The Justice League has always been one of the most important comics in DC's arsenal, showcasing some of the best talent in the company, and some of the biggest heroes that they have to offer, as such when the DC universe goes through a revamp it's important that a bold new version of the team is presented to showcase how things are going to be different. Justice League #59 gives readers this as Brian Michael Bendis starts to bring together a new team of heroes.
The Justice League story, 'Prisms' begins with a conversation between Green Arrow and Black Canary where Oliver lets the readers in on his issue with the League, that he thinks they need to be more down to earth, to be seen doing things for regular people more and not set up on pedestals. This definitely fits with what we know of the character, and their longtime mission to help regular folk, and it's a good mission statement for the League too, especially in an age where those in authority are being held more and more accountable.
After this we're introduced to a new threat for the League when a strange creature called Brutus appears in Khandaq, where it enters into combat with Black Adam as he protects his citizens. When the League arrive on the scene to assist they manage to beat the invader back through a portal to wherever he came from, but learn little about him. Upon further examination the League determine that the creature shares the same energy signature as the new hero Naomi.
And that's pretty much it for the first issue of Justice League as we don't get much more time for anything else, what with the second half of the issue being given over to the Justice League Dark (more on that in a moment). What time we do get seems to focus on the most part on the action moments of the issue, with very little characterisation of plot development taking place. The only character moments we do get are given to Green Arrow and Black Adam, who are always great additions to any team, with most of the rest of the League feeling like background characters.
Sadly, the dialogue doesn't really seem to help with this. Brutus talks like a child much of the time, asking weird, disjointed questions and seeming to have a lack of vocabulary. He asks things like 'What does the symbol thing on your chest mean?', 'You the ruler of this world?', and 'What's the battle stick made of?'. I don't know if this is intentional, whether Brutus is going to be revealed to be a child or something, but it feels very odd; especially when some of the other characters start making odd quips and jokes that feel out of character.
This is the first time that I've read a Bendis comic in years, and I have to admit, I'm not hugely impressed. He's a name that gets a lot of praise, who's done some big work in the comics industry, but if this is the level of quality that I'm to expect from the Justice League stories under his tenure I'm not going to be looking forward to new issues.
In contrast, the Justice League Dark story, 'Return to Caledonia', is a great issue, and really raises the overall quality of the book. Though, as with the Justice League story, I can't help but feel that it would have benefited from a full issue of it's own, rather than being made to share space with its sister team in the same book.
Thanks to Future State readers got to see some interesting things that Ram V had planned for his run with the team, and it looks like that nightmare future is at risk of coming to pass as Merlin returns to Earth and begins to put plans into place to take over the world of magic.
Whilst the Justice League story seems to be doing things fresh the JLD are carrying on from their previous run, with John Constantine and Zatana referencing their time under Wonder Woman's leadership, and how things have changed since she disappeared. It's nice to see this previous series acknowledged, as it was a great series, and it seems like Ram V is aiming to bring a lot of that quality to this new run.
Sadly, the short length of the story means that we don't have much to talk about beyond Merlin returning and Jason Blood delivering a message of warning to Zatana and John. It's a shame that we don't get more, but Ram V is able to use the space given to him to create a story that's dripping in atmosphere and sets a tone for a pretty dark story, and one that has a lot of stakes running on it. So far it's definitely the most impressive part of the double feature issue.
I like the line-up for the new Justice League, and have always enjoyed the Justice League Dark, so getting both teams in one book should be a great thing, but sadly both stories feel under-served thanks to having to be in the same book. Whilst this could encourage some creative storytelling from the writers, having to make the most of the short space, I'd much rather have had two separate books.
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