Justice League is a roller coaster ride, but issues #1 was the part where you find a seat and put the safety bar down. You’re excited for what’s to come, but it’s taking a while to get going. Then issue #2 was the part where you get told to keep your arms and feet inside and the thing starts moving up hill…and that takes a while, but you’re STILL excited. And now, in issue #3 you’re still climbing to the apex until about halfway through the book and…then…WOOOOOSH
Here…we…go!
Justice League is finally ready to get going. I’m pretty sure we had our last “Batman doesn’t have powers” joke (hopefully) and all the heroes have finally been introduced. Well, kinda, I’m sure we’ll have more witty banter for the first couple pages of issue #4 as Aquaman and Wonder Woman say howdy, but the point is that after issue #3 all the players have entered the stage. We are ready for lift-off and it feels good.
Justice League #3 is just as brightly colored and wonderfully drawn as the last 2 installments and Jim Lee’s re-design of Wonder Woman looks terrific. And her characterization is great, too. I never cared about Wonder Woman before. Sure, she was okay on the JLA cartoon put out a few years ago, and that Wonder Woman animated film is one of the best DC direct animated movies , but I never felt compelled to read one of her comics. After the New 52 thing kicked off I gave Wonder Woman #1 a chance and I couldn’t be happier. Brian Azzarello is knocking it out of the park consistently and now Geoff John’s Wonder Woman has me 100% entertained as well. Seeing her tear through hordes of Parademons with a sword is bad-ass and seeing Flash and Green Lantern’s reaction to this Amazonian babe is priceless. However, it needs to be said that Johns’ Wonder Woman isn’t as serious as Azzarello’s (like how Justice League itself isn’t serious) and she comes off as a female version of Thor. Which isn’t bad, it’s very enjoyable for me honestly, but I wonder if that annoys some hardcore Wonder Woman fans out there?
Is Batman still out of place? Yeah. He really doesn’t contribute much other than telling Green Lantern to stay focused. But Cyborg isn’t boring this time. In issue #3 you actually get to see him become Cyborb and because he was torched by the energy of the boomtube recently, that energy when combined with the alien technology being used to build him (my assessment anyway) gave him a vision of the bad guy, Dark Seid (who looks awesome, btw). It’s a very Lord of The Rings-ish scene. Ya know how Frodo puts the ring on and suddenly the eye of Sauron pops up and he can see the tower in Mordor, etc. etc. It’s like THAT. Will Cyborg be able to tap into these sort of visions of Apocalypse throughout the story? Possibly. I hope so, anyway.
There’s a boatload of funny moments and lots of action in this comic so you’re gonna get your money’s worth. Especially if you enjoy these 2-page spreads of the heroes kicking heads in. Wonder Woman’s debut action shot is especially cool. And it appears that even in this New 52 universe these heroes who claim to not kill continue to make exceptions for robots and aliens that don’t look human. So look forward to seeing Superman knock off a few limbs.
SCORE: 8.5/10
