You gotta love a woman with some fight in her.
What They Say:
The superstar team of writer Geoff Johns and artist Jim Lee continue to make history as they unleash the amazing Amazon, Wonder Woman, who joins the battle against a bizarre threat. And the not-yet World’s Greatest Heroes need all the help they can get!
The Review:
The formation of the Justice League at the dawn of heroes in the DC Universe continues to be a whole lot of fun on a couple of levels. We’ve had the introductions of several of them so far with some comical banter that has definitely worked for me, but it’s also worked two subplot storylines into it as well. The first being the origin story of Vic Stone and that of Darkseid’s arrival itself. Or at least some of his advance troops. Vic’s story is still a subplot here, but with what he’s been put through and at a near death state, watching the efforts of his father and the remnants of his team doing their best to save him is rather well done and has a very painful aspect to it. And when you get down to it with a lot of heroes, not many have a lot of physical pain involved with their origin stories. That’s got to be a defining characteristic for him which explains his harder edge but also why he cares so much.
The main focus of this book though isn’t on him but on that of Wonder Woman herself. While her origin isn’t truly included here, much as we haven’t seen the origins of the other key members, she’s the type that hasn’t been around too long but has been working with Steve Trevor and the government to figure out exactly what to do with her. What she wants to do though is to fight. And lots of it. She has a real warriors heart in that she wants to be active and involved in doing good things. With word of what’s going on outside in Washington D.C. with the strange looking alien things that she believes are harpies, she just tosses the soldiers aside and heads out into the streets to do what she can. But they try to humanize her as well by highlighting the way she interacts with a child who isn’t afraid of her and recommends ice cream. This gives me echoes of the Martian Manhunter and his Oreo cookies. Hopefully it doesn’t become a defining trait, cute as it may be.
The agents of Darkseid that are swarming over many cities end up causing her to meet up with the others as they go about their own battle, which they’re being blamed for of course. Diana’s arrival adds another power player to the mix and one that does observe that people aren’t being killed but rather kidnapped by the creatures, though she intends to get some fight in before really figuring out what’s going on. It’s the reactions of other others that are spot on, especially as Green Lantern almost instantly calls dibs on her and the way Superman looks at her is just perfect as he both sizes her up and wonders even more. The event they’re dealing with is growing, though it has one more quirk to go through as Aquaman arrives just in time to participate while also highlighting exactly what his mindset is at the moment. It’s one of the best last page panels I’ve seen in some time.
Digital Notes:
This Comixology edition of Justice League contains all four variant covers that are also in print; We get the Jim Lee cover, the Greg Capullo alternate cover, the pencil version of the Jim Lee cover again as well as a look at what the combo print/digital version looks like. This issue does have a few extra pages to it with a look at Atlantis and some costume design elements for Green Lantern.
In Summary:
While I’m thoroughly enjoying Justice League, I haven’t been reading a lot of the solo books here for the characters. That’s letting me just enjoy this incarnation of them without much other influence on it and I’m really liking it a whole lot. There’s a lightness about it while still dealing with the serious events that are going on. It just has a sense of fun about it that’s thoroughly engaging and has me really going through it fast. And taking plenty of time to go through it a second and third time for the artwork alone with all its details and the layouts. Re-reading some of the fun lines and taking it in while knowing what’s coming doesn’t lessen the fun at all. While I know what to expect in terms of structure overall going into this series, I didn’t think I’d enjoy it quite as much as I am because of how the characters act the quirks that are showing through here. Some are more in your face than others, but it’s all quite appealing as this team does come together at this point in time. It’s not a guilty pleasure, it’s just pure pleasure.
Grade: B+
