a little humorous to see the new Batman and Superman for various reasons, but they are still great characters as well, just a little different. I shall get into that shortly. I’m not so sure about the title to this volume, but I suppose that things have changed so maybe it’s a fair title…maybe. Either way, this volume’s a blast and the ending is sure to be exciting for DC fans everywhere. Especially after one of my latest reviews.

Lex Luthor helped to save the planet from the Crime syndicate back in Forever Evil. I knew someone who reeeeally loved that arc and I basically know everything about it since that was back when I was heavily following the blog events through various reviewing sites. It was a blast although I wanted the Justice League to appear more, but it did sound exciting. It makes sense that this would come back to bite the League though since the world wants Lex on the Justice League. None of the League members are for this, but then Batman gets a “brilliant” idea. He’ll have Lex join so then as Bruce Wayne, he can go to Lexcorp and dig up the villain’s evil secrets so that the heroes can arrest him once and for all. It doesn’t help that Lex Luthor walked up slowly to Wayne Manor and exclaimed that Bruce was actually Batman. So, Lex is on the team and things move very quickly. The evil Green Lantern’s Power Ring finds a girl who is afraid of the world and transforms her into a super villain. She is not evil, but she’s a prisoner in her own body now. Some bounty hunters are after Lex since they can now get rich quick and finally, a plague spreads across the country, which threatens to destroy the League once and for all.

We may as well start with the art in this title. It is nice and streamlined, which is always good. I would say that the art is terrific like usual, but I’m afraid that this isn’t the case this time. It’s mainly the facial expressions that can get a little dicey at times, mainly Shazam. There is the chance that this is intentional since Shazam looks disgracefully bad, but I can’t confirm that so it needs to be noted. Aside from this, the comic looks great for the action scenes and intense energy blasts throughout. This is still a definitive looking comic for sure.

I also need to give a quick shoutout to the epic ending of the graphic novel. Spoiler time…spoiler time. Are you still reading? Are ya? Well, Hal Jordan has returned! Since I just read the Green Lantern comic and reviewed it on the blog earlier, it’s great to see him coming back to the League. It was literally the final page of the comic so he hasn’t done anything yet, but this is certainly the muscle that the team needed. Furthermore, he’ll be very useful for the upcoming Darkseid War arc. It’s just such a powerful moment in the comic and I certainly missed him being on the team. Can you believe that he has basically missed the entire Justice League series at this point? It’s uncanny!

Jessica Cruz gets a big role here since she was taken over by Power Ring. (AKA Volthoom. It’s pretty cool to see him again after his destruction in the Green Lantern comics. I’m assuming that this is a different version from the other Earth since he was the Green Lantern’s power ring. How characters can change across universes right?) She becomes ready to fight right away and accepts her power so she’s certainly a good character. At first, she’s still scared of the world due to a traumatic backstory so she doesn’t start off on a high note, but gets there and that’s what counts. Her Green Lantern abilities will definitely be useful in future conflicts and having 2 Green Lanterns can never hurt right? It also means that we have yet another Green Lantern from Earth after Simon Baz was recently recruited. The Corps are getting stronger and stronger.

Cruz’s Power Ring was also wanted by several factions, which made for some good fights. Remember the Doom Patrol from the good ole days? Well, they’re back and in this continuity, they were all saved by a mad scientist. They feel indebted to him so they’ll obey his orders no matter what. At least their consciences are not totally gone as they want to save some civilians, but still hesitate in the end until the Justice League save them. They are also totally fine with fighting the Justice League so I certainly wouldn’t call them heroes right now. True heroes know when to question an order and furthermore, they know when to flat out disobey one. None of them are very powerful at the moment, although Mr. Negative seems to be the power hitter of the group. Lex Luthor and The Chief do have a verbal fight, which is always interesting to see. It’s basically just the Chief responding with “That’s not true” (Like a certain Presidential debate) while Lex accuses him of everything under the Moon. I’m inclined to think that Lex is telling the truth in this case and The Chief seems to have been tricked by someone, but it doesn’t change the fact that The Chief appears to basically be evil in this version.

Meanwhile, Lex’s role in this comic is really good and his fans will be thrilled. He has a battle of wits against Bruce Wayne and it isn’t even a close fight. Lex completely destroys Batman in the debates to the point where he makes Batman and Superman act very petty with rage. It’s a blast, but essentially it all starts when Lex piecies togiether Bruce Wayne’s secret identity as Batman. Bruce tries to deny it for a while, but Lex knows and nothing can undo that. He even breaks into Wayne Enterprises and while Alfred puts up a good fight, this is Lex that we’re talking about. Lex claims to want to be a hero at the moment so the team lets him in (For more petty reasons) and we’ll see how long he can keep this up.

One thing that you have to know about comics is that the status quo will always reset at some point. Lex will certainly be a villain again so we just have to wonder how long it will take. He has a shady plot already as he has hired Captain Cold to be his head of security and is taking a lot of blood samples. Why is he doing this? For all I know, it could be more heroic reasons and this is just some more misdirection to trick us all. He does seem to want to live up to the Justice League’s expectations though and tried very hard to save the day twice, but each time he was beaten to the punch. Batman ended up saving the day with Jessica Cruz before Lex and then the plague was stopped by Superman. Although, Lex is still the one who ultimately provided the cure. It reminds me of the Superman Adventure that I read recently where Lex really wanted to help a kid, but was beaten to the punch by Superman and thanks to a misunderstanding from his henchmen, he put the kid in danger. Things don’t go Lex’s way when he tries to be a hero so then it’s back to being a villain. I think he’ll last a while as a hero though and Lex is definitely an interesting character to read about. It’s amazing how different he is than during his New 52 days in the Superman comics where he was a trainwreck.

As for Batman…his fans will be a little sad. He gets pulverized by Lex so he basically gets a pouty and starts think of his own plan. He lets Lex join so that he can run through Lexcorp and find incriminating evidence of his past…that’s not cool. The thing is, Batman’s let this get personal, as has Superman. They spy on Lex, talk behind his back, and then they’re basically lying to his face. Batman even sheds some fake tears on stage as Bruce Wayne to try and one up Lex. It’s just very humorous the whole time as Batman and Superman don’t even try to hide the fact that they can’t stand the guy. It’s understandable of course, but definitely interesting to note. Batman and Superman still feel younger and more inexperienced than their Pre 52 selves even though they’re older now. It’s the new them though and as I mentioned earlier, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s made for a lot of good stories and this ongoing rivalry with Lex has proven to be a great subplot so far…even if I’m actually rooting for Lex at this point. (Sorry JLA!)

Flash, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg have less of a problem with Lex, but it’s not personal for them yet. Wonder Woman’s been giving Lex the benefit of the doubt more than the others, but with the unspoken threat that she will destroy him if he tries anything..ruling by fear has always been effective. Flash is the one who tries to keep everyone in check, such as when Wonder Woman almost put the lasso around Lex’s neck. Flash gets everyone to calm down and we’ll see how the team dynamic goes now that “You Know Who” has returned. At the very least, he’ll probably yell and exclaim how awesome this is since he loves to make fun of Batman.

We can’t forget about Shazam either…*sigh*. Remember his portrayal in Young Justice? One of the only flaws in that show was that they treated Shazam like a joke and that’s what happens here too. He’s always getting flustered, acting like a kid who’s never been outside, and has no sense of intelligence within him. Shazam is always spouting off random nonsense about wanting to eat Hot Dogs and not getting with the program. Why did they have to retcon him so that he always has the mind of a very young kid? It was definitely a very poor choice if you ask me. At least make his kid form be a little likable, but this is just way too extreme. I wanted to like the character…but it’s impossible!

If you are hoping for a lot of action then you’re definitely in luck. The Justice League vs the Metal Men is a great fight and then the Plague arc also has a lot of action. Batman’s cool zombie form is definitely a blast and he’s even able to use energy bolts towards the end. Wonder Woman fans will also be happy since she ends up taking on most of the League on her own. This version of her has definitely been great and it’s good to see her holding her own like this. I still believe that Superman’s got the edge, magic or not, but WW is certainly one of the team’s heavy hitters. She also has a lot of hand to hand experience and her raw power was boosted in the New 52, making her more of a complete fighter.

There’s also some foreshadowing here for some big arcs coming up. Owlman’s certainly not through yet and we have to get ready for the Anti Monitor’s awakening. Lex has something up his sleeve and the new Bizarro clone should also be pretty interesting. We also can’t forget that someone wants Lex Luthor dead. I almost forgot about that part, but even though it is essentially Captain Cold’s subplot, it’s a good one. The first mercenary that the group sent was decently tough, but nothing special and the heroes were able to take him out rather quickly. The cool one was Bullet. I love this guy’s design and it’s slightly inspired from Robocop. He doesn’t seem to be super powerful, but he’s not afraid to mix it up with the League. I hope to see more of him soon and this bounty hunter plot is really getting interesting.

Overall, This is a great Justice League comic. Aside from Shazam, there’s really nothing to dislike. The characters are all written well and the plot is engaging and moving at a very quick pace. There are a lot of action scenes scattered within so you’re never running low on those and the plot would be able to still be interesting even without the battles. The art is solid although the faces need some work. If you’re hesitant about getting into Justice League, don’t be. This run can hold its own against any other Justice League series and it’s why their titles are still the best in all of comics. With a certain character finally returning as well, things are only going to look up for the series from here! Of course, the team is borderline overpowered now so it makes sense that the Darkseid War is next. Get ready for things to be shaken up!

Overall 8/10

Green Lantern Volume 3 The End Review

Posted on January 6, 2016 by dreager1

Time to head back to the world of comics with this review! The Green Lantern comics have been very good for as long as I can remember. As a result, I was not surprised in the slightest to see that this was an enjoyable read. The series is full of cosmic threats and likable characters, which have served the series well. It’s come at the expense of Hal Jordan being in the Justice League comics for quite a while though so it just goes to show that the grass can’t be all green for very long.

With a title like “The End” you can bet that some pretty big changes happen in this comic. In case you did not know, Hal Jordan and Sinestro were destroyed by Black Hand so they fell into DC’s version of Limbo/The Negative Zone. Luckily, they were able to charge their ring full of energy and quickly shot it out. The ring looked for a suitable replacement and found Simon Baz. Simon Baz was a smalltime crook who stole things to try and get money for his friend who was now in the hospital due to a past accident. One day, Baz stole the wrong van and ended up blowing up an abandoned area.

In a way, Baz just stopped a terrorist, but the cops don’t see it that way. Baz is arrested, but the GL ring breaks him out so the Justice League quickly arrive to investigate. They’re not about to let a new criminal into the mix. Baz has no time to explain so he heads off to save Jordan and Sinestro, but he has to watch himself since the Guardians can no longer be trusted and Volthoom, The First Lantern, is getting ready to make his big move at last. Forces are at work here and the green Lanterns may need some backup if they’re going to walk away from this!

The main plot with Baz is a fun way to start off the collection. The Justice League are around and it’s always a good idea to have guest stars when you’re introducing a new main character. It just makes sense, although the Justice League don’t look all that great here. They were certainly very aggressive and essentially picked a fight with Baz as soon as they saw him. The Flash not being able to tell which car Baz went into was a little iffy, but I’ll let it slide since the Power Rings can be really flashy after a while. Not to mention that it’s understandable for the league to be a little upset since they finally realized that they probably should have gone into space to check on Hal once in a while. For all they know…he’s gone for good. He actually did die so they did a poor job of looking after him.

It’s also nice to see the government appear for a second. They discuss the many Green Lanterns who have been recruited from Earth and it’s always interesting to see things from their perspective. I’m glad that they still trust John Stewart though, which shows that they are smart. In a lot of media, you’ll see the government instantly decide that they can’t trust their operatives once the person has super powers or they just want a dissection. No, it’s much smarter to use the asset and having a Green Lantern in the army is always smart. It was also cool to see that even the government didn’t have any info on Kyle Rayner. That’s just how mysterious the guy is!

Once the story gets into space, we see the stakes rise quite a bit. I can’t say that I’m surprised at how the Guardians have turned evil, but it’s an interesting twist. Their lack of emotions have really gone overboard this time and they even had a civil war with the old Guardians. Needless to say, I still don’t like any of the characters. They’ve clearly been committing evil acts behind the shadows for a very long time and you don’t even mind seeing Volthoom take them down. The little guys were practically asking for it.

As for Volthoom, he makes for a decent villain. As the First Lantern, it almost goes without saying that he’s immensely powerful. He can rewrite reality at will because he’s just That good and anything that the other Lanterns can do, he can do better. He can heal and has many other useful gifts at the ready as well. That being said, the only way to beat someone like this is with plot hax and that’s exactly what happens in his fights. The Lantern feeds off of emotions so he gets stronger with every passing moment, but he didn’t count on Hal Jordan being so tough. In his defense, Volthoom was up against two conceptual deities and assuming that Volthoom is one such entity at this point, then he probably shouldn’t be able to defeat 2. On that logic, then it wasn’t really plot hax, but the way that he lost was a little iffy. One hit and in one page…hmmmmmm. Ah well, he was actually still a rather interesting villain. This guy didn’t mess around and he always made sure to have a good time while crushing the other Lanterns.

As for Sinestro, he gets a fairly large role in this comic. Next to Hal Jordan, Sinestro is known as one of the strongest Lanterns and it’s safe to say that he can easily defeat most of the others. He is able to control the abstract entity of fear, Parallax, which lets him give Volthoom a pretty good fight. His new form is definitely pretty neat and we all certainly know how powerful you get when you’re in command of a whole army’s worth of energy. He was still a villain despite his intentions most of the time though and nearly destroyed Simon Baz just so he could escape the underworld. It worked, but while he helped the heroes, we definitely can’t call him one.

As expected, Hal Jordan came through in the clutch. He made the tough calls and then arrived as a Black Lantern. His skills really have no upper limit since his will power is nigh infinite and it was great to see him put on the Green Lantern ring near the end and do battle once more. It’s easy to see why Hal had to be written out of the Justice League comics a while back. While the writers would like you to believe that he is quite weak, Geoff Johns understands Hal’s true strength. He could easily hold his own against any JL member, including Superman and Wonder Woman. While I’m not saying that he would win, Hal Jordan is an S class fighter and someone who I would take over the whole Avengers team. He’s definitely one of the best DC characters when written well and this comic did a great job of adapting his character. Now that he’s finally back in action, it’ll be epic seeing him in the next volume.

We had a lot of characters quickly jump in at the end to help out against Volthoom including Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Star Sapphire, and quite a few others. The many different Lantern cores showed up and naturally Simon Baz and his handheld gun were also at the ready. It was nice to see everyone and since this was effectively seen as the end of an era (No more Geoff Johns) it certainly ended off with a bang. Many of the characters even got epilogues as we found out the end for everyone up til the point where someone is telling this story. It was a fun wrap up.

As this review wraps up, let’s quickly go back to Simon Baz. I didn’t really talk about him, but he’s a fairly likable character. Naturally, he needs to stop stealing cars, but I like to think that he’s put all that behind him at this point. He’ll be a hero and everything, but I wonder if he’ll stick around Earth or if he’s going to go for greater pastures. I have the next volume with me so I’ll probably find out one way or the other. He’s better than Guy Gardner, but I still prefer John Stewart and Kyle Rayner. Kyle didn’t get to do much here like Stewart, but he did get a little hype and would end up dying as a very wise sage who doesn’t back down from anything…or anyone!

As expected, the art is great in this comic. This is really how you draw an action adventure and the sci-fi battles would do any other comic proud. The Limbo world has dicey art to show us why that place isn’t cool. It’s basically black and white the whole time, but the real art is exceptional and that’s what counts. After reading a recent Justice League volume, I have to say that the art here wins out. The facial expressions are good along with the streamlined battles. You can’t get much more complete than that right!?

Overall, I highly recommend checking out this volume. Green Lantern continues to perform at a high levels and his comics have proven to be consistently good for quite a while. If I ever had to recommend a comic series for a new comic reader, Green Lantern would be right under Justice League as far as my recommendations are concerned. It’s a nice series that anyone can get into with its great battles and fun imagery. Hal Jordan also makes for a very complete main character. Whether you’ve read a comic before or not, this is a great way to get yourself started in the comic world!

Overall 8/10

JLA Volume 7 Review

Posted on July 25, 2015 by dreager1

Time to look at another volume in the JLA saga! The series has been pretty solid, but now we’re getting towards the latter part of its run. This volume isn’t quite as good as the last two, but it’s a good adventure nonetheless and is still about the Justice League so how can you go wrong there right? The Martian Manhunter gets a very large role here, but it’s at the expense of his likability.

This collection brings together a lot of issues (They were pretty small for this series for some reason) so there are several arcs to be found. The first one involves a war over on another planet and the Justice League hesitantly decide to end it. The tough question is, how can they end the war without choosing sides and interfering with the politics?

It’s a decently interesting mini arc and Superman reminds us why he’s the leader of the group. That being said, the heroes may have been thinking too much on the subject. Defeating the oppressors is always the first step. No matter what the repercussions are, it’s their job to help. Superman even reminds the readers at the end that evil flourishes when good people do nothing. So, inaction is still an action and I’m glad that the heroes made the heroic call and stopped the alien civil war.
Another arc had the Justice League framed for destroying a whole lot of people and the worst part is that they seem to believe that they really did it. The telepath who’s behind this must be powerful. Can the Justice League defeat a threat with their minds instead of through brute strength for once? Although, the brute strength part does come into play since the villains are pretty skilled as a group although Superman would likely defeat them all without any real effort.

Aside from the political intrigue on that part, there was even a character who made reference to the politically correct era that we are in now as he asked if the JLA was just meeting their quotas by adding the two new members. Whether it was coincidence or not, it’s definitely something that people would discuss nowadays. Superman’s response was off screen so we couldn’t see what he said. Naturally, this topic wasn’t as big back in the day, but it was still intriguing to read.

This was an interesting collection of stories, but it made the heroes look weak against mental assaults once again. I still don’t think that Superman can be mind controlled or mentally influenced so this was a little iffy. It gave some plot development to Major Disaster and Faith along with a subplot that could come back someday that involves her past. I don’t mind if it doesn’t though since I didn’t find it particularly interesting. The villains were all one shot characters who were effectively doomed, but the premise of the arc was still fun. After all, how can the League recover from a natural disaster that doomed so many people? (Or so they thought anyway)

After that, the big arc begins with the Martian Manhunter. He had been getting some counseling from an ex villain. She would help him brave the fires while he would help her forget the past and move on. Unfortunately, Scorch does her job a little too well and Martian Manhunter awakens his true, fiery form. He completely goes off the deep end and decides to destroy the Justice League once and for all. Stopping him will be tough and Batman is forced to bring in one of the classic Justice League members from his retirement.

Well, this was the big arc! I believe that it spanned around 10 issues, which is certainly impressive. A little less so when I remind you that the issues appear to be a little on the short side, but it was still intense. The White Lanterns even got mentioned at one point, but Martian Manhunter took down the whole army by himself off screen. It comes back to how I think the writers overdid it trying to make his new form look very powerful. He got a lot of hype and Superman even says that the Manhunter is one of the scariest opponents to face and maybe the strongest.

I don’t typically mind the Martian Manhunter and the guy can even be a decent character at times. That being said, I’ve never considered him to be anywhere near Superman or Wonder Woman in terms of power. After those two, you can make a good argument for him to take down Green Lantern or the Flash, but it’s a battle that I could easily see going either way. The White Lanterns were on Superman’s level at times and they gave the League a good fight so I don’t see how Martian Manhunter could have possibly taken down all of them in such a short amount of time. The only explanation that I can buy is that his telepathy overpowered all of theirs and he basically broke them before destroying the beasts. That would be slightly feasible, but only slightly since he shouldn’t be quite that good compared to them.

The arc definitely started off with a bang as the heroes found Superman partially phased into a table and then the rest of the League was quickly defeated aside from Batman who managed to escape in time. The Flash may have been able to have put up a decent fight, but he was taken out before he could really try anything. There was definitely a lot of action here and the League was really on the defensive until Plasticman arrived onto the scene and Martian Manhunter also helped to stop himself from the inside. This was the highlight of the collection even if it couldn’t beat the big arcs from the other volumes like the original White Martian saga.

After that big arc, things died down for a little while as a one shot showed us what could happen in the future if Batman and Wonder Woman ever got together. Wonder Woman went into a mind chamber that showed her how the future could be, but is really more just about looking at the subconscious. None of these things might actually happens, but Wonder Woman thinks that they can. It’s really an AU and some ideas were decent, but I’m not much of an AU guy and since each story would abruptly start and end, the issue didn’t do much for me. As least it finally ended the whole Batman and Wonder Woman angle.

Finally, the volume concluded with a small arc about an alien who was shocked that humans became the dominant species on Earth. He went around the world checking out the sites and ultimately decided to just blow the planet up. The heroes stopped him of course and the guy just destroyed himself instead. It was certainly a bit of a morbid ending, but not as much as it could have been because of the art.

The art in this mini arc almost makes you a little insensitive because it’s just verrrry abstract. Almost cartoony in a sense that everyone was constantly off model and the issues were hilarious to look through. It’s one of those “so bad it’s good” moments for the collection. Beyond the art, I can’t say that the final mini arc was all that interesting and was really just there to show us how Earth has really gone down over the years aside from all the good that’s also been done. It is a cruel world out there for sure. On the whole, the art is quite good and unique as always. JLA is definitely a title that believes bigger is better as it uses a lot of big panels for the action scene and everyone is larger than life. The splash pages of the heroes always look quite good and naturally the fight scenes follow suit. One scene that will likely make you chuckle is when someone asks Wonder Woman if she is interested in Superman and she has a laugh that is extemely dramatized. It comes so suddenly and takes up a huge part of the page. Wonder Woman even apologizes afterwards and basically just states that it would never happen. It’s great to see that the writers knew not to go down that route back in the day. If only they had stayed true to that right?

Batman looks good here like you would expect, but his role isn’t a very large one. He forces the Justice League to apologize to him after they go on a mission without consulting him and then saves the team. It’s neat to see Batman in control like usual and aside from the plot with Wonder Woman that ended in a good way anyway, he was definitely in character and always had a plan. If not for his decision to bring an old member out of retirement. It would have been Game Over for the world.

Superman ‘s great as you would expect. There’s not much to say about his portrayal because it was really spot on. He was completely heroic and always did the right thing. He may have gotten crushed in his battle with the Martian Manhunter, but it was mostly due to the fact that Superman didn’t actually expect a fight and trusted the guy. That’s definitely a good reason for losing to someone!

Wonder Woman gets a fairly large role here thanks in part to the subplot with Batman as well as just being present for all of the adventures. She looks good and is actually the first member to want to help out in the alien civil war so she deserves major props for that. Even Superman was unsure about participating, but he was quickly brought on board. Wonder Woman’s initiative certainly saved a lot of lives there and I like how she is the one who decided to break things off with Batman. She made a very wise decision.

This time, the Green Lantern who is present is John Stewart. That means that we’ve now seen the big three through the span of the JLA series. John Stewart’s a good Green Lantern even if I slightly prefer the other two most of the time. The battle between John and Kyle is a close one. Stewart’s role isn’t very large, but still much bigger than the Flash. He manages to keep some people inside of his bubble for over a day, which is a great feat of concentration and he definitely gave it his all to save the day. After the Justice League cartoon, it’s always cool to see him in the comics.

The Flash is a complete non factor here. Seriously, it’s like he’s a ghost. He gets almost no lines and doesn’t really impact the plot in any way except to save civilians in the background. His speed is always amazing and he certainly makes rescues that nobody else could, but I really wish that he could have gotten a bigger role. He’s still one of my favorite Justice League members. Barry is my favorite, but Wally can be great as well.

Firestorm can be a decent hero at times, but I didn’t care for his romance subplot here and that really accounted for around 90% of his screen time here. His powers have the potential to be great, but he is constantly knocked around before he can even activate them. He’s just out of his depths here and this is one character who could possibly use some character development. Faith also has no real character development, but it’s intentional as she is a bit of a mystery at the moment. Her abilities are certainly useful as she has the classic telekinesis skill, but she hasn’t gotten to fight too much yet since this volume wasn’t as action packed as you may have expected. She’s a good character so far, but we’ll see where it goes from here since she was already tempted to go back to the dark side once. Hopefully she doesn’t make that mistake.

The Atom has a minor role in this collection, but it’s enough of one that I should at least give him a passing mention. He doesn’t have much of a personality yet, but he does like to sing and gets along well with Green Lantern. While he’s certainly not one of the more dangerous League members, he’s fairly talented. Plasticman is a Justice League member that I’ve never been crazy about, but he ends up getting a critical role in the fight against the Martian Manhunter. It involves a lot of plot hax and even some toon force as Plasticman’s erratic style of fighting confuses the Martian. How this is enough to overcome the Martian’s superior speed and strength dozens of times over is what I don’t buy and Plasticman should have died after a single hit. Still, he’s back with the team now and as long as he isn’t as exaggeratedly bad as he used to be, I suppose that I can live with it. He just needs to act a little more reserved and respectful to his teammates.

Manitou Raven was one of the new characters who joined the team and I can’t say that I was a fan of his. Considering that he just joined the team, he seems to already be quite vocal with his opinions and seems to not be trust worthy. I can already picture him trying to take out Firestorm at some point and his scene with Green Lantern definitely felt suspicious. I don’t trust the guy, but maybe it’s just a red herring. Still not a likable member though.

Likewise, I’m not a fan of Major Disaster. Maybe I just didn’t want any extra members on the Justice League. The roster was already fairly strong so it’s not like the team needed any extra firepower. I actually thought that Disaster was just a depowered Guy Gardner for a while since he looks so similar. This guy could improve as time goes on I suppose, but his personality just isn’t a likable one for me. He wants to be a hero, but he’ll need to work better at being a team player to win me over. (Or just being likable as a solo act)

This was not a good appearance for the Martian Manhunter and the whole collection made him look bad. After he took a drink that he shouldn’t have, the Manhunter basically lost his mind and turned evil. Sure, he was able to gain control again, but only after nearly destroying the heroes several times over and being pounded into submission. I don’t really see how the League can trust him again after this so I can see why the vote was so close. I still think that he was slightly overhyped in this volume, but I do acknowledge him as a strong fighter. The worst should be over for him now so maybe I’ll like him more in future volumes. When he’s on top of things, the Manhunter can definitely be a good ally/character.

Overall, This was a solid volume of JLA. I do think that it was weaker than the others, but JLA can’t hit it out of the park every time right? An 8 is still great so they did well in my book. This is also the final volume out over here so I’m caught up for the moment although I haven’t read a lot of the older volumes. I may go back to those someday. If you’re looking for a JLA story with political intrigue and some action, then this is your bet. After all, it doesn’t get anymore dramatic than a traitor within the league right!?

Overall 8/10

JLA The Deluxe Edition Volume 1 Review

Posted on April 10, 2015 by dreager1

All right, it’s time to read a Justice League comic! Not one of the really old ones or the New 52. This is the Justice League as they were meant to be seen from one of their classic incarnations. No Hal Jordan or Barry Allen so I’ll have to wait to read a comic with the full cast in all their glory, but there replacements are ready to step into their shoes. It was as much fun as I could have expected and I actually remember flipping through this comic in Barnes & Noble back in the day. This volume is always in stores and spoiler alert: I recommend checking this one out as soon as possible!

The main chunk of the story is about the Martian Invasion. A group of martians have come from space claiming to help the planet. They have added water to the desert for starters. Superman warns the world that these are merely “cosmetic changes” as he says and disrupting such a big part of the world will have dangerous side effects. For some reason, the humans are not listening to him. It turns out that they are being mind controlled by the martians, which is severely impacting them all. The Justice League assemble and realize that they must stop this intergalactic threat. It’s only the first issue and the stakes have never been higher!

After that starting arc, we get some mini stories and the collection even brings a bonus issue that shows how the league formed. That’s pretty neat and who doesn’t like to see the League form right? Then we have the second arc which has some more of those religious themes that we’ve been wanting. Another angel is planning to rebel like Lucifer so he has come to Earth because another angel wants to leak his plans. Can the League defeat this being who may be too much for them to comprehend? Time to find out! (There’s also an issue with the Key in it…I’m just saying!)

Let’s look at the members of the Justice League before really getting into the arc. We’ll start with Superman as this is him in all of his glory. He acts like the commanding leader that he should be. The curls look from this era is also classic. I remember owning his action figure a while back. Nothing beats his standard look from the DCAU, but he probably does look a little tougher here with that mean hair style. I certainly have no qualms with his appearance here. He realizes that he is being tricked with a fake kryptonite through hypnotic suggestion and he is able to break out of his prison. It gives his intelligence credit and all of the leaguers certainly respect his impressive abilities. At one point, he randomly switches into his thunder look. You could say that his death took place between two of the issues, which accounts for the random change. We get a mini comic where we see him tryout for the team, which is pretty fun. He may not have his strength anymore, but his thunder abilities essentially give him the same effect. His personality is a little different as he’s more cocky now, but with all of the retcons around, that’s not even too unusual at this point

Batman also looks great and this is one of his better appearances. As expected, Batman is a beast when he has prep time. He manages to sneak into the watchtower and stay there for an hour before he finally had to let the League know that he had been there the whole time. He has an interesting laugh/chuckle which is spelled “hh” and it works well. Maybe it’s more of a scowl effect. Either way, Batman has some epic moments. He also shows the others how to deal with the Starro and he takes on 4 Martians by himself. That’s more than the rest of the league put together, which is awesome. Yes, it’s good to see Batman getting his respect.

Wonder Woman’s role is not as big as the first two, but she looks good during the comic. She wins her matchup with relative ease and brings Aquaman on board to help even the odds. This was before the New 52 push where she was upgraded to Superman level so she’s not quite as impressive power wise, but that’s why she’s an expert in hand to hand combat. It helps to tip the scales. She’s definitely still one of the big three for DC. Aquaman’s role is a lot smaller and I can’t say that he looked very impressive. It wouldn’t have made much of a difference if he was not here. Still, his ability to give a person a seizure by thinking about it is pretty neat. I wonder if we actually inherited part of our brain from fish or if that just applies to martians. Either way, it’s interesting.

The Flash does a good job of living up to the reputation of the original scarlet speedster. He’s still not as brilliant as Barry, but few are. He still knows a good deal about the speed force and uses this to defeat the Martian speedster. None are as fast as the Flash and he made sure to prove this in the battle. Wally West can be a fun hero to root for and I liked this portrayal of him. He was strong and dependable as a Flash should be. It’s a little hard to buy the fact that a Starro managed to jump him, but I’ll just say that he was shocked and leave it at that.

As for Green Lantern, this is Kyle Rayner and not Hal Jordan. I certainly miss Hal since he’s still my favorite Lantern. Kyle does well, but he is the flirting kind of guy, which is a little unfortunate. It holds him back from being easy to root for. His constructs have more of an effect on the holy beings in the latter stories than most of the other heroes, which is interesting. His ring is still supposed to be the most powerful weapon in the universe so it’s nice to see it getting some props. It is no longer weak against the color yellow so Kyle has no weaknesses now. As long as he remembers to focus, there are few who can stop him.

It’s another story with the Martian Manhunter. In this story, the Martians are weaker against fire than ever before. An exploding car would destroy Martian Manhunter if it hit and being near fire causes a martian to lose all of its powers like Superman being near Kryptonite. Batman uses this to his advantage when he goes up against the Martians, but it’s a huge risk. The Manhunter was tempted by these martians, but in the end he made the right call and helped the League out. I would have preferred for him to have helped the League win from the start, but at least the plan worked.

It’s also a good thing that the civilians in DC world are typically more reasonable than on the Marvel side. There were around 70 more martians so the humans had to fend for themselves against a good deal of them. It’s a good thing that they all had their lighters and matches at the ready. When together, even humans can manage to put up a pretty decent defense.

So, the first arc was a blast and a half. The Martians were powerful and a real threat. It’s good that the Justice League is so formidable because none of these guys are throwaway villains. The weakest member is still like a weakened Superman so all of the League members have to stay alert. Their true forms are also nice and sinister. This is another reason why I don’t think the Avengers would have lasted here. The weakest Justice League member is probably Martian Manhunter here and he could still take out most of the Core Avengers…most, if not all. If the Martian group attacked the Avengers, Thor and Hulk are probably the only members who could hold their own. The rest would be speedblitzed and then it would be 8 against 2. Hardly a fair fight.

The angel chapter was interesting. I really just had fun listening to the hype. Simply walking onto Earth would be enough to destroy it. This didn’t happen as the hype fell through, but it was nice to hear. The angels can create barriers that none can breach and everyone looked on with great respect as Superman managed to wrestle the being. The air from the angel’s world would make people blow up, the sights would destroy our eyes, the music would damage our ears, etc. Basically, the angels admit that we should stick to Earth and our galaxy before heading to their plane. The hype was awesome and the villain was certainly very powerful….but the overhype was strong in this issue. On the bright side, the Presence was actually mentioned! It’s rare that the One Above All’s DC counterpart is mentioned so that was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, he couldn’t appear to stop the angels because they tricked him. They made an impossible event occur at the beginning of creation to keep the Presence busy fixing the problem. At least they acknowledged his existence, which is more than most comics do at this point.

The art is in the big and bold 90’s style. That means that everyone looks really powerful and intense. Unfortunately, it also means that the artists can get a little lazy with the details. Characters will make odd facial expressions and just look off during various parts of the comics. I love the action scenes for this style, but the talking scenes can certainly use some work. On the bright side, you will always feel a certain sense of amazement and intrigue with this style. You just know that you’re in store for some epic brawls!

Overall, This was a solid start to this JLA series. The characters are in character and the action scenes were great. The Martians made for powerful opponents for the League and the Angel beings from the stars weren’t bad either. I’m definitely going to miss Superman’s classic look as his thunder form will likely stick around for a while, but I suppose that his new form is still good to an extent as well. There is one unnecessary scene as we meet a random guy during the tryouts who just turns out to be a perv so I don’t see how anyone recommended him for that event, but luckily he’ll never appear again. This volume really embodies how I picture a Justice League comic. The roster is one of their strongest ones to date and all of the issues are a lot of fun. I’ve probably read more Marvel comics than DC ones at this point, but DC will always be much more interesting and thought provoking than Marvel’s for me. This volume reminds me of why that is as it’s just so awesome to see the Justice League tackle all incoming threats. Time to get hyped for Batman vs Superman all over again! I highly recommend checking out this graphic novel and you won’t regret tuning in to the intensity that is the JLA. I’m not sure when I’ll be reading another big DC adventure like this one, but the bar has certainly been set rather high.

Overall 8/10

Showcase Presents Super Friends Volume 1 Review

Posted on March 28, 2015 by dreager1

It’s been a while since I checked out a Showcase Presents collection hasn’t it? Well, the Super Friends was one that I definitely needed to get and I was shocked to see it at the library. I loved the cartoon and still own one of the box sets, but I never really thought that I would see it in comic form. It certainly holds up well and the collection goes really quickly.

The Super Friends is mostly filled up with comics that act as stand alone issues. Typically, the adventure will be a multi part one so the adventure will last for 2-3 issues or more. That helps to make sure that each story isn’t rushed. The issues also tend to follow a very formulaic route. Each issue will have the Super Friends split up into 3-4 teams and then we see each of them try to stop a villain. Typically, you can guess what will happen to the other teams on the missions. If the first group succeeded, then the rest will, but if the first group lost, the rest of the heroes will lose. It does make each story a little predictable, but that’s how it’s supposed to be. Figuring out how the heroes will lose it typically the exciting part.

There is a plot in the background that is around…slightly. The first half of the collection features a pair of kids and their dog. They are being trained by the super friends and they eventually graduate as they become full fledged heroes. They leave the series at that point and are replaced by the Wonder Twins. I can’t say that I missed the kids because they felt out of place here. They are just kids so how can they hope to keep up with the actual heroes when it becomes time for serious business? The plot hax was a little too heavy when they were around.

The Wonder Twins aren’t much better I’m afraid. They arrived on Earth because they ran away from their home planet, but they are eventually freed from their charges. The problem is that they save the Super Friends several times to show us that they have certainly earned a spot on the team. I don’t mind them joining, but they are certainly weaker than most of the heroes so I don’t see why they got so much hype. They are also not familiar with Earth customs and that’s a trope that I’ve never cared for. They make mistakes when trying to utter Earth sayings and that gets old very quickly.

Luckily, that’s one of the only things that gets old here. It should also be noted that the Wonder Twins aren’t good characters here, but they would probably be a lot more likable in comparison if the super friends weren’t so likable. The Wonder Twins certainly aren’t nearly as bad as the average unlikable character. The art looks really sharp here as expected. Unfortunately, the collection is in black and white so it’s a little hard to say exactly how good it looks, but the art is clear and you can always tell what is happening. The action scenes always look good and that’s one of the most important factors for a comic book. You really feel it when a characters punches Superman around.

This took place during an interesting time where the Justice League was around as well as the Super Friends. This meant that most members of the Super Friends had to juggle their responsibilities. Some members like Green Lantern basically decided to be with the Justice League and to ignore the Super Friends. This is the kind of thing that probably wouldn’t fly nowadays, but it gave us an excuse to have our favorite heroes have more than one adventure at a time with the various comics on the shelves,s which was pretty neat.

Showcase Presents may take away the colorful aspect of the art, but at least it also bundles together a good amount of issues. This particular collection was a little over 400 pages, which is certainly a lot. You’ll be having a blast so the pages will be over in no time, but at least you can definitely be confident that you are getting your money’s worth.

As for the adventures in question, there are a bunch of them, but I’ll quickly mention some of them. One adventure has a villain robbing people by making circus animals tiny and then bringing them back to normal size when it came time for a heist. A monster woke up from its slumber in another issue and proved to be virtually unstoppable as even Superman could not defeat it. The Mirror Master came closer than most of the other villains to winning as he trapped the heroes in a mirror world. Unfortunately for him, Superman’s FTL so he just dragged the other heroes back to reality.

Naturally, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens of adventures and by the end of them, you’ll certainly have bonded with the heroes. They’re all in character for the duration, which is always good. One scene where I questioned Flash though was in the Mirror Master plot. With the Justice League trapped, the Wonder Twins would have to fend off the villain on their own. Flash knew that they were a target, but he decided to stay on Watchtower duty instead of going to help them. That felt a little out of character as his speed would have enabled him to help right away. I know that he trusts the heroes, but it was still a bit much.

It’s always nice to see the classic Batman here. Robin is around as well and he’s always got some puns at the ready. He is always paired up with Wonder Woman for missions, which is a little dicey for him since he never really gets to help out as a result of this. At least he still has some puns at the ready and he always fires a few off. This was back when Batman was very chipper so it’s nice to see him throw in a pun once in a while. Superman is at his best as he is extremely confident. He’s still a nice guy of course, but he realizes that he is the strongest. Unfortunately, almost all of the villains have kryptonite up their sleeve, but this doesn’t stop Superman from getting serious when the time is just right.

As far as the Showcase Presents go, this is easily one of the best ones. I definitely can’t say that it is the very best of course. As long as Justice League and regular Superman is around, that will be extremely difficult. Nonetheless, Super Friends puts up an admirable fight and it reminds me why I’ve always been a fan of the series. It’s essentially the Justice League series, but with more of a light tone and a roster that tends to include Robin on the team. You can’t go wrong there!

Now, this collection is practically a comedy and it’s meant to be cheesy, but it’s still worth noting that there is a lot of plot hax to be found here. It’s always a stretch when someone like the Riddler is able to take out Superman, but that’s why we have Kryptonite right? I just feel like Superman isn’t as susceptible to Kryptonite as the comics would have you believe. He can still melt it or just stay away. There are also quite a few villains who are able to just overpower Superman, which is certainly surreal. Almost every comic has a moment that is a little iffy like when Batman or Superman is defeated, but the scenes are typically funny so I suppose that we can live with it. Aquaman fans may be sad as his weakness of being away from water for too long becomes a liability for him more than a few times. It’s tough being a fish guy before The New 52.

Finally, the comic has fun showing off guest star heroes as well. The Super Friends have to team up with global heroes on more than one occasion. This includes another Batman who doesn’t seem to be as cool and a guy who uses objects from biblical times to help him fight. The guest stars are pretty cool and while they all seem weaker than their Super Friend counterpart, it’s nice to know that the other countries aren’t completely defenseless. After all, it seems like the US area with Gotham and Metropolis is extremely secure with so many heroes helping out.

Overall, The Super Friends is a really fun collection to read. The comics will certainly keep you busy for a while and the cast is filled with well known characters. Batman and Superman are regulars along with the other heroes and it’s always neat to see how the villains will try to win against such odds. The art is very good as well. The original characters certainly weren’t great and I didn’t miss them when they were gone, but it’s not like they really hurt the comic either. All’s well that ends well right?

Overall 8/10

Justice League 3000 Volume 1 Yesterday Lives Review

Posted on March 21, 2015 by dreager1

Booooooooooooooo. Okay, Justice League 3000 wasn’t terrible, but it was certainly pretty bad. This is a plot that had a lot of potential and it was a little similar to Future’s End. Unfortunately, the series couldn’t live up to its potential and you can tell that things are going south right from the get go. I just don’t understand why the writers made some of the decisions that they did.

It has been ages since the Justice League formed. The year is now 3000 and the universe is essentially ruled by The Five. They are super villains who did what no other ever could, they conquered everything. If a hero tries to rise up, they just blow up his/her planet and move on. The only thing that stands in their way is Cadmus and they aren’t much better. Cadmus is basically what’s left of the government. The only problem is that they have no real heroes and there are spies everywhere. Nowhere is safe from them! Cadmus decides to change this by bringing the famous Justice League back to life. They do this by placing their DNA in normal humans, so that the DNA takes over the vessel and essentially becomes the hero. With the exception of Cyborg, The New 52 Justice League roster is back…with some changes. Can they defeat The Five and liberate their future?

The plot should have been good, but it just didn’t work out. The main reason is the twist that the heroes have lost some key memories so they are not acting as they once did. Superman is now much meaner than usual and he’s about as likable as the average horror film protagonist. He’s extremely unintelligent and he basically acts like a cave man. Wonder Woman is back to being extreme in her views on how she strongly dislikes all men and likes to slaughter any foe she comes across. Green Lantern, Batman, and the Flash are mostly like their usual selves although Batman doesn’t mind cracking a joke once in a while. It essentially plays out like a fanfic and that’s the last thing that I could have wanted here.

Superman is also badly nerfed to help move the plot along. He can no longer fly and his physical abilities seem to be a lot worse as well. Wonder Woman and Superman were getting crushed by a goddess, one of The Five, and that’s something that I can’t see happening to their true New 52 selves. This lady may be strong, but one simply doesn’t take out the top 2 Justice League members so easily. The humiliation doesn’t end there as the strongest member of The Five, a Reality Warper, defeats the League with ease. Already, you can tell that this is going to be the kind of series where the heroes are on the run for the whole time and that can certainly get old rather quickly.

Towards the second half of the graphic novel, Firestorm joins the ranks and the sad thing is that he’s the most likable member of the team. It’s just sad because he’s essentially a villain here as his mind is even more corrupted than the other members. He wants to slaughter anyone who gets in his path and luckily he has the power to do it. His abilities come in handy against the villains, but it’s too bad that he couldn’t have kept his moral compass along the way. Ah well, at least the Justice League has one member who can fight.

Let’s talk about The Five. One of their members is named Locus and she appears to be the strongest member by far. She is the reality warper that I mentioned and her abilities are limitless. The only way to beat her is to knock her out before she can form a thought Naturally, this leads to plot hax whenever she has to fight and cannot win at the moment. She’s a psycho, but I’m sure that we expected this. Kali is a warrior whose strength seems to surpass that of Superman and Wonder Woman’s. Both of these villains have yet to be on the losing edge of a fight aside from a knockout blow from behind and Firestorm’s impressive debut. Convert is one of the more useful members of The Five even if he’s not a fighter. He invades people like a plague or the Phalanx. He currently controls billions of people across the universe and he can literally turn an entire population against you by controlling them. Finally, we have Coeval who attacks from the cyber world. He seeks to weaken the wills of the heroes by playing on their doubts.

Naturally, to be The Five, those 4 need a leader. He does end up appearing at the end of the graphic novel and it should come across as a decent surprise. It certainly makes things look a little dicier for the heroes as there is not much they can do about the situation anymore. The leader is probably the weakest member aside from Coeval as the average human could probably beat him, but I’m sure that the leader will dig up a robot somewhere to finish the job.

Technically, it’s a good idea to have a supervillain team to face the League. Kali and Locus were good starts even if they were overpowered, but the other members can’t fight, which limits the potential. One thing that hurts the comic is the natural need for it to be gritty. A lot of Superman’s lines revolve around him flirting, making suggestive comments or threatening to hurt people. Locus literally rips one of the heroes to shreds and while the page has a lot of energy and spacial effects to distract you, the scene is much more violent than it needs to be. We have the classic Man of Steel moment as well to make sure that the comic covered all of the bases. An eye stab also happens and nothing Narutoesque happens since the opponent is basically invurlnable, but I always found that to be a rather dirty fighting technique that crosses the lines of justice and injustice.

Really, the comic just isn’t that good. Even the art isn’t up to par with the high level of quality that DC is known for. It helps that the character designs are mostly lacking. Only Batman’s looks good from the original team although Firestorm joins him later on. Green Lantern’s cloak is cool, but without it, he doesn’t have a very good design. The fight scenes are where the art shines, but there aren’t many true fight scenes to see so this is pretty limited.

It goes without saying that the writing isn’t very good either. Meanwhile, it has certainly been a long time since the year 2000, but I find it hard to believe that some of this happened. How could the Five conquer the galaxy and the Green Lantern race was eliminated so easily? I don’t buy it and I don’t see how Earth fell so quickly as well considering that we have such an unstoppable army of superheroes. Locus is strong, but Kali would be defeated by a good fighter like Supergirl or Darkseid and the rest of the team could seriously be beaten by the Teen Titans. Where’s Lex Luthor when you need him!?

This is only the first volume so the series still has some hope, but it’s going to have to move quickly. For starters, the series should not try to be as dark and gritty as can be. Right now, the heroes really have no hope unless they can revive the other heroes, but what then? Even if they defeat The Five, they’re living in a future where just about everything was eradicated. It’s not going to be much of a life. Toning down the dark atmosphere should be enough to tip the scales, but the comic also needs to make the Justice League a whole lot more likable. Superman’s already getting some development, which is a start, but we’re going to need the writers to accelerate the process.

Overall, I currently don’t see the point of this title. The future is grim and the heroes must save the day again, but this kind of story has already been done and with much greater efficiency. Typically, a future story is extremely interesting and that’s what keeps you reading. The new villains have conquered to be sure, but the heroes are still ready to deal out some damage. Here, the writers have stacked the deck so much in the villain’s favor that the heroes really do not stand a chance. Locus just has to think and they’re all dead. So, there’s literally no way that they should win and the amount of plot hax in future issues is going to be immense. Just check out the time travel episode in Justice League Unlimited and you’ll witness what this comic should have been like. Likewise, Hitman Reborn had an arc with this kind of plot that was infinitely superior. The heroes should have definitely been in character and I guarantee that this comic would have been much more enjoyable. Well, if I do check out volume 2 anytime soon, we’ll see if the series will have managed to improve. As of now, I recommend checking out Superman Unchained instead as it’s an epic action story with some guest stars to help you out as well.

Overall 4/10

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Tag Archives: Green Lantern

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Justice League 3000 Volume 1 Yesterday Lives Review

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