Why is Batman even in this?
If I could sum up this comic in one word, it would be: disappointing. I read the first two issues of this title after they were highly recommended by Linkara from Atop the 4th Wall (If you've never Atop the 4th Wall, I highly recommend it for any comic book fan) and enjoyed both of them greatly. There were great hero moments, I really got into the characters, particularly Booster Gold and August General in Iron, and the story seemed very promising. I genuinely thought this book had great potential but this issue did almost everything wrong. The basic premise is that four giant robots have shown up in different points on the globe causing chaos and destruction as giant robots have a habit of doing and the JLI seems powerless to stop them. Oh, and the robots are supposedly being controlled by this Galactus looking dude with a big scythe, we'll get to him later. Since the robots are all in different countries the JLI splits into groups of two in order to take them down, or at least gather intel, it's not clear what they're actually doing. One group goes underground to discover a hidden chamber and immediately gets attacked by little rock monsters. Another goes underground to discover a hidden chamber and immediately gets attacked by little rock monsters. The third group, you'll never believe this, goes underground to discover a hidden chamber and immediately gets attacked by little rock monsters. And finally the fourth group *sigh* goes underground to discover a hidden chamber and immediately gets attacked by little rock monsters. Anyone else noticing a pattern here. Among this comic's issues is that it is terribly repetitive. Each team does the exact same thing. Guy Gardener however decides that he wants to find out who's controlling the the robots, you know like a smart person would do only to get attacked by the aforementioned scythe guy who's apparently named Peraxxus. Minor aside, but how would you pronounce two x's anyway. Peraxxus has a great design but we know nothing about him and really, I don't think it's a good sign when your main villain only appears on two pages over the course of three issues. This book was a massive let down and failed to answer any questions I had after the first two.
What Works
I will say that some of the dialogue between Vixen and Fire works really well and shows that these are in fact people and not just super heroes. I also appreciate Guy Gardener being more proactive but it unfortunately comes at the expense of making the rest of the team look less competent by comparison. I do like the role Batman is serving in this where he's sort of an advisor to Booster on what it takes to be a leader. I'll get to my feelings about Batman in this comic in a minute.
What Doesn't
Let me make this clear, I love Batman. I have loved Batman since before I loved comic books, but there are so many reasons that he should not be in this comic. First of all, of the 52 new titles of the relaunch there are presently four Batman titles, several spin offs like Batgirl and Nightwing, plus Justice League which he also appears in. Do we really need Batman in yet another title. In fact, take a look at the cover for the issue. If Guy Gardner wasn't there this could easily be mistaken for a Batman title. Second, this comic, as I see it, exists to spotlight lesser known DC characters like Booster Gold, Having Batman on the team is very off putting. Finally Batman is incredibly out of place in this story. Batman is a detective, he patrols the city streets at night and fights psychotic criminals. What the hell is he doing fighting giant alien robots? I was also really not liking the other characters here too. Rocket Red asks Ice IN THE MIDDLE OF A GIANT ROBOT ATTACK, if Fire will "light rocket red's rocket." What kind of idiot does that. Godiva, who is my least favorite character in this series, continues to show how useless she is as she is instantly overwhelmed by the rock monsters. August General in Iron is still cool, but I hate how he talks down to Godiva because she's not properly trained for these situations. I agree with him but I think if they're teammates he'd be just a little more encouraging. As I said before this comic is repetitive. There's nothing answered about the main villain other than his name (though it has yet to be mentioned in story) This comic wast truly a let down in every sense of the word
Overall:
1/5
What was a great well moving story grinds to a screeching halt with this issue. I'll be picking up the next one because of how much I enjoyed the other two. I really want this title to succeed but this issue is a major step backwards
