As we left the Trinity War arc in Justice League, it appeared to everyone that Superman had killed Dr. Light…even Superman thinks he did it. The battle is on between the Justice League and the JLA, with Amanda Waller pulling every string that she can…and with someone else behind all of this!
SOME SPOILERS AHEAD
While the JLA is doing all it can to subdue Superman and the rest of the Justice League, Clark wants nothing more than to be locked up! But, that’s hard to get across to everyone in the middle of a fight. The Flash gets into the action with an attack on Martian Manhunter that is extremely effective…all the way until Vibe steps in. Vibe is there in part because he can tune into the extra-dimensional Speed Force, but he senses something else as well. It’s not in Barry, but it is somewhere that…..
No time for finding out more as the feedback knocks everyone back a few steps. Superman brings this all to a halt with a massive display of power and is brought into custody. The teams get a chance to talk among themselves…and with Waller. Meanwhile, Batman has a long talk with Clark, and Wonder Woman has a talk with…the JL Dark!
Geoff Johns and Jeff Lemire share the writing duties, with Doug Mahnke on pencils and a small army on inks. There are a couple of splash pages that are somewhat over the top in order to get all the heroes in, but there are also some really great pieces here including Bruce and Clark’s conversation.
There’s more to this story, of course, and we will see more in the next issue of Justice League Dark. For now, this is a pretty good event-style comic. The big events are not always my cup of tea, as the high points are at times forced (think Martian Manhunter’s death at the hands of Libra in Final Crisis), and our favorites sometimes act out of character in order to set up the “big twists” in the storyline. But, it is at least giving us some glimpses of things to come that may play out very well in future issues. Given Vibe’s importance here I think we will also see more of our favorite speedster as the story progresses, and there should be enough impact on the DC Universe that this arc will still have been worth the read. If nothing else, the character that appears in the final panel should have you coming back for the next issue in the storyline.
I do like that the fight between the JL and the JLA stopped after only a few pages. I have no doubt more punches and energy blasts will still be thrown, but for now, both teams are united in trying to figure out what the hell happened in Kahndaq.
It looks like DC’s learned from Marvel’s AvX debacle.
I honestly wasnt a huge fan of the art work. It seemed clunky or something. Other than that solid issue. I dont know much about JL Dark so looking forward to how it plays out.
To play devil’s advocate, Mahnke just came off of drawing the extra-sized finale for Johns’ Green Lantern. I’m not surprised it looks rushed or off and I fully expect that the next issue will have Mahnke back at 100%.