REVIEW: Justice League #1

SPOILER ALERT
The New 52 is here! After countless months of waiting and heated debates of the DC relaunch, Justice League #1 have finally hit comic book shop shelves. Let me start off by saying that I am among the many fans who was actually excited for the new relaunch. I spent countless times on threads debating all the nay sayers that the comic book sales for all publishers in general is dwindling and something had to be done. And with that we have the new DC relaunch. So now on with the review. Justice League #1 starts off with Batman chasing an extraterrestrial creature across Gotham rooftops. But Batman is not alone he is also being chased himself by what we assume to be the GCPD. Batman quickly subdues the creature which is revealed to be some sort of "cyborg". As the creature prepares to attack Batman, Green Lantern Hal Jordan intervenes and thus the first piece of assembling the Justice League is revealed.


The first encounter between the two heroes is pretty funny. Hal being the cocky hero as he is in the early days in the comics brings some pretty comedic dialogue between him and Batman. But there are times in which Hal just seems to be some 13 year old child bearing the Green Lantern ring. For instance there is a panel where Hal openly criticize Bruce for not having any powers. But we all soon get to see the Batman we truly admire when he easily disarm Hal's ring from his finger. Now many of you may think this is just stupid and just DC further making Batman into some sort of "demigod", but its not. Without getting into too much detail Batman is able to determine that Hal needs to concentrate in order to operate the ring and he was not doing so at the time. This panel also gives us reassurance that Bruce Wayne truly is the "worlds greatest detective" even in this new relaunch. After a couple of back and forth arguments we find Batman and Green Lantern finally deceive that the alien is a creature working for a being known as Darkseid. With their speculation of the creature is in fact an alien they automatically try to seek the one person they know of an alien origin Superman. Its is also nice to see Geoff Johns give Superman the credit he is due by even making Batman off the bat declaring that Superman is capable of so much and neither hero can withstand him. So it would be nice to see in the next issue, Batman be put in his place and make Superman the more superior hero. Something the old DC universe lacked. (And this is coming from a huge Batman fan!)

On their way to Metropolis we are introduced to Victor Stone aka Cyborg, playing in a high school football game. As of now he has yet to receive his cybernetic implants. Victor is adored by the fans and the college recruits but Victor is not pleased. Victor stares into the stands and does not see his father. This later leads to a phone call to his father expressing his desire for his father to come to one of his games. But an interesting fact we find out is that Victors father is studying the heroes. This could lead to some sort of reason of why Cyborg is in the Justice League.

Finally, during the final pages of the issue Batman and Green Lantern arrive in Metropolis. Hal being as cocky as mentioned before traps Batman in a green box projection as he goes to confront Superman. And before you know it Hal is launched across two blocks by a punch from Superman. In the final page of the issue we see the new relaunched Superman asking Batman a simple question: "So what can you do?" (Yes, Superman is badass and looks badass) And thus "Batman vs Superman" will be the next issue of the new Justice League line.

Now as stated in the announcement of the relaunch, Geoff Johns expressed DC's attempt to make their comics accessible for all readers. And Justice League #1 does just that but at the sake of some juvenile writing. The dialogue for mainly Hal Jordan just felt a little too elementary. Johns as being one of my favorite writers I felt like he was holding back. But it does not take away from the story. New readers are given an idea of Hal Jordan's origin but it was really water downed. Although Jim Lee stated " the only character you really need to know as of now is Batman". I still think it would have made it easier for new readers to get an origin story of each potential member of the league rather than a quick two minute synopsis. Hopefully this problem will be solved in the later issues. The art in this issue is excellent. Jim Lee is a master of his craft and it can clearly be seen in the last page featuring Superman. But there were times that Green Lantern just looked a little rushed and where Batman looked a little bland. Going back to Jim Lee's run on Batman's Hush storyline there was a greater amount of detail put into the characters. It seemed that Jim Lee put most of the detail in the backdrops of the panels. Another concern I have is that this origin story is placed five years ago. Its going to be pretty confusing for all the DC major events to still occur in the span of five years and still seem some what logical. In conclusion, for those hardcore DC fans this issue does not really stir away from the original DC universe. We are given a new take on how the Justice League is formed and of an imminent threat headed towards Earth. And if you ask me for my opinion this new origin story is a great way to kick off a Justice League film. And as for new readers to the genre its going to be a pretty good origin story for those looking to get into DC. Its not hard at all to get into and the story is pretty much straight forward. And with that I give Justice League #1 by: Geoff Johns and Jim Lee a 4.0/5. The new relaunch so far is interesting and exciting but I only hope that the issues I pointed out be rectified in order for the relaunch to be successful as it is intended to be.