BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
If you liked reading things like that, then you’re gonna love Justice League #4.
If you’re in the market for a funny, action packed comic with plenty of glorious splash pages full of shattering earth, jumping great white sharks, and fiery explosions then The Justice League have got what you need.
There are no real surprises to be found in this issue. It’s basically more of the same, but the same has been enjoyable. It’s not exactly moved along at break-neck speed, but the art by Jim Lee is so cool that nobody seems to mind. Each issue has been a showcase for one or two characters and it’s only in part 4 that the entire Justice League team we will see from here on out bands together. That means if you’re a fan of Aquaman or Cyborg, then this is the issue to pick up because it’s their time to shine! Well, Aquaman more than Cyborg. Cyborg sort of fires an arm canon and teleports, Aquaman makes that look like child’s play. This should be no surprise since author, Geoff Johns is also doing the Aquaman series (quite good, but moving just as slowly as this series). Of course he’s going to give Aquaman the most bad ass moments so far in the series. He’s even got some of the best lines both in this issue and #3.
Chapter 4 is fun the whole way through, hilarious when it’s supposed to be and stunning in its presentation, but it is also an incredibly short read. Johns doesn’t write stories that take more than 5 minutes to read and Lee drenches the book in splash pages. The final 3 pages are nothing but awesome pictures of Darkseid saying nothing more to add to the proceedings than “I am Darkseid.” It looks awesome and these incredible images do serve the purpose of making the story’s action look big and epic to great effect. But we lose another 5 pages at the end of the book to supplemental material made up to look like STAR Labs documents. As great as it is to see those cool pictures of BOOOOOOOOMING, SKRREEEEEEEING, and CHOOOOOOOOMING, I want to see the story move along more than this.
I’m giving this book an 8.5/10 for that reason, but it’s great fun. Now I’m going to bring up an interesting point of discussion that I’d like you all to voice your thoughts on in the comments. It’s spoiler-filled though so continue at your own peril.
SPOILERS
A lot of folks were upset by how in the past couple issues the JL have been flat out killing the parademons. This has really irked Superman fans who didn’t want to see the big blue boyscout ripping a parademon’s arm off and then beating it to death with the severed appendage. This lead to some interesting discussion about how superheroes with codes of honor regarding no murder seem to have no qualms about killing animals and aliens, especially if they aren’t humanoid in appearance. Basically if it can’t hold a conversation with you and it doesn’t have thumbs, a hero can murder it and the most gruesome ways imaginable and it’s A-Okay. No codes broken here. Well…that gets jeopardized a bit in this issue. Remember how the parademons were abducting people and taking them back to the base which erupted from the ocean? Well, in this issue we learn through Cyborg that the base serves as a factory that turns ordinary, talking, thumb wiggling human earthlings into… parademons—the same parademons that Superman skull ****ed in the last issue. So now we have to ask again: did Superman break his moral code? I’ll tell you who didn’t: Batman. Damn right, I’d have to flip back through all the other issues, but I don’t’ think I ever saw Batman kill a Parademon. We win again, batfans. We win again.
SCORE: 8.5/10
