The Good
I'm so glad Jim Lee's on this issue. It's great to see his art on such a heavy action-packed issue. I'll admit I've gone back and forth with the Justice League's new enemy, Graves. He's proving to be a formidable foe but I can't figure out if I can accept his reasoning. He blames the League for the death of his family and his condition. This is one point I'm waiting to see how it fully plays out. What makes up for that is the way he manages to crumble the League's defenses and moral. What does that mean? That means we'll see a bit of fighting amongst the League. It's almost a silly thing when heroes fight each other but as long as it isn't used too often, it's fun to see. Throw in the fact that it's Jim Lee and Scott Williams doing the art, it's a treat to see.
What's nice about this incarnation of the League is the fact that they are still on edge with each other. It seems as if they should be a tighter group given the fact that they haven't allowed other heroes to join but we have to assume they only band together for the major threats. It's not a perfect situation. They know how to work with each other to defeat their enemies but they are still skeptical. It would be too perfect if they simply got along and held hands while going off to face their next enemy.
It's during the bickering that we see more of their personalities. Wonder Woman shows her savage potential, Batman shows his take charge nature, Barry continues to poke fun at Hal while Hal manages to lower his carefree attitude for a bit. All this with the combination of art and color makes the scenes play out nicely. For a comic at the end of the day, this is exactly what I wanted.
And then there's the back up. I've probably said it many times but I've been a huge fan of Gary Frank for quite some time. For me to have both Frank's art and Lee's…my past younger self would be extremely jealous. Hopefully you read last issue with the debut/tease of Black Adam. We get to see he means business. And what about Billy Batson? Is he ever going to come close to getting powers? You'll want to see how the story is progressing here.
The Bad
I mentioned I'm not sure how I feel about Graves. Blaming the heroes for his loss seems a stretch. But there's the possible question of his sanity. He's seen many things so who knows what the true cause could be. He does appear to be a little more frightening of a villain here. I feel we need to know more about him. It still feels he was able to penetrate the League's defenses too easily. There could be more to it than we've seen. I do enjoy the team not getting along perfectly but it would be nice to know about how many times or missions they've been together since they still have such trust issues with each other.
The Verdict
This issue was reminiscent of big action packed movies. There is plenty of fighting and because it's members of the League fighting each other, it's a fun read. JUSTICE LEAGUE with Geoff Johns and Jim Lee is good time reading. Johns crafts the story with tiny bits of detail and Lee delivers the big action scenes. If we're going to have a book with all the big heroes of the DC Universe, it's great to have these two on board. Throw in the fact that Johns and Gary Frank are amping things up in the SHAZAM back up, I couldn't be happier. Comics are supposed to be fun and that's how this was. Graves is shaping up to be a dangerous villain and with Black Adam on the scene, the rest of the DCU better watch out.