Tag Archives: Justice League

JLA The Deluxe Edition Volume 1 Review

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JLA Volume 1
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

Justice League 3000 Volume 1 Yesterday Lives Review

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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

Justice League Throne of Atlantis Review

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Well, the sequel to Justice League War has finally arrived. I was not thrilled with the shift into the New 52 lineup from the start and this title definitely doesn’t help. It’s easily the worst Justice League film to date and that’s a pretty sad title to achieve. With such a great cast, it isn’t hard to make any Justice League film an elite, but this just shows how important a good writing staff/director is. All right, let’s look at why this film didn’t succeed.

A submarine is travelling through the waters when the crew is murdered by several underwater beings. The missiles are stolen so the Justice League is brought in to investigate. Meanwhile, Prince Orm is riling up Atlantis to go and face the surface dwellers. The Queen is keeping him in check, but for how long? Aquaman must leave the life that he has led on the surface to realize his destiny as an Atlantean. The players are all moving towards the climax where a confrontation shall be had!

For this review, I’m going to do some damage control before I get into the many negatives. One positive is that Batman doesn’t get hit during the film. He may as well be invincible since nobody can stop him. The flip side to this is that Batman never even gets to throw a punch this time. He’s basically in this film for star power since he doesn’t really have a role. He looks pretty good in his scenes, which is a plus. He gives up a little quickly on the flooding issue, but that just shows how dicey the situation was.

Another positive for the film is the animation. It still looks pretty good like in Justice League War. The battle scenes all flow pretty smoothly and there isn’t really anything negative to say about the animation. The character designs are another matter. They all look below average to be honest and it’s like they aren’t even trying in the New 52. Superman’s is probably the worst, but there’s something about GL’s that just isn’t appealing. At least, compared to his real uniform. Aquaman looks good, but he doesn’t have much of a costume to change here.

Are there more positives? Well, I’m sure we’ll find some as we go through the negatives. It’s time for some real talk folks so strap yourselves in because this roller coaster is about to begin its free fall! It’s hard to know where to start, but let’s begin with the romance section. Having Wonder Woman and Superman get together is completely pointless and it’s insulting to the fans. I grew up with the classic days where Superman made sure to keep everyone in the friend zone. He was firm about this so that villains couldn’t use his friends as targets. That was the Superman that I know. His pairing with Wonder Woman is wince worthy at best and it makes both of the characters look pretty awful here. More on that during their individual sections. Cyborg randomly gets a pairing as well and it’s just as sad. Superheroes don’t need rushed romances to keep the audience engaged and it just makes things sadder for us…the fans!

DC’s decided that their new films are going to be a lot more violent than the older ones. This started out with Flashpoint and I’m sure that we all remember the films that came afterwards. Well, Throne of Atlantis tries to compete with those as the blood runs like water here. The fight scenes will make you think that you’re watching Mortal Kombat considering how many beheadings and diemembering appear in the film. Everyone gets stabbed at some point. Superman begins to bleed for no real reason when he gets zapped by the staff and let’s not forget the hand to hand scenes. The film adds some noises like the sound of a jaw breaking to make the scenes more “intense.” Aquaman really beats up on the normal joes and it’s the kind of fight scene that could easily be done without the extra effects. DC says gritty and I say unnecessary. The overload of violence is just distracting and it really takes away from the film. It definitely makes the title unsuitable for kids and it is definitely a very strong PG 13 so you’ll want to be careful with your teenagers as well. It’s probably not the most violent DC film to date, but it certainly tries hard to achieve that spot. So, the fights are pretty streamlined and flashy, but the violence hurts them pretty badly. They may be trying to send a message to Marvel’s animated features, but this blurs that message.

The writers also seemed to want to suck the philosophical questions that the comic had so they made Prince Orm a one dimensional villain. He is not a nice guy by any stretch of the imagination and he’s just your average super villain who wants to destroy everything. Once he gets the staff of power, he just goes around beating everyone up. His design also looks pretty fake as if the film is adding insult to injury. You’ll probably want to boo him off the stage since he’s so generic and not very intimidating.

Black Manta is also here, but he doesn’t serve much of a purpose either. He gets a brief fight with Aquaman, but he is humiliated and we remember that the Aquaman hype train will not be derailed until the next film. for quite a while. I’m fine with it since that’s handled pretty well, but Black Manta should have known that he was outmatched. He was just very sub par here.

That transitions into another area where the film needed some help. The writing. We’ve got violence, but that doesn’t make the film gritty enough right? Time to throw in some language! There aren’t many big swears, but the ones that are there were definitely added to show how edgy the villains are. Black Manta and a throwaway villain in Gotham just use the word for no discernible reason. They’re just using it because they can and I always attribute that to bad writing. The writers of today sometimes realize that they can’t match the ones from the Bogart and Bacall days so they don’t even bother. Adding in swear words is one of the ultimate cop outs.

The movie is definitely a lot different from the original comic and unfortunately, it is much worse. We don’t really get any action scenes since most of the “fights” just result in the Leaguers decimating hundreds of mindless monsters or watching the flip side of that. The only real fight for the League is at the end against Ocean Master and that one’s wince worthy due to plot hax. The movie also takes away any sense of danger since they erase the flood scene. It’s odd because it’s hyped up as the villains bring a giant tsunami towards Metropolis, but then they just part the waves dramatically and decide to attack the city on foot. It’s probably one of the most foolish decisions that I have ever seen in a film and it’s embarrassing for them. There is literally no point to using such a tactic and you’re basically giving the heroes a chance to fight back this way. Batman’s big “People are going to die” moment from the comic just doesn’t work this time since only a few soldiers are taken out during the battle. Not quite the amount of casualties that we were expecting huh? Cyborg’s drama about going through with the operation to replace his lung? It’s taken out here as he just says yeah from the start. The film wanted to speed along through everything.

The pacing is very quick, but a little too much so this time. The film is barely over an hour so it rushes through Aquaman’s origin so that they can have Ocean Master take the stage. This results in every area of the film feeling rushed since nothing is developed so that they can go to the next scene. The Justice League get the shaft at times because of this and you’ll find yourself just waiting for them to come back. The longest draught is when Batman and Superman leave to investigate. They don’t appear again for what feels like 10-15 minutes since it’s time for Aquaman’s subplot. This is the kind of film that should have easily been 2 hours and I think that it would have helped the film tremendously.

One of the biggest problems is the power level issues that are found here. Wonder Woman lands a direct punch on Ocean Master and it does virtually no damage while Aquaman is able to land some killer blows. Wonder Woman is stronger than Aquaman and the opening scene of the film practically proves this. Aquaman has trouble with random grunts and that’s pretty sad. They land a lot of hits and they don’t defeat Aquaman, but he certainly doesn’t look as strong as Wonder Woman or Superman. Superman looks particularly terrible as he is beaten down two times without doing any real damage. The first time, he grabs Ocean Master’s scepter….big mistake. He is quickly zapped and loses in a single blow. I think we can all agree that Superman doesn’t go down with one shot and especially not to someone like this. The Flash is naturally tripped and that sidelines him for the rest of the film. A random trip…he didn’t even get zapped! Green Lantern is swamped by minions like in War and when he breaks out he is quickly taken out with a zap. Cyborg is stabbed because he was too slow to dodge and Shazam gets one shotted by the lightning as well. (Shazam’s lightning did no damage of course) Aquaman gets in more hits than the rest of the Leaguers, but he is also stabbed and taken out of action.

Batman doesn’t get to fight Ocean Master, which may be a good thing since we can tell that the writers did not know what they were doing. Instead of a satisfying ending where one of the heroes beats Ocean Master, we basically just get a betrayal plot twist. (Not for the fans, but for the Atlanteans) This finishes with a blind side punch from one of the heroes. Now they can all remember how they were crushed but won with a sucker punch. That’s not a good way to end the film and it’s pretty depressing for the heroes. There is an after credit scene that has some potential for a good sequel, but we’ll see what arc this film tries to adapt. If it really is Trinity War, then it will likely be an even looser adaption this time around.

As I mentioned, Batman was kept in character here. Cyborg is still not very likable and he has a new subplot where he’s very cold to people. He’s a machine after all, but he eventually warms up to everyone and gets a romance going. That was pretty terrible. Shazam still looks really bad and his voice is very high pitched. You can’t take him seriously and he doesn’t have the Wisdom of Shazam here. His character just doesn’t make sense as it’s still Billy’s mind just with an adult form. He looks pretty bad and he’s not likable either.

The Flash is basically perfect and it’s too bad that he doesn’t get to have more action scenes. He’s certainly one of the strongest members of the team and there is no opponent that should be confident of his chances against the speedster. Green Lantern is pretty similar to his portrayal in War, but he still seems to be portrayed as one of the weaker links. He doesn’t get beaten up on a lot like in the last film, but he still needs some work if he’s going to be a good hero. It’s sad because he is usually a great character, but I’ll have to say goodbye to that version.

Wonder Woman is technically good, but she really gets 0 character apart from the romance plot. We’re reminded that she is a good warrior when she is slashing away at the villains of course, but that’s about it. I just can’t forget that plot with Superman so she is certainly one of the least likable characters. This applies to Superman as well, who really seems like a shell of his former self. He talks about how he’s going to make one of the villains eat his weapon and it’s lines like that, which makes this new version of Superman hard to identify with. He talks tough, but he’s typically just showing off or getting beaten up. It’s hard to really be a fan of him here and he gets to sink just like Wonder Woman.

Aquaman looks pretty good here, but he does fall into the romance plot with Mera way too quickly. You have to realize that the film mostly takes place over the span of a single day…so that’s a reeeeally rushed romance. Aquaman doesn’t betray the League like he did in the comic so he’s a lot more heroic here. He does what needs to be done and Aquaman turns out to be a good fighter. There’s really nothing negative to say about him aside from the rushed romance. Likewise, Mera is certainly a capable fighter and she does well when needed. Her water abilities are very potent and they make her a lethal fighter to be up against.

Seeing the Justice League get to form for a second time was pretty fun. The film actually started out decently well with this plot since the daily trip to Gotham was pretty intense as per usual. Seeing GL go to fetch Batman was definitely in character since he wasn’t going to let the dark knight skip a meeting this time. Gotham always has a certain edge to it that distinguishes the city from the rest and we also get some of the best animation featured in that moment. Not bad Batman…not bad! It’s a little disappointing to see how irresponsible Superman and Wonder Woman were though. We can naturally understand why Batman and GL didn’t show up at the meeting, but why wouldn’t the power hitters come? You can make the case that they didn’t hear the signal…but that’s highly unlikely. Ah well, more time for those two characteres to sink I suppose.

Lois and Jimmy were two characters who had no purpose in this film, but it’s time for the review to start winding down. Ultimately, the film was just plagued with too many negatives for me to really call it a good film. Take away the Justice League and it’s probably a bad film. The iconic characters are what keeps it afloat,m but the actual handling of this otion picture just wasn’t up to par with what you would expect. The film is also extremely light on meaningful action and I would be disappointed if the upcoming live action film had a similar climax. I’m expecting big things from that title and I don’t want to be disappointed! There isn’t much of a soundtrack to be found here so I’ll skip that.

Overall, Throne of Atlantis is pretty disappointing. These could be dicey times for DC. The box art isn’t very good and it follows that live action feel that I’m not a fan of. The violence is way over the top to try to make the film gritty and I had problems with just about every scene. The final fight must be one of the most inaccurate moments in all of cinema. The animation looks nice and the main characters are mostly all pretty likable, but that’s just not good enough to help the film this time. I recommend just skipping this one and watching Crisis on Two Earths yet again. That film never gets old!

Overall 5/10

Aquaman Volume 3 Throne of Atlantis Review

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The Throne of Atlantis film is coming up soon so let’s take a look at the source material. I think DC could do better with other Justice League stories, but this is one of the best ones to pick if you want to start establishing Aquaman as a big player again. After all, he’s essentially the main character here so he gets a lot of screentime. It’s a fun Justice League story to read even if it’s not a game changer.

The collection starts off with a quick glimpse into Aquaman’s past and how he rejected the throne to live above ground. He had some adventures as he hid his powers and he just faded away into obscurity. Well, that doesn’t last long as Aquaman is forced back onto the field when the Atlanteans decide to attack the surface world. Gotham and Metropolis are some of the targets, but ultimately the human race itself is in the crossfire. The Justice League retaliate and Aquaman is forced to choose between his allies and his people.

The New 52 may get a lot of criticism from consumers, but the art has never been a problem. This graphic novel continues DC’s trend of having great art in its titles. It is easily still some of the best artwork in the business and you could almost read the graphic novel for that alone. The fight scenes really pop out at you and all of the character designs are spot on. There are no questionable looks (Superman in vs the Elite) that will have you take a step back. This is the Justice League as they were meant to be seen.

One of the big worries for this arc was the fact that there are no powerful villains in it. At least, this was a concern of mine. How would Superman even be challenged? (Rhetorical question as well since I was well aware of what would happen to him before I read the comic) Unfortunately, a not very subtle mix of plot hax and villain hype is the comic’s solution. Ocean Master even landing a hit on Batman is another story altogether! I think that the writers do need to be very careful when including villains who can’t even level a city to be the opponent of the Justice League. Keep in mind that Green Lantern and the Flash are busy so the Justice League is weakened at the moment, but the Atlanteans are not a threat.

They are a threat in the sense that they will do a lot of damage to the cities, but they aren’t a threat to the heroes. You won’t think for a second that they will be able to take out the superheroes. It’s just not going to happen. As for their invasion, they will deal a lot of damage, but the government in DC is actually pretty competent when necessary. I’m sure that Amanda Waller and her various groups of heroes/villains would be able to drive the invaders back. A lot of civilians would be taken out, but that part is inevitable since this is a war.

Naturally, this does affect the fight scenes. We actually don’t get a whole lot of action here. We have a brief dispute with Aquaman and a short fight with the Ocean Master at the end, but that’s about it. Most of the comic involves Aquaman’s history and the fight against the Atlanteans. The art and character portrayals still keep this as an above average comic with room to spare, but I would have liked to have seen some more action.

Batman’s portrayed very well as he’s still the smart member of the group and he’s not about to back down when the going gets tough. His role isn’t huge, but he still plays a pretty big role in protecting Gotham and getting Aquaman to see that what he’s doing is madness. His scene with Ocean Master does leave a lot to be desired though and it felt like the writers didn’t know how to actually make Batman lose. Truth be told, it’s a pretty tough feat to accomplish.

Superman also looks pretty great and we get to see a solid glimpse of his heat vision. The only problem is that his vaunted strength isn’t enough to help him endure a lightning blast when it should have been easy for him. If Batman could live through such a blast, there’s no way that Superman would be knocked out. Magic or no magic. (Wonder Woman was also knocked out and she has a pretty good immunity to magic so there’s that as well) Superman was definitely nerfed here, but his portrayal was still pretty spot on aside from one issue that I will address.

Wonder Woman has been upgraded to Superman level in the New 52 although some may try to say that she was always this strong. Wonder Woman has been tough for a long time, but her lack of speed has typically kept her a little under Superman’s level. Their speed seems to be more or less equalized under normal circumstances so she’s definitely a heavy hitter here. She seems to be a little quicker to strike with lethal blows as opposed to the rest of the League, but she is a warrior first and foremost. She was a pretty solid character as well, but she had the same negative as Superman.

The negative is the rushed romance between the two heroes. We don’t really need a Superman and Wonder Woman pairing since it just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in the grand scheme of things. There’s just no point and teammates should know that it’s better to just stay friends rather than risking it all falling apart before their eyes. It’s simply not worth it and the comic didn’t need to add the romance to sell some more copies. I’m sure that sales were good enough and the brief spike wouldn’t last for very long. That was too bad.

Aquaman is the main character, but it’s hard to root for him at times. Choosing to attack the Justice League was not the right call. It’s true that he was actually making a little progress before they jumped in, but I doubt that the Ocean Master would have ultimately backed down. At that point, Aquaman just needed to follow Batman’s lead since the Dark Knight typically handles these situations pretty well. Aquaman is pretty tough and it’s good to see him actually trade blows with Superman and Wonder Woman, but I don’t think for a second that he could actually hold his own against them in a prolonged battle. I’m also unsure about his decision to just abandon Atlantis to live on the surface world. The whole thing was a little odd and you can’t help, but feel bad for the Atlanteans. It’s sad when you can sympathize more with the main villain than with the main character. Aquaman’s decision to banish Ocean Master to Earth was just adding insult to injury. Aquaman’s a good character overall, but you can’t forget how he was so quick to attack the Justice League. I wouldn’t trust him all that much after this if I was one of the heroes.

Ocean Master is the main villain and the comic portrayed him very differently than what you may be used too. He is played by another character into attacking the surface world and he’s really doing it to help the Atlanteans. He willingly stepped down from the throne the first time Aquaman went to Atlantis and he seems like a pretty reasonable villain. He was willing to talk to Aquaman during the war and he wasn’t the raving madman that you would have expected. He was calm and he made some valid points about how the surface world is always attacking the ocean. (BP does a good job of that on their own with the big oil spills!) I actually liked Ocean Master to a degree. He’s certainly not going to become one of my favorite DC villains, but he’s good enough to be an interesting antagonist and I’m wondering how the film is going to portray him. I have a feeling that he’ll be more evil and less sympathetic in the animated version, but I suppose that we’ll find out soon enough. He is very weak though so he needs a significant amount of plot hax during each of his fights. He’s really just a guy with mild super strength and a thunder staff.

Throne of Atlantis was a pretty fun Justice League adventure and if you just think of it as an Aquaman arc, then it’s probably the best one yet. I do miss the Flash and Green Lantern since the League is pretty incomplete without them. Cyborg gets a very brief role where he loses more of his humanity to save the league. It was supposed to be very emotional, but it didn’t seem too tragic when you really think about it since he didn’t lose any parts of his soul. This is still an Aquaman arc first and foremost so that’s one of the only reasons why it’s okay that the Justice League’s role was decently small at times. I do think that the government should have stepped in a little sooner with their super weapons to deal with the Atlanteans, but all’s well that ends well.

Overall, Throne of Atlantis is a pretty good story. There is not a whole lot of fight scenes to keep you occupied, but we have action in other ways like the giant flood that the Atlanteans cause when they start to invade. Ocean Master is actually a pretty compelling villain and aside from a brief romance between Superman and Wonder Woman, the Justice League were portrayed accurately. The artwork is stunning as always and there weren’t any really big negatives here. The collection was fun/decently long read from start to finish and I’m looking forward to seeing how the animated feature turns out. We already know that there will be some significant changes to it will be interesting to see how this affects things in the long run. Now’s your chance to see the New 52 Aquaman so this is a must read!

Overall 8/10

Justice League of America Sanctuary Review

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Sanctuary
It’s time for a classic (Pre 52 anyway) Justice League story. This isn’t an iconic event and it’s not even the climax to an arc. No, this is just an installment in the middle of the Justice League of America’s run back in the day so this is a perfect way to see how it holds up. Is it new reader friendly? Is it action packed? Luckily, I can say yes to both of those questions.

The title actually hints at the plot as many villains are on the run since they are being targeted by the Suicide Squad. You would think that the villains would have a clear edge, but the Squad has grown tougher over the years. They have a man who has the strength of a wild animal, The Sargent/General (DC’s version of Red Hulk) and several other members, but I’ll admit that none of them left a lasting impression. They have already gotten some of the big guns like the Joker, Lex Luthor, and Grodd so the final villains realize what they have to do…..they have to turn themselves in to the Justice League! This starts a pretty interesting plot as the League does tend to be at odds with the government on several occasions. Has Amanda Waller overstepped her boundaries?

The other half of the comic deals with what the heroes find when they try to track down the mission villains and we also get a long discussion with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. They talk about the team and there are a few hidden insults as well as the three of them try to out think the other two members.

Cliffhanger wise, I can’t say that it was an amazing one, but it was what I would consider solid. The villains have plans of their own and this makes them look a lot better since you may have assumed the worst when we heard that they had all been beaten by the government. As Luthor basically states, this particular twist has been done a few times already though so it’s not shocking, but it does have the potential to give us a lot of great fights. The Martian Manhunter is also dealing with troubles of his own. (By the way, this graphic novel apparently leads into Final Crisis so I guess it was sort of related to an event after all!)

This collection deals with a lot of government intrigue and political talk as we have to decide whether it’s a good thing that the government is capturing all of the thugs or not. Naturally, I agreed with Batman that when nobody can see what the government is doing, they start to cross the law. As always, the government looks shady to the point where you can say that Waller and her group are just as evil as some of the villains. They just want to eliminate the villains for good. It would save hundreds if not thousands of lives, but resorting to destroying the villains is just as bad. Their prison is basically a death sentence after all.

Batman’s portrayal plays out as you would hope. He doesn’t get a lot of action, but he’s always a step ahead of Waller. Instead of making threats, he’s busy finding out where the prison is and alerting his teammates to Waller’s assault on the Watchtower. (You have to admit…it would have been Awesome if that had happened during the TV show. Her gang wouldn’t have stood a chance if Superman and the others had shown up) The Dark Knight doesn’t really get much better than this and he was a highlight of the collection!

Superman also looks pretty sharp. There seems to be an event that happened with Vixen a while back, but it evidently wasn’t Superman’s fault (Too much) although he should have been able to dodge. He has the speed and that must have been a character plot hole. Regardless, he’s still the heart of the team and he likes to take an optimistic look at what the team is doing..even if it’s shady. He’s probably the only hero who keeps up a polite pre tense with Amanda Waller.

From the big three, Wonder Woman definitely gets the smallest role or at least it felt that way. Technically, she does get a team up issue with the Flash that helps to even things out. You can even argue that technically she appears the most and it just feels like she didn’t appear as much because she didn’t get as many memorable scenes. She looked pretty good in the team up although I was mostly busy feeling sympathetic for the Flash. You can definitely tell that she’s one of the big leaguers.

The Flash only gets a brief appearance in his team up issue, but he seems like a nice guy. The Flash has easily been one of my favorite leaguers, but I’m usually talking about Barry Allen. I like Wally West, but I can’t say that I find him as likable as Barry…usually. He was definitely very good here and he may have been blowing the league off, but I’m sure that he has his reasons. His super speed always comes in handy and personality wise, he’s a pretty complete hero. (Like Mega Man) Hopefully we will see more of him in future issues.

Vixen gets a rather large role in this graphic novel due to a side plot that revolves around her. She used to harness the powers of animals through her amulet, but now she has been able to absorb the powers of heroes around her. This means that she can have the strength of Superman and she can even use Green Lantern’s energy blasts. It’s pretty surreal and it’s definitely something that is useful to have. Because of this, you could say that she’s one of the League’s power hitters although she only gets into a brief skirmish with one of the Suicide Squad’s members. It’s a pretty interesting plot and I’ll be sure to stay tuned.

Red Arrow doesn’t look very good though and his plot isn’t very interesting either. He is pretty desperate in his search for Cheshire and it doesn’t do his team any favors. The last thing they need is for him to start falling into traps. He usually has a pretty cool air about him, but he’s not very likable here. Hopefully he gets over that situation pretty soon.

We also can’t forget the surprise villain at the end. I guess I won’t spoil who it is, but he’s usually not a fighter. Luckily, he stumbled onto a piece of tech (Or something or magical origin) that allows him to give the Justice League a decent challenge. Even Superman can’t snap these blue threads, which was a little of a stretch to be honest. You can tell from his design that this villain isn’t going to be taken seriously very often, but his plan was decent and pretty well thought out. I’m not a fan and I don’t find him terribly interesting, but I’ll give him some props for the attempt. Think of it as a little filler before the real battles.

Amanda Waller makes for a pretty interesting villain as per usual. I don’t like her methods as a hero, but she does usually make for a fun antagonist. She gets to trade hidden insults with Batman and their mind games always tend to be pretty intense. I’m sure that we’ll see a lot more of her in the future, although I have to say that she really didn’t think through her plan that much here. Sending the villains away to the “prison” is good (for her) and all, but she should at least check to see what’s happening once and a while. In the DC universe, you never know what’s going to happen with a situation like that.

I’ll admit that I liked the Key’s confidence. With a power like his, it’s easy to see why he’s like that. I like to think that the villains still could have put up a decent fight against the Suicide Squad, but I guess it does pay off to play it safe sometimes. It gave the beginning an event feel as the group is on the run and we have to hope that the villains make it out…unless we just wait for the League to take them all down.

The art is pretty solid. It’s admittedly not as sleek as the New 52 comics, but that also allows the heroes to look a little more built as well. Superman is definitely pretty muscular here and I like how he takes charge. (Unlike the Avengers) Superman stands up to Waller’s cronies and he doesn’t give an inch. This is why he’s Superman! Whoops, I diverged from the art a bit. Needless to say, the art is pretty good.

One thing to note is that there is not a whole lot of action to be found here. There are a few skirmishes and a small battle with Queen Bee, but that’s about it. This collection is mostly plot based, but The Justice League of America manages to pull this off pretty well. More action is almost always better, but I can deal with a break from it if everything else is top notch. It’s also heavily implied that the next volume will have a lot more action since the plot is really getting close to the climax.

Overall, This is a fun Justice League comic. Unfortunately, we don’t really get to see the big 3 get a lot of action, but their meeting helps since they still get a decent amount of screen time. Superman gets to stand up to Waller and Batman quickly uncovers the enemy plans. It’s really everything that you could want in a Justice League comic and naturally, we have some fight scenes ready as well. It’s a title that I recommend to any comic fan, whether you are reading it for the action or the plot. Either way, it is just an interesting read from start to finish and you can tell that this is the calm before the storm.

Overall 8/10

Showcase Presents Justice League of America Volume 6 Review

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I read this volume almost half a year ago, but the backlog of reviews doomed it to take a while as with the Essential X Men review. Luckily, I happen to be a little more of a DC fan and the comics didn’t have a huge plot back then so with the help of Comicvine, this review will be more thorough as it’s supposed to be. You really can’t go wrong with the Justice League and this collection was just as good as I could have hoped.

There are a whole lot of comics in this collection since it brings about 25 of them. Most of these comics contain different plots entirely, although there are some multi parters. The first two part comic is the one from the cover. Nazi’s have somehow won the war so everyone acknowledges that they need the real Justice League in order to win. Naturally, the Justice League and the Freedom Fighters are eventually forced to fight due to misunderstandings and one of the ultimate fights in comics is quickly started. We also get a comic where Hawkman decides to part ways with the Justice League and this isn’t pleasant news for the other members. They aren’t given much time to react as Eclipso strikes!

We get several more comics in the collection until we reach the saga where the Equalizer attacks. All of the heroes begin to equally share their powers so they are all as fast and strong as each other. This means that Superman is a pale shadow of who he once was and Batman can’t really think too well. He’s actually pretty scared and worried the whole time because he’s not used to being average. (I find this a little hard to believe) The League won’t be able to take on such a threat so they’re going to have to call in an ex Justice League member. Is this a good move or will it merely bring about their doom. It’s definitely a very risky gambit.

Now, I have to reference the Equalizer plot once again. That was the one comic where all of the portrayals were a little off. Batman shouldn’t really lose so much confidence even if he has been equalized and I would like to think that everyone would still be pretty strong since Superman’s strength is just that great. They also lost a lot of their abilities to the Equalizer himself so it’s a little arguable, but I like to think that they would still be pretty big threats in the long run.

There was a mini arc with Adam Strange, but it wasn’t very note worthy.
A fun comic was where Dr Light switched the civilian identities of each of the heroes. Now, they all had to live out a day as someone else and that was pretty fun. Will they be able to master their new abilities in time to stop this treacherous villain and will some secret identities finally become known to the public? This is an issue that’s a must read! One issue that was…interesting was when two real life DC employees find Flash’s treadmill and jump into the Comics world. One of them quickly gets corrupted and turns to evil while the other one must try to stop him. I can’t say that I cared for either character, but it was definitely a big change of pace from the typical issue.

Another comic finds Green Lantern in a dangerous position as he continues to charge his ring during the night without being aware of it. A villain seems to be controlling him so he quickly contacts the League. Hopefully the heroes can stop him before it’s too late! Wonder Woman finally rejoins the League during one issue, but finds out that they have all quit. The new villain is far too scary for them and she has to help them get their courage back. What kind of villain could intimidate the League so thoroughly? Those are just some of the plots, but you can see that we definitely have a lot of interesting ones in the mix.

From the characters, Green Arrow and Hawkman had most of the banter. They were constantly insulting each other and it made things interesting. They don’t actually want the League to fire the other person, but Green Arrow loves picking fights and Hawkman prefers to directly defend himself while the other Leaguers just ignore the archer. Batman and Superman are pretty great as always and any comic with them is usually fun to read…meaning that all of the comics in this collection are pretty great if I recall correctly. They usually make up some kind of reason as to why Superman would lose to a random giant monster each time. Wonder Woman gets a really small role since she is mainly with the Justice Society instead of the Justice League, but she looks pretty good in her guest star role. She ends up saving the team, which gives her some serious bragging rights. The Flash’s role wasn’t very big although he had a role in the issue where he and Hawkman merged with an alien and fought the League. His super speed ensures that he’s a good match for any opponent…assuming that he doesn’t get tripped up while running of course. Green Lantern is a solid character as well and at least he went to the JLA for help right away when he suspected that something was using his body for evil. Most heroes would just keep it to themselves and call it a day. He didn’t look too great when he allowed himself to be blindsided, which allowed Twoface to escape, but I suppose that he was really concentrating on flying at the time. Willpower is what runs the ring after all so it’s almost believable.

I definitely don’t buy the League all becoming cowards because of the fear that the villain emitted. Surely they have the strength of mind to resist such an attack and to become great heroes again right? Wonder Woman had to snap them out of it in the end and use her Lasso to get them into action. No wonder Earth gets worried sometimes….surprisingly the government doesn’t really appear much. It’s hard to believe that they used to wholeheartedly trust the League. Nowadays, there is always a shadow cabinet out to get them or even the President himself when the time is right.

Of course, it still makes for a fun plot. The collection has more continuity than you may have guessed given how long ago it came out. The Hawkman plot came several times and there are definitely a lot of references to the older comics. The cast is pretty large since the members are always rotating and we even got to see the Freedom Fighters and Justice Society. I felt bad for the Justice League when they met the Society because they got fooled by a villain into destroying the heroes. I’m not completely sure if it actually ended up that way or if there was a plot twist, but I do remember the Spectre intervening so I’m pretty sure that they actually died. As a result, the villains took advantage of this and used costumes of the Society so that the heroes would believe that their ghosts had come back to haunt them. Batman didn’t believe it of course, but he still couldn’t fight back since it was too emotional. The League definitely got pummeled once again, but we can definitely say that they are the strongest group. The Freedom Fighters certainly didn’t stand a chance against them.

The art is very easy to follow which is always a good thing. This collection is in black and white as per the norm so you can actually use it to try and draw the characters yourself. No colors to distract you after all. I still prefer color for the comics, but you can still follow the fight scenes and that’s what counts. The current DC art in the New 52 is amazing, but I’ve always loved the art from these days as well. It’s just crisp and easy to read.

Overall, These adventures really are timeless. It never gets old to see the witty banter between the heroes and the villains. Back in the day, a simple trick like an incoming box was enough to take out a Green Lantern and every villain worth his nickel had a chunk of Kryptonite up his sleeve. The heroes had to face some pretty tricky villains while also dealing with the occasional alien. All of the comics are pretty interesting and any big DC fan should definitely appreciate how fun the adventures can be. I would go as far as to say that any comic reader should get a kick out of this comic. The black and white style may turn off a few, but I’m sure that they would enjoy it if they only gave it a chance. Since this is volume 6 of the JLA Showcase series, the comics are a little more modern and you can tell by Superman’s design. (His is the most notable in my opinion) I definitely suggest checking it out!

Overall 8/10

Justice League of America Volume 1 Reveiw

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Justice_League_of_America_Vol_3_1
We may have the Justice League and the Justice League Dark, but there’s always room for another group. The main difference is that this group is under government jurisdiction, which makes things intriguing. The cast can be a concern since the main members won’t be able to join, but I can safely say that it is still a good comic.

The plot involves Steve Trevor as Amanda Waller tells him that she’s forming a group. She wants him to lead it and Steve talks a good game, but he is basically forced into leading the group. Amanda has selected each member so that person can theoretically beat their Justice League counterpart. The members are kept in the dark about this of course and the team consists of Martian Manhunter, Stargirl, Catwoman, Green Lantern, (Not Hal of course) Vibe, Hawkman and Katana. The cover already shows Green Arrow so I may as well say that he joins up with them later as well.

The group doesn’t really do a whole lot at first, but they look into stopping the secret society. These guys mean business since even Green Arrow was powerless to stop them. The second half involves the real Justice League as the Trinity Wars kick into high gear as both groups are launched into the fighting. Only one team can walk away from this (maybe) and the stakes have never been higher…..in a while. Meanwhile, Pandora is still around so the adventure could get even more dangerous for the heroes.

Steve Trevor is the leader of the Justice League of America, but he’s definitely no Batman. Batman can fight in hand to hand combat when necessary and he has a lot of gadgets. All Steve has is a long list of witty comebacks at the ready and a good handgun. He gives Catwoman a decent fight, but I’m glad that she defeated him. If a regular guy can defeat a super villain, then there’s no real need for an Anti Justice League group now is there? Steve tries to be a good character, but almost all of his lines are really just bluffs in the end. He always ends up listening to the government at the expense of common sense and he needs to stand up for himself some more. As far as leading the group goes….Steve doesn’t actually give many orders. He mostly just stands around and tries to talk tough. Still, Steve is a good guy despite all of this and he just needs to have more courage to stand up for what he believes in. Once he embraces this, Steve can end up being one of the better GI Joes.

Martian Manhunter is the big hitter for this group. He does pretty well, but I can’t say that he looked like he was anywhere near Superman’s level. We get some flashbacks into his origin, which will likely serve as foreshadowing for a future arc. It was intriguing, but not much has changed from the original origin so it was pretty basic. We met a new villain who I’m sure will be back at some point. The Martian is pretty short and direct in his manner of speaking, which is always good to see. I still can’t say that I’m a huge fan of the fact that he signed up with this counter league to stop the original ones, but I guess that I could say that for all of the members. At least he tried to end things diplomatically.

Katana gets a really small role compared to the other members. It’s easy to forget that she’s even on the team because she only gets a handful of lines. I don’t have much of an opinion on her at this point, but I would say that she’s decent. She’s not really a hero so hopefully these good influences will help her turn over a new leaf. I can’t say that her sword is very impressive as a person either, but all of his lines were off screen so it can be hard to tell for sure how cool he is.

I’ve never really been a fan of Hawkman and I can’t say that he looks too great here either. He seems to be pretty delusional and he overrates his own ability. I don’t really see him standing up to Aquaman at all. Hopefully he comes back to reality soon because he definitely seems like someone that you wouldn’t trust as a fellow hero.

Stargirl seems to be one of the more powerful fighters, but Amanda Waller wants her to stay at the base and act as the team’s PR rep. That doesn’t really fly with Stargirl and she escapes, which is pretty cool. She’s easily one of the most likable members of the group and she even got her town to accept her as a real superhero. It’s a feat that only a few superheroes like Superman and Flash have been able to pull off. Hopefully she gets a good fight in the next volume so we can see what her abilities can really do.

Simon Baz only appears for the latter half of the volume so we don’t see that much of him. He’s definitely no Hal Jordan and he’s a little generic so far. I’m sure that he’ll improve as he gets more screentime and he beats most of the other members. He seems to be pretty experienced after his latest adventure so hopefully he will show this as he gets some action in the future.

Catwoman was definitely not one of my favorite members. Her unnecessary embrace with Steve to steal his wallet and find out about his past was pretty sad. We get her backstory once again so that we can sympathize with the character and also learn about the Martian Manhunter, but it doesn’t really change the fact that her current self isn’t really likable. Catwoman always has the potential to be a good character, but she typically squanders it.

Green Arrow is actually pretty likable and it’s good to see him blackmail the government since they’ve been blackmailing everyone else. He’s definitely a pretty shady hero and he only answers to himself, but it’s an interesting change of pace at this point. The New 52 Arrow is completely different from the Pre 52 one and that’s just fine with me. I may actually prefer this version of the green hero. He definitely doesn’t look very impressive in the fights, but he can’t really be expected to match up against these powerful foes on his own. I’ll admit that his villain costume was pretty simple so I can see why the villains saw through it. At least Green Arrow made for an interesting addition to the team.

Vibe has a lot of room to grow so he has the potential to turn into a good hero. Right now he’s just a little too inexperienced and he doesn’t make the hero calls when necessary. He blindly listens to his superiors when they tell him to blast the Flash even though he didn’t know how it would affect him. Why take the risk when it could have potentially blown him up as with the robots? Vibe just cracked under the pressure and some more experience under his belt should help with that…hopefully!

Batman doesn’t get a huge role in this collection, but it’s good to see him thinking of a way out of this. He tries to help Superman get out of his predicament, but it’s tough without any leads. I have no qualms with his portrayal here. Superman was more on the dicey side since he allowed himself to be locked up. Luckily, the Leaguers are still watching him so the government can’t try anything, but it’s a little too risky if you ask me. Superman’s taking it pretty hard, but he should know that something’s up as he continues to get weaker and weaker. Wonder Woman actually gets most of a comic to herself as she consults the gods, villains, and finally the Justice League Dark to see if she can help Superman. She does a pretty good job although I do agree with the Welder that she didn’t need to be so threatening since they were on good terms. Bringing in the Justice League Dark was a good call….except that they turned out to be a little too unprepared for the battle.

Lex Luther didn’t get a huge role in this one, but it was good to see his portrayal went. Going after the box just to irritate the Justice League was classic and I’ll admit that I was rooting for him. It may have just been a cameo, but it was still good to see. The Flash didn’t really do anything either, but tackling Martian Manhunter was pretty good since traitors needs to be taken out of the fight right away. He may have misread the situation, but he made the hero move. (Although I believe that phasing through people should be a last resort unless they’re super powerful)

Amanda Waller is still a woman who only cares to help the government. She threatens the heroes and makes sure to be as unlikable as she can be throughout the comic. I was rooting for Stargirl to arrest her or to completely ignore Waller’s commands after the threats started coming in. Lucily, Stargirl did rebel, but I would have liked a more direct approach. Amanda always makes for a decent villain, but she’s seriously misguided in her attempts to help humanity.

The plot does jump around a lot in this comic though and you may not be crazy about this if you want to see the whole story. It jumps right into the 2nd or third part of the Trinity War and then jumps to the after effects of the event. That’s because only one issue was really in this series, but it can make for an interesting read in trade paperback form. The Secret Society plot also kind of vanished as the volume went on. I suppose that it could have ended in a way, but it didn’t really feel like an ending.

I have to wonder if Amanda Waller really thought her plan would work since her members are not nearly as powerful as the real league. Hal Jordan is better than Simon Baz in just about every way. The Flash would beat Vibe in his sleep. Batman’s better at hand to hand combat than Catwoman. Wonder Woman vs Katana is a bit of a joke. (No offense to Katana fans of course, but I don’t see her trading blows with Superman) Superman has heat vision to take care of Martian Manhunter. I forgot who Stargirl is a rival of, but let’s say that she loses to Cyborg and Aquaman beats the rest. That sounds about right. Amanda’s plan would not work and I don’t see how she can get past this fact.

DC’s done a really good job with the artwork in just about all of their New 52 comics. This one is no exception and all of the characters are drawn really well and the fights are pretty dynamic. We don’t get a lot of action scenes unfortunately, but we can still see that the art is solid from all of the other scenes. It would be hard for the aer to be even better than this so I’m completely satisfied in this area.

Overall, This was a fun Justice League comic. It’s kind of like watching the B listers instead of the main members, which is always good as a change of pace. I’d say that the only thing that brings down the comic a little is the convoluted timeline and the fact that there are no likable villains. The League needs a serious threat if it wants to establish credibility with the world after all. Some of the members are decent while I don’t really care for the others so it’s a bit of a mixed bag in that area. This comic had the infamous Catwoman getting shot scene that made its rounds on the web a while back, but it’s not that bad. I suppose that direct gunshots aren’t typically shown that often which could be a while, but you should be okay as long as you remember the classic comic book rule about characters who die. If not, it’s easy to skim through that part since there are a lot of panels leading up to it. Personally, I found the Martian Manhunter story worse in that regard since we got classic animal/alien violence that is always sad to see. It’s part of what kept this one from getting an 8 like the classic Justice League stories, but also the fact that we’re missing most of the main members. I recommend checking out this story if you’re a Justice League fan or if you like to read comics with very good art. There’s a decent amount of action and a lot of plot lines are developed that should help you get introduced into the New 52. I just wish that Hal Jordan could have been around to participate in the fights and maybe the Forever Evil tie ins will occur in the next volume.

Overall 7/10