JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #20

Review by: dancanread

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Avg Rating: 3.8
 
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Size: pages
Price: 2.99

    At the NYCC Cup ‘O Joe panel last weekend, someone asked Joey Q a common question; what’s with all the big events, and when are they gonna stop so we can have a breather?  Or something like that. To which Joe replied by twisting and reinterpreting the question saying, you mean when will all this excitement stop?  When will my comics become boring again? Hey! I’m the editor in chief, and it’s a business, etc, etc. But Mr.Q was missing the point.
    I believe JLA #20 is a prime example of what that audience member was really getting at (different publisher notwithstanding).  It’s a done-in-one tale of the Flash and Wonder Woman facing off against Queen Bee and the drones of  HIVE.  It is also the freshest, most buoyant issue of JLA in a while.  And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it is also the first issue in that same time without ties to some big countdown-tangent-y crisis event hanging over its head.  Without the constraints of company-wide plots bogging down Dwayne McDuffie, he is able to breathe a bit and create a neat little action piece, with a deft character dynamic between the two heroes here, giving us some insight as to Flash’s awkward standing with the League since his return in the Lightning Saga.
    It doesn’t hurt that Ethan Van Sciver is along on pencils this issue, and his work is stellar.  From the forest fire set piece in the beginning, to the STAR labs, to his regal and beautiful depiction of WW, his work is crisp and mature, as should really be the norm for one of DC’s flagship titles.
    You see, Joe?  We don’t want less excitement.  We want more of the individual titles to have room to be better, without having to bear the burden of just being 22-page ads for this year’s blockbuster mini-series. 
    In a recent interview, Dan Didio said that for the future he plans to follow what he’s learned from the Sinestro Corps model of event comics, citing Geoff John’s ability with that story to be epic and yet self contained at the same time.  Here’s hoping.
   

Story: 4 - Very Good
Art: 5 - Excellent

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