More than just a marketing gimmick, Injustice: Gods Among Us might just be the most awesome superhero comic you can read right now.
Think Kingdom Come without Alex Ross’ art but with more laughs, more shocks, and a way faster pace. Since this comic takes place within its own universe it doesn’t have to abide by the same rules as traditional ongoing comics and by that I mean things actually happen. More risks are taken. In the first issue we had some pretty iconic characters die and even more characters are killed off in this issue. The entire landscape of the DC Universe is changing in a drastic way to set up the story of the Injustice: Gods Among Us game and I’m getting pretty excited about it. I really loved the Mortal Kombat that came out in 2011. It had a great story as well as fantastic game play that actually required a few months of my time before I could conquer all the challenge towers. It’s one of the few games that I own that I believe was worth full price. Now it seems like Injustice: Gods Among Us will have the same level of quality at least in its storytelling.
If you haven’t read issue #1 yet, do so. If you can’t find it at your local comic shop then you can download it on Comixology. This installment is all about the consequences from what occurred in the previous chapter. Stop reading now if you didn’t buy issue #1 yet! Okay, so you know how Joker tricked Superman into killing Lois and their unborn child? And how Metropolis got nuked? Well the world isn’t going to move on as if nothing happened, Joker isn’t going to go right back through Arkham’s revolving door, and Superman isn’t going to stand beside the principles he’s long upheld. Not this time. A line has been crossed. The first third of this comic is intense! The whole story has been building ever since the first page of the first issue and I was starting to wonder how long the author could keep it up. Turns out that we get our first break here midway through the comic, but it’s not your typical down-time, expsoition scene. It’s comedy.
Besides being highly action oriented with some “Oh no they di’in’t” surprises, this comic is also really funny. I laughed aloud at a joke in the last issue and I did laughed aloud AGAIN this time. This is something that never happens when I read a comic so that’s saying a lot. Tom Taylor accomplishes this by teaming up Oliver Queen and Harley Quinn, who I would’ve never thought would have such great chemistry together but they do and it leads to a nice change of pace from the doom and gloom of the main plot. This doesn’t last for long though.
The final segment of this comic goes back to Superman and we get a scene that reminds me of something that was done in Superman: Earth One only this time it’s handled quite a bit better. People who always thought Superman should be a lot more proactive when it comes to shepherding the planet are going to be pretty excited to see what happens here.
The artwork is also a step up from the previous issue. There’s plenty of depth and detail in every panel and the only character I thought looked slightly off was the Joker. His hair was simply too spiky and reminded me of a Dragon Ball Z character. Miller and Redondo have a similar style and the transition between the two of them was hardly noticeable. They make a pretty great fit for this series and capture the look of the video game well. I do wish the video game makers had given a different design to Batman and Harley Quinn though. Harley’s outfit is rather boring and Batman has way too many plates across his armor.
Injustice: Gods Among Us is must-reading right now, folks. Even if you’re not interested in picking up the video game later on, the comic has a really enthralling story and solid artwork. It’s unlike anything else you can pick up from DC right now.
SCORE: 10/10
