JUSTICE LEAGUE #5
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
Art and cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
Variant cover by ERIC BASALDUA
B&W Variant cover by JIM LEE
Size: 40 pages
Price: 3.99
Here’s how it went.
1. YES! An awesome beginning, with the Flash and Superman. Pulse-Pounding!
2. OK! Green Lantern going up against Darkseid! Bone-crunching! Though GL is still referring to himself in the third person like a douche.
3. JIGGA-WHAA? Batman doing something so out of character it feels like an else-worlds tale! Mind-boggling!
4. “This wasn’t part of the plan” No effing isht it wasn’t part of the plan. What plan, exactly, are you talking about, Bruce? There has BEEN. NO. PLAN.
This entire series so far has read like a 15 car pile-up. One car just smashing into the next and so on. This is the fastest-paced slow motion comic I’ve ever read. I’m not quite sure what’s going on with Geoff and this series, but it’s just a damn mess. This is almost the MTV reality television show version of what people who don’t read comics think a comic would be like. I feel bad typing this, because ever since he showed up, I have been a staunch supporter of John’s work and I was SO excited for this book when it started.
And while each issue has had at least one really cool or interesting moment, each issue has also had at least 2 head-scratching and/or out-of-character moments as well. Hal Jordan is a mindless fireworks display, Superman is a mindless WMD, Wonder Woman is a mindless little girl who loves ice-cream and stabbing folks with her hobo knife..so on and so on. And in this issue, Batman goes from someone who is supposed to be a massively intelligent and careful detective to a mindless, reckless teenager. In fact, does anyone remember the adorable and fantastic episode of JUSTICE LEAGUE (Season 3, Episode 3) called KID STUFF? Wherein all adults vanish due to Mordred and the JLA all turn into..you guessed it: kids? It was really funny and cute because they were actually starting to act like children. Which was fine because they were ACTUALLY CHILDREN. In this series, all the characters are adults who act like kids. It isn’t cute, it’s just…strange and annoying. Oh and Cyborg’s involvement? I was really curious to see how his storyline was going to coincide with the main tale and how John’s was going to weave him into being on the JLA as more than the “token black fella”. His solution? “Hey dude, do you wanna stay here? No? Well, I guess you’re on the team, guy who has no idea how to use the abilities that he received 24 seconds ago!”
The upside is the action is a lot of fun and the art team does an amazing job! This is one of the top 3 best-looking book’s on the shelves every month. I love flipping through it again even after I’ve read it, just to really enjoy the artwork. Just stellar work. It’s a same that the story doesn’t match the effort of the visuals.
“We got this”? …sigh.
Art: 5 - Excellent
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Damn, I’m disappointed now. I’m still buying it just because it’s a Jim Lee DC book though.
Yeah, of course I’m going to keep buying it, despite my befuddlement. I’m sure that these are just elements due to it being the first time they get together and Johns is just trying to make them seem younger and different. Once he settles into a groove in the next storyline (once it jumps to the current DC continuity), I’m sure it’ll be as good as Aquaman, which has been a lot of fun.
Yeah, if I could sum up the story and the characters in one word, it would be IMMATURE.
Immature is fine if you’re actually reaching new readers unschooled in these characters. Instead we have a bunch of 40-year-olds reading this and making excuses for Johns’ poor characterization.
I still like Johns. He’s a good writer. But he’s just dumbing things down way too much for no reason.
Yeah, this is the dumbest book I’ve read from him. Makes me sad.
I couldn’t agree with you more. I loved the scene with Batman and Lantern, but having Superman be a side character in the Justice League seems wrong to me. This Darkseid also bothers me. He seems very King Kong like instead of being a brilliant God of Evil. We know you love Hal Jordan, Geoff, but give the other members a chance to shine!
P.S. How could Hal NOT know who Bruce Wayne is? That’s like saying you don’t know who Bill Gates or Donald Trump is.
yup just more in a long line of strange decisions for this series
GREAT REVIEW! Clarified a lot of my thoughts. Pretty clear this isn’t Mark Waid writing.
Thanks @Urthona!
I’m not sure what’s going on with this series..I did love that Mark Waid Year One book (that WAS MW, right?) but I was really hoping for a modern take on it from Geoff that made more…sense.
BEST review so far!
Agree totally on your points about the story. LOVED the Flash and Superman opening but the real crash for me happened with the Batman bits.
Such a disappointing issue for me…
@mgriffith, thanks 🙂
Speaking of disappointment, I’ve been holding off on passing judgement on the book too harshly since it started, always making up excuses in my head or hoping that it would start to get better, but it’s just been getting worse.
I’m curious what the elusive “new reader” has been thinking of the series.