In an effort to make its stories more accessible to new
readers, DC recently launched The New 52, cancelling all of its existing titles
and starting 52 new series with revamped and rebooted versions of its major
characters. But how will the New 52 affect the DC universe? Will new readers
actually be attracted? Will old fans still be interested? Will the new titles
be fresh and new, or disappointing and unfaithful to the original continuity?
After buying and reading all but a few of the 52 new #1s that DC released over
the course of a month, I have set out to review some of the major ones and let
potential readers know which new titles are and are not worth reading. So,
without further ado…
Justice League #1
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciler: Jim Lee
Review by Samuel N. Harris
Justice
League #1 is the very first comic book of the New 52—readers’
first introduction to the newly rebooted DC universe after the events of Flashpoint. The story is set five years
in the past, at a time when, according to the narrator, “the world didn’t call
them its greatest superheroes . . . the world didn’t even know what a superhero
was.” This story shows us the beginning of the Justice League—or, at least, the
League as we are meant to understand it today—and of a new age of DC
superheroes.
First of all, if we’re being completely accurate, this
comic book is actually not about the Justice League—at least, not yet. It’s
about the superheroes who will become the Justice League just starting to come
together. Although the cover contains a pretty full roster—Superman, Batman,
Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg—this issue mostly
just features Batman and Green Lantern (conveniently two of DC’s most popular
characters currently, due to their recent movies), with a brief glimpse of
Cyborg and a quick cameo of Superman at the end. This is the story of the
Justice League’s origin, but it is not a complete story—it will be continued in
subsequent issues, so the readers can see just how DC’s central super team came
to be in the new continuity (and so DC can sell more comics).
This issue wasn’t bad, but it was a little disappointing
for me. As a longtime fan of comics, it hurts me a little bit to see the
characters who I know and love being reinvented in ways that ignore their
previous continuity. When I see Batman and Green Lantern meeting for “the first
time,” with Green Lantern being surprised to find that Batman is even real, and
Batman saying that he’s never even seen Superman before, I hurt for the years of
friendship and camaraderie for these characters that are now being swept under
the rug. At least they’re saying that this happened five years ago and not in
the present day—a detail which I carelessly overlooked my first time through
the issue, and so I initially thought that DC was telling its readers that its
heroes were just now coming together for the first time, which wouldn’t quite
fit with the stories being told in some of the other New 52 issues. But still,
to be told that the Justice League has only been around for five years, when in
fact I know that it’s been around since the 1960s and that Superman and Batman
have had team-ups even before that, is a little jarring for me.
Another minor criticism I have with this issue is
Superman’s costume as portrayed in his cameo at the end of the issue—not
because there is anything inherently wrong with the costume, but because it’s
completely different from the one that he wears in the new Action Comics #1 (although it appears to be the same as the one he wears in Superman #1). This newly revamped DC universe seems to be
inconsistent with how it wants its major characters to be portrayed from one
title to another—but more on that when I write my reviews of the new Superman
titles themselves.
One thing that I do
like about this issue—and apparently
this whole new Justice League
series—is that Cyborg, who had been a member of the Teen Titans in previous
incarnations, is now going to be part of the Justice League instead. I like
Cyborg’s character, and I think it’ll be nice to see him getting to hang with
the heavy hitters in the Justice League now instead of with the sidekicks (no
offense to the other members of the Teen Titans). Cyborg was included in the version of the Justice League that appeared on the TV series Smallville, so it will be interesting to
see that team membership transferred into a comic book instead. Though Cyborg
only gets a few pages’ worth of attention in the first issue—and that in the
form of his alter ego before he even becomes Cyborg—hopefully we’ll be seeing
more good stuff from him in the issues to come.
Like I said, this is not a bad issue. It features Batman
and Green Lantern teaming up to investigate a mysterious alien threat, and it’s
an enjoyable read. It’s not bad at all—but it’s nothing particularly special
either. With the gimmicky new continuity changes hanging over the reader, and
the fact that this issue is only a bit of a slow start to a larger story, it
was hard for me to really appreciate this story or to be extremely impressed by
it. Maybe things will get better with issues #2 and on—but somehow I expect
that those will follow a fairly predictable pattern as well, something along
the lines of all the heroes meeting each other, teaming up to stop the alien
threat from Darkseid, and then deciding to work as an official team before the
narration flashes back to the present and shows what the League is like once
they’ve been around for five years. I’m sure it’ll be an entertaining read, and
I may catch up on it eventually, but I for one probably won’t shell out any
more money to buy these issues as soon as they come out each month. The Justice
League will have to do better than this to really make me excited about reading
their new series.
Comments