Have to Admit. Kind of Let Down By That Tantric Sex.
Though the characters remain well written and the art is fantastic, Justice League Dark almost seems to have forgotten it has a story it is supposed to be telling. Here at the end of this third issue of the series, the story feels like it is in the same place as it was in the first.
I praised the first issue for being a great and well paced first issue for a team book. It wasted no time in setting up the crisis and introducing us to the full cast of characters. What happened? The second issue took only a few baby steps from that point, lightly nudging the characters toward one another while the crisis carried on. This issue does even less, featuring only a few of the cast coming into contact but not really in any substantial ways. This certainly isn't the coming together of the team.
Back in the days of hype for the New 52, Dan Didio took shots at the practice of decompression and writing for trades, indicating it was something that would not be so prevalent in the new DC Universe. So much for that. Justice League Dark is just one of many DC titles guilty of the practice, and only a few seem like they are honestly focused on making each issue substantial in its own right. Personally, I don't have anything automatically against writing for trades. I get that not every story can be condensed into one or two issues in a satisfying way. I like when writers take their times with stories so that they can include interesting character reactions and stuff. So, I like the good kind of decompression. I don't think what Justice League Dark is doing qualifies for that, though. Peter Milligan stretches out the story so much here that it becomes hard to even see what the story is supposed to be.
I find myself asking some questions I really shouldn't have to in this issue. Even really basic ones like what is going on? Is the Justice League still trying to find the Enchantress off-panel, or has the chaos she's been causing stopped? Did Zatanna ditch the League in the first issue to do anything specific? Because she seems to have gotten pretty easily sidetracked. In fact, what is the big crisis going on anyway? I mean, what is the Enchantress actually doing? Is there anything more to it that just random, disturbing magic?
A lot about the story takes a back seat to showcasing some of the characters' sexual tendencies. We get a lot of Deadman and June Moon's sexual tension. John Constantine and Zatanna have their tantric fingertip sex. Shade the Changing Man makes out with his rotting imaginary girlfriend. Why? I have nothing against any of these things individually, but it makes for an imbalanced reading experience to have them all at once for no apparent reason and at the expense of furthering the story.
There are some good moments, though. The aforementioned scene with Shade the Changing Man is interesting in its own freaky way. Shade continues to be one of the more interesting characters portrayed by Milligan here. Deadman is probably the other, as Milligan seems to have an honest portrayal of Boston Brand. Deadman is not a perfect guy. The moment where he saves June Moon from falling to her death is a cool one too.
The real appeal of this issue probably stems from Mikel Janin's pretty art, though. This issue, with its lack of any story momentum, would have been a real drag to read without the nice art. While there are some panels where the art looks like it has gotten rushed, it still holds up for the most part and is enough to carry the issue.
Justice League Dark has lost almost all of the momentum it gained with its first issue and will seriously need to pick up the pace in the next few issues if it wants to regain any of that. The story has screeched to a halt, leaving its characters feeling aimless and meandering in their roles. The book can do a lot better than this.
