Question for you readers at home. What’s better than the Justice League but instead of people they’re dinosaurs?
Trick question. It’s absolutely nothing. Anyone who answered anything other than absolutely nothing is wrong and hates fun.
Okay, okay. I’m kidding. Kind of. Not really. But kind of.
I will not stop fanboying over this book
After my last review, it might be no surprise that this is my favorite book DC is putting out right now. Juan Gedeon and Daniel Warren Johnson are geniuses.
Just like before, we’re seeing every single aspect of this book going all out, every decision filtered through the lens of “how can we make this as extreme as possible?”. It’s perfect.
A lot of that is due to the insane pairing of Juan Gedeon’s art and Mike Spicer’s colors. Every single page of this book is incredible, to the point where I’ve had the single hardest time figuring out which Jurassic League panels to use in my reviews than any other book I’ve ever written about.
I mean come on, look at that.
All the action sequences are so explosive and dynamic that my eyes were glued to the page for way longer than was appropriate, drinking in every single detail. I’m absolutely enamored with Jurassic League’s visual style.
The fight between Supersaur, Batsaur, Giganta, and Brontozarro, in particular, is a maxed-out radical slugfest that doesn’t afraid of anything. Even the scenes where Supersaur is saving humans are done in the most over-the-top, awesome ways.
A quick aside on the <> translation markers: I absolutely love the way language is used in this book. Dino characters are speaking in grunts and roars, and all humans are speaking, well, human. This leads to some really neat character stuff, like Batsaur’s “Robin” following him around and trying to communicate, and Supersaur being fluent in both languages as a son of two worlds. It’s a super cool tiny detail that adds to the many cool details that really makes Jurassic League feel like its own unique world.
Truly, the best Jurassic World that released this month
That might be my favorite thing about Jurassic League, actually. It’s not JUST a dinosaur-themed reskin of the DC universe (though that would still rock), it’s its own living, breathing world, with its own unique mysteries and stories to be told. For example, the dino villains all seem to be working at the command/behest of an entity known as the Dark Embryo.
Yes, that is a dinosaur Atrocitus. My Lantern nerd heart sings.
Other than being an absolutely terrifying concept (what is this embryo going to grow into?), the Dark Embryo provides an interesting and suitably villainous plan for these super evil dinos: kidnap as many humans as possible and feed them to their dark god. It’s a really fun Saturday Morning villain plot that I absolutely cannot wait to see play out.
On the heroes’ side of things, I will say that I was kind of hoping we’d see more of the rest of the league in this issue. I know it’s early, but with Reverse-Slash introduced this early, some glimpse of his crimson-colored counterpart would have been nice. Admittedly, this is the tiniest of nitpicks and I am impatient, but can you blame me? I want MORE.
Speaking of tiny nitpicks, actually, I do have one other problem. Brontozarro doesn’t really speak in Bizarro-speak, and while that’s absolutely fine and cool, he’s a new character, it’s a little odd. The substitute method, where master of the craft Ferran Delgado will swap his letters around every so often, is still a ton of fun, and Delgado is clearly having fun with it. I just wish they went a little more intense on the Bizarro aspect.
Recommended if…
- Justice League. Dinosaurs. We’ve been over this.
- You want to read one of the most genuine books out of DC in a good long while.
- Please buy this. We need to send the message that more creator passion projects is what we want out of these comics.
Overall
I was a little worried that the second issue of Jurassic League wouldn’t be able to carry the momentum of the absolutely stellar first issue. I’m so incredibly happy to say that that fear was completely put to bed. Go buy this.
Score: 9/10
DISCLAIMER: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purpose of this review.
