Justice League Relaunch title

Well it has been a while in the making. Real life took over and all that, plus I had to make sure I was happy with the review I was writing. Well now here it is. The last of the new 52 titles to look at. Ironicly it was the first book released. I am so backwards. Well here is my review on Justice League.



NOTE: I did not read any reviews for Justice League nor did I listen to anyone elses review of the book. All the following feelings are mine.

Lets look at the cover first. The cover is kinda bland, it just being a simple group shot. You do see that the costumes had a bit of redesign but other then Cyborgs random metal shards and Superman's costume (which I'll go over later) there is really not that much different from how they were. Also, you do not get to see Flash, Wonder Woman, or Aquaman in this book at all, so why put them on the cover?

The comic itself is set 5 years in the past, meaning that this story is going to be set up for 5 years later Justice League. Starting a story in the past is kinda dumb from a story telling point. We have 52 new books. All the books that happen 5 years ago are coming out along side stories that are happening now, with the same characters from 5 years ago. Meaning there is no fear that heroes will not make it. We can see that in the books that happen in the present, story line wise.

Anyway, GCPD is firing at Batman and some guy in a trench coat. No idea why they want to kill Batman other then GCPD has a body count they have to hit each month. Batman dodges the bullets in a cool, 2 page spread.

While the shot itself is pretty awesome, showing Batman in a nice action pose, there are a few problems I have. The first is the aim of the GCPD. Batman, as you can see, only jumps about 4 feet to the left. You're telling me that these trained cops in a helicopter can't hit him? I guess these guys have the aim of Storm troopers. The other thing is why is Batman holding his cape. I would have guessed that he wants his cape to flow free to help hide where his real body is, thus making attacking him harder. By holding the cape, you stop it from doing that. Sigh, oh well.

After Batman dodges the rain of bullets, he fires off smoke bombs at the helicopters. Yes, Smoke bombs at the airborne assault craft that has GIANT SPINNING BLADES. Yet somehow his smoke bombs work. The guy in the coat stops and looks at what Batman is doing rather then running away. This is his downfall as Batman shoots a grapple right into this guys leg. Reeling himself in, Batman knocks the guy to the ground. It is here that we see what this guy is, some sort of green skinned monster. The creatures defense is to blow up. Odd battle plan, but hey, whatever works. The creature, who for my sake is going to be called Jeff from now on, is still alive, as is Batman. But now Jeff does not have on his coat, so we see that he is some kind of green skinned croc cyborg monster thing. Batman did get hit with the explosion, and is looking like he might die here. Until. . .

Yep. A glowing green firetruck falls from the sky. Alright, sure, whatever. As you may have guessed, the fire truck was made by Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern. Batman is annoyed by Green Lantern coming to Gotham, but still tells him to try and make himself a bit more stealthy. Green Lantern does not know why but only a second later, the GCPD start firing again. Lantern makes some humans with shields to block the bullets and I do have to ask why he made something so needlessly complex? Why did he not just make the hard light bubble? The bubble would keep you safe, protect you from all sides, and uses little focus and ring energy. My point is further proven when Jeff wakes up after behind hit by the truck and attacks the 2 of them from the back. Would not have happened if you made that simple bubble Hal.

Jeff attacks the helicopters with a mouth laser, jumps through the copters, and lands on the street below as some kinda spider creature now. Green Lantern, who thinks Jeff now looks like a dog, catches the copters using hard light bats. Again, needlessly complex.

With the cops safe, Batman and Lantern chase after Jeff, who fled into the sewers. The two have some banter on the way where Green Lantern finds out that Batman, ok, get ready for this, has NO POWERS! Gasp! Batman replies with the following page.

Yeah, Batman is that bad ass. The two of them find Jeff wielding something to the wall. Not knowing what it is, Green Lantern jumps in head first. Are we sure this is Hal and not Guy? Jeff screams " FOR DARKSEID" and blows up again on the page below.

Our plucky heroes then look at the item that Jeff blew up over and decide that since it is alien, it might have something to do with Superman. With no better leads then that, the two fly off to Metropolis. But enough about that, time for football!

Yes, football. This is the part of the book where we focus on Victor Stone. Vic is going to become the hero known as Cyborg. But don't worry, he is just a football player with parent issues in this issue. I would like you all to look at the score board for the football game. Now this score is to tell us how great Vic Stone is, but that is not what I see. I see that the other team down right sucks. I don't care how good you are, to get scores like that, the other team has to be made from the chess club.

Anyway, after the game, all the scouts want Vic, and Vic is on the phone trying to talk to his dad but only getting his dad's voice mail and blah blah blah. Then an "OH MY GOD" comes from off panel and we go outside to see a glowing green jet, flying around 200 yards above the football field. Stealthy Green Lantern. Real stealthy. After we see the jet, people ask Vic if it is true and his dad tries to study superheroes. Vic says yes, but his dad never talks about it to Vic. It is almost like his dad has an non-disclose agreement or something.

What I love about this page is that Green Lantern, the guy who just flew his plane over the high school football field, says that no one will know they were even in Metropolis. How many want to bet that there were hundreds of calls to S.T.A.R. labs just now? Anyway, as you can see in the page above, Green Lantern thinks he does not need Batman, but after the last panel, he gets punched about 3 city blocks back. After which, we get the page below to finish the comic.

And now we get to see Superman's new costume. Is it me, or is it a bit too blue?

That is my review of the new Justice League book. Is it good? Well it was interesting to say the least. The dialog between Batman and Green Lantern was enjoyable, and the art was great. I do wish we got more then 2 pages with Superman and about 4 with Vic Stone. As a Justice League title, it was not great. As a Batman and Green Lantern story, it was. 

Thank you all for reading my feelings on the new 52. But now that is over and sooner or later, the mini series are going to come to an end as well. I'll keep up with the previews of the mini series as they come out, but after that, I'll just have to see where this blog goes. I do plan on keeping up with my reviews and previews though, so do not worry.

All images are owned by DC.