Well, it has started. The New 52! DC’s reboot of their entire universe of characters that are upto 70 years old. And as I mentioned, I’m picking up all of them and I’ll try and comment on what I think is good, bad and indifferent in each.
But thankfully, we’ll start slowly with a single issue - Justice League #1.
Written by Jeff Johns with artwork by Jim Lee and Scott Williams, this is the book that kicks off the entire event. It starts off 5 years ago with Batman being chased by Gotham police helicopters as he’s chasing some bad guy across the rooftops. Eventually, Green Lantern drops in and the first introduction between these two characters is made. The bad guy they are chasing turns out to be an extraterrestrial alien who is basically a terrorist suicide bomber. Batman is annoyed at Green Lanterns bravado and brightness. Green Lantern writes off Batman as a normal guy in a bat suit. And they both realize that they should talk to that new alien guy in Metropolis so see if he’s a threat to Earth or not. And with an interlude introducing Cyborg before his enhancements, the book ends with the teaser NEXT: BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN.
I been thinking about this book since reading it, and I believe that it has potential of being really good. I enjoy the “what if” type books and the occasional re-imagining of established characters. From Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One to the John Byrne image of Superman in The Man of Steel to the recently concluded J. Michael Straczynski vision of Wonder Woman, taking existing characters, with all their history and backstory and looking at them in a new way is a fun thing. But eventually, the character gets integrated back into the continuum and what made the change interesting becomes old hat.
As a single issue of a hopefully long running comic, as I have mentioned, I liked this book. The penciling by Jim Lee is fantastic. You can tell he put a lot of effort in the layouts, figures and expressions of all the characters. The action is kinetic with the feeling of weight thrown behind the punches. And with Scott Williams’ inking adding depth to the pencils, I hope they continue working on this book for a while.
And the story that Geoff Johns is weaving looks like it might be a nice long story arc. Who is this alien Batman and Green Lantern chased? And with the best Justice League stories in the past, there must be some existential threat that needs to be resolved which a single hero can not hope to accomplish requiring that a group of heroes unite. How will this happen and what is the threat?
But for the characters themselves, Johns is re-introducing them fresh to us. The heroes haven’t had decades of experience. This new Green Lantern hasn’t been humbled feeling he is the strongest being in the universe. Batman in this new universe is the loner who doesn’t really communicate and hasn’t ever worked in any groups setting. Though these personalities have been played out in other comics in the past, I’ll like to see how Johns continues as more of the members of the Justice League are added.
Will I continue picking this book up? I think so. With the great art and the potential of a grand universe shaking story while re-introducing classic heroes, I’m intrigued. So unless the other 51 new DC books are better than this one, I’ll be picking up more of this one at least until the first story line is complete.
Written by Jeff Johns with artwork by Jim Lee and Scott Williams, this is the book that kicks off the entire event. It starts off 5 years ago with Batman being chased by Gotham police helicopters as he’s chasing some bad guy across the rooftops. Eventually, Green Lantern drops in and the first introduction between these two characters is made. The bad guy they are chasing turns out to be an extraterrestrial alien who is basically a terrorist suicide bomber. Batman is annoyed at Green Lanterns bravado and brightness. Green Lantern writes off Batman as a normal guy in a bat suit. And they both realize that they should talk to that new alien guy in Metropolis so see if he’s a threat to Earth or not. And with an interlude introducing Cyborg before his enhancements, the book ends with the teaser NEXT: BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN.
I been thinking about this book since reading it, and I believe that it has potential of being really good. I enjoy the “what if” type books and the occasional re-imagining of established characters. From Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One to the John Byrne image of Superman in The Man of Steel to the recently concluded J. Michael Straczynski vision of Wonder Woman, taking existing characters, with all their history and backstory and looking at them in a new way is a fun thing. But eventually, the character gets integrated back into the continuum and what made the change interesting becomes old hat.
As a single issue of a hopefully long running comic, as I have mentioned, I liked this book. The penciling by Jim Lee is fantastic. You can tell he put a lot of effort in the layouts, figures and expressions of all the characters. The action is kinetic with the feeling of weight thrown behind the punches. And with Scott Williams’ inking adding depth to the pencils, I hope they continue working on this book for a while.
But for the characters themselves, Johns is re-introducing them fresh to us. The heroes haven’t had decades of experience. This new Green Lantern hasn’t been humbled feeling he is the strongest being in the universe. Batman in this new universe is the loner who doesn’t really communicate and hasn’t ever worked in any groups setting. Though these personalities have been played out in other comics in the past, I’ll like to see how Johns continues as more of the members of the Justice League are added.
Will I continue picking this book up? I think so. With the great art and the potential of a grand universe shaking story while re-introducing classic heroes, I’m intrigued. So unless the other 51 new DC books are better than this one, I’ll be picking up more of this one at least until the first story line is complete.
