The Justice League portion of this comic really came and went. There’s nothing noteworthy about it at all, which is a real shame since last month’s issue set things up perfectly. The story was forgettable, it barely progressed at all, the entire Justice League seems to not know one another after working together for 5 years, and the art looks very rushed! Judging by the credits–3 inkers and 4 colorists–it probably was rushed.
The focus of this issue was to be the new villain Graves, but nothing about him is answered in a satisfactory way. His origin and powers are still pretty murky by the end of this issue. All I know is that he spawns ghost monsters, is magical, is a bigger guy than I thought he was, he brings out your worst memories and apparently that’s enough to subdue the entire Justice League (who hear the alarm that there is an intruder, but instead of actually coming up with a plan and talking about it spend the next page explaining what the alarm is and what it means, then UH-OH the bad guy is in the same room as us now. Crap. Let’s talk to him.)
“Justice League” #10 wasn’t worth my time or my money, but its back-up story about Captain Marvel Shazaam…I’ve never read a Captain Marvel Shazaam comic before. All I know about the character is what I learned from reading “Kingdom Come” and watching the Justice League and Young Justice cartoons (thanks to my Twitter followers, by the way for turning me on to “Young Justice”. It’s great so far!) but I think these Shazaam stories are fantastic. Gary Frank’s art is wonderful and I wish Geoff Johns could pace the Justice League and breathe life into its cast as well as he is with Shazaam. I actually care about these characters and find myself excited each month to see what happens next. I wish that Shazaam had his own comic. This is a great story and a great cast and it’s a travesty that anyone should have to pay four bucks for the mediocre Justice League story this month just so they can enjoy 8 pages of the far superior “Shazaam”.
Do I recommend you buy “Justice League” #10? Heck no. There are far too many better and more affordable comics out there. You should definitely read the Shazaam section, but I would recommend waiting for a trade that collects them all so you can sit down and enjoy it all in one sitting. In the meantime, write to DC saying you want a real Shazaam comic.
SCORE: 4.5/10
