A rare quiet moment.
Creative Staff:
Story: JM DeMatteis, Keith Giffen
Art: Chris Batista, Wayne Faucher, Andy Owens
Colors: Hi-Fi
What They Say:
The world is overrun…and we lost?! For the past few months, they’ve slowly taken over the U.P. space. Now they’re simply exterminating any and all threats in their occupied territory. No one is safe. And we mean NO ONE!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Of all the series I’ve picked up this year to check out, none make my head hurt in as good a way as Justice League 3001 does. While I continue to want something a little different from the 31st century, I’m thoroughly enjoying the offbeat, weird, and chaotic nature of this book. The last issue brought on guest artist Colleen Doran to bring about the end of seemingly half or more of the team and this one gives regular artist Howard Porter a bit more time as we get Chris Batista working the pencils with Faucher and Owens assisting on inks. The result is a book that has a lot going on with a good bit of action but mostly focuses on a whole lot of exposition to get us all caught up and ready to move forward. That kind of material can be difficult to present, but the team does it here quite well.
I’m not much of a fan of showing what happened in retrospect, but the layered way it’s approached here does get the job done. The arrival of the Scullions and their quick takedown of Superman was certainly did make for a great read when it happened and we get to see what happened to the others here in hindsight. The Scullions have proven to be brutal, though obviously confused as Kara notes when it comes to those that they weren’t prepared for, but that means the big tier characters are seemingly eliminated here as Hal and Barry are gone and we get a pretty good tale of how Batman ended things that really serves up some great moments in terms of character for both Diana and Terri as they talk about what happened. A lot of what we get here is Terri’s processing of events as it really takes a toll on her and while you know where it’ll go, you can appreciate the way it’s explored.
The book covers a lot of ground with the cast and their relationships before it shifts to them going on the offense, as they lick their wounds in a safe house outside of the commonwealth. It works well to bring Fire & Ice back into the fold, tying Diana and Terri closer together after how Terri stepped up and is dealing with her shell shock, and also just to reaffirm that Guy is and isn’t Guy. Tora’s piece with this is definitely interesting since she has a different kind of connection to him, though time and distance can do weird things. For me, however, I loved seeing Supergirl stepping up and taking charge of things even though she’s a recent arrival. She’s the “classic” hero in this present and is just getting things done. She has some great scenes with pretty much everyone while helping to bind the book together. Her brief time with Tina is the best tho as our new Batman starts to take shape in her own way.
In Summary:
Justice League 3001 is a book that continues to leave me baffled with what it wants to do, to be, and to go. And I love it for that. Having been reading comics since the late 70’s as a child, there are few books that really are capable of doing that since so much of what goes on has to fit into a particular mold, especially in the shared universe books. This one is free of that and DeMatteis and Giffen are just loving it by all appearances. Batista does a solid enough job here with this issue, though coming off of both Doran’s great work and the regular material from Porter, he has some big shoes to step into and can’t quite do it. It works in his favor that most of the book is centered around sitting around and dealing with lots of exposition so the layouts are good and the character designs look solid. This is a weird and fun book that I look forward to each month because it’s so unpredictable and this issue is no exception.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 23rd, 2015
MSRP: $2.99
