I’ll keep this review short and sweet since it’s the final chapter of the 6-part Justice League origin story and there’s no way that you’ve read the past 5 parts and are on the fence about buying the conclusion.
Needless to say there’s a lot going on here. The pace of this arc 6-months in the making has been fairly slow and the main bad guy, Darkseid, didn’t even introduce himself until the last issue . A lot of ground needed to be covered in order to wrap things up before the 5 year jump to present day that’ll happen in the next issue which, hopefully, will be more story focused. Let’s face it, the first five issues of this origin story have served more as an advertisement of how cool all of DC’s heroes are rather than an adventure with any weight and part 6 is no exception.
You’ll see Jim Lee at his finest here, folks. Everybody on the team has their awesome hero moment that’ll make your jaw drop…everybody except Batman. When we last saw the Dark Knight, he had stripped off the bulk of his costume in order to pass as an ordinary Joe in order to infiltrate the Parademon stronghold and rescue Superman. For the past month we’ve had time to wonder what sort of stealthy business Batman would have to do in order to save the man of steel. Well, as I said before, there’s a lot of ground to cover in this issue so Batman’s time had to be cut short. Instead of a harrowing side-quest, all we see is Batman walk up to Supes and say “We need Superman.” which motivates Kal-El to the nth degree. So it was hardly a rescue mission.
Everybody else takes turns whooping the crap out of Darkseid, whose counter attacks don’t seem to cause a whole lot of harm to the Justice League. As a result, Darkseid’s notoriety as one of, if not the most, threatening figure in the DC universe is dampened by this adventure. The guy never did anything but show up and play the part of a Godzilla monster knocking down buildings and causing havoc. The only instances in which he actually said something substantial other than “I am Darkseid” (which he repeated a number of times) was when Wonder Woman lassoed him.
Justice League, so far, has been one big showcase for the heroes and that villains have just been things to get smacked around in style. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been fun. Other than most other style over substance books like “Batman: The Dark Knight” the action that’s taken place has at least made sense, the only problem is that the threat was never really there. “Justice League” hasn’t been a grand battle between good versus evil as much as it’s been the superhero equivalent of a slam-dunk competition. Not that that’s a bad thing. I had a blast reading this series and loved Jim Lee’s art and Sinclair’s breathtaking colors. And where else are you going to see Batman surrounded by this much Kirby Krackle?
That being said, the next story better have a deeper story. No more showboating the heroes, give me something a bit more complex where it’ll actually feel like there’s a chance of failure and I can better suspend my disbelief. Luckily, the issue ends off with a promise of great things to come. I won’t give any of that away, but it’s clear that Geoff Johns has big plans for the league.
Oh! And I should also mention that there’s a nice back-up story to this. Most back-up stories are filler (or worse, total crap), but this little tale is very important and everybody who has been reading from the New 52 should check it out. It involves the mysterious cloaked woman who appeared in the background of every. Single. New 52 book’s 1st issue. Her name is Pandora and as we learn here, the reboot may very well have been her doing. Ooooooooo
Quite a lot of fun was had with all of this and the artwork was very impressive. Look out next month when Lee is replaced by Gene Ha and the story takes a 5 year leap to the present day.
SCORE: 8/10
