This was never going to be the book that cemented the new DCU for me.
People like to speak about “lynch pin” books and what books they should be. And I do not think the Justice League is nor should ever be in contention to be a “lynch pin” book. It has been repeated over and over again in both comics and by pundits, The Justice League is a strike force, not the DC equivalent to the Avengers. At least as long as the Insistence of including the DC Trinity, and no amount of reverse engineering by Geoff Johns is going to put Green Lantern in that trinity. And all of this is okay, but no one ever seems to embrace this.

The Justice League in my opinion would be better suited to following the model of sadly the Ultimates where we get a good solid run for a year(ish) then we take a break. This could easily be used a vehicle for the yearly events that we apparently are never going to get away from.

Anyway enough ranting about that on to the issue at hand! (pun intended)

I did not like this comic. Do not get me wrong for what it attempted to do it was written well enough, and the art was not terrible. It really reminded me of Heroes Reborn (in some good ways, in some bad ways) Jim Lees art continues to do what it has always done, feel cutting edge and in the now. And this fresher take on the imagery mixed with the dialog John’s provides between character definitely get across the newness of the world we are in. We are left at the end of the issue admits character development wondering what these new heroes are going to do and how this will be resolved!

And theres the rub, I know how Batman, Superman, and Green Lantern should act (Cyborg omitted as he is not in his full cyborg glory yet). I know this is a new universe and I know this is suppose to be a flashback story, and if this came after I got a few issues where I had time to get my head around the new characters I’d probably be less critical of it. At the end of it, it did not leave me with a burning desire to go devour the forth coming new DC titles next week, it did not make me want to tune in next time to see what happens now that Superman has shown up, and most sad part of it all it made me not care at all about the implication that characters I like will most certainly be part of the new DC.

But it also did not make me feel like taking to the Streets and rioting. What it did do was make me think about why I did not like this which left me for a great hunger for the stories I have read and missed over the years, and instead of investing my dollars in this DC, I think I may take to the good old fashioned back issue bins and trades and indulge in the DC I want to read. I will still give more of the new DC a chance but if I do not like this, there is still 70 years of DC material I can read to keep me content. And maybe some of the new will catch me along the way.