Flawed but possibly one of the greats...
There's no denying the power of Bryan Hitch's work.
And it's certainly comforting, even inspiring to see that his writing tackles the same great ambition of his art. This new Justice League series has certainly set itself up with some epic notions, something which Hitch, as any who are familiar with his work, excels at. The series has seen the League throw down against Parasite in an epic battle and confront the arrival of a god; Krypton (and, of course Superman's) Rao.
The intrigue has been on full boil and the threads are many, which leads to a fully immersive and engaging read. There is a real weight which hangs over this story, perhaps made more so by Hitch's art, which has never really been known for its 'light' tone.
Yet, one thing that distracts are the slight faults in body proportions at times; arms slightly too long, faces slightly deformed which, from an artist who achieves a breath taking amount of detail, are that much more noticeable.
Another problem of a larger scale (and perhaps this only reflects my own opinion of hte character) was Batman's philosophy on the fate of criminals. Sure, Batman is a dark and brooding figure, but his attitude toward healing villains or allowing them to die was far more in line with Frank Castle than Bruce Wayne and struck this reader as untrue to the character. If Batman only believed in justice, he would have stepped so far outside the lines of society that he would be a villain. Batman, at his core, represents hope, to me, a choice that things can change; that the individual can make that change happen.
All this aside though, this series really could add up to be something amazing. Although the story has echoes at the moment of Chris Claremont's X-Men/Alpha Flight mini series, 'The Gift', there are enough elements left hanging (and the cliff hanger at the end of this issue is beautifully realised and a real hook for what might happen next) to possibly make this series one of the great Justice League tales.
Here's hoping that Mr Hitch can bring all the elements together and make something remarkable as, at the moment it seems that there is very little buzz around this series, which is a real shame for League fans everywhere.