Justice League #1 felt like a really good opening act. I mean that literally. Like it almost feels like it’s the first half of premiere on the USA network. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing because while I’m basically relying on my foreknowledge of the characters as they existed until — 24hrs ago; I get a clear enough sense that stuff is different in this version of the DCU and there’s enough little pokes that let me know they’re gonna expand on that.

I know it’s shallow to say that the reboot is being done to help them sell the characters outside of comics but really if you were going to do a JLA movie and not go the Marvel Cinematic Universe route I could see this being a decent enough script.

Batman and Green Lantern are introduced with the signature Johnsian flourishes. There’s something in Hal’s tone that makes him come off a bit harsher than the free-wheeling pilot he was in his last incarnation. Maybe Johns is tapping into the military history of his character a bit more or playing up the police aspect of the Corps? We’ll find out in a few weeks.

Conversly, Bruce felt a bit looser than before. It’s not that we’ve never seen Batman be funny but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him give that grin that he did when he took Hal’s ring.

Actually, I have — in All-Star Batman & Robin.

But there’s a lot less malice behind it. Is Batman lighter in this incarnation? Probably not, even the Adam West Batman had those moments were you could tell he was a serious and sad individual underneath it all. Either way that’s up to Scott Snyder to tell me in Batman.

I should take a moment here and mention what was actually my favorite part of the book from a purely story telling standpoint and that was the Cyborg/Vic Stone B-plot. As well as Johns pulled of the superhero/action-movie elements of the story those quiet, human scenes with Vic are why he has endeared himself to so many comics fans since way back in Stars & STRIPES.

It’s been said before but whether or not you’re a fan of Jim Lee’s art there’s probably no other artist who could do this book and give it the sort of feeling of grandeur that Lee brings to this issue. There’s a clear sense of scale – a universal scale – at play that makes it feel like you could just keep going west from Gotham
and beat Batman and Green Lantern to meeting the Flash or head maybe go even further and meet up with Green Arrow. That’s the kinda thing you need on a book like
this.

Ultimately the book did it’s job because I want to read issue #2 and that’s all that matters.