Review of DC Comics' New 52: Justice League

I’m not a comic geek. Never been one. I like superhero movies, though, and I’ve always wanted to pick up comic books. However, with all the backstory and crossing timelines, comics have simply had too high a barrier for me. That is, until DC Comics announced their reboot to occur this year. No less than 52 of their comics will start entirely anew, each with a new first issue.

Thus, it is time for me to jump on the bandwagon and get into comics. Marvel has always held more appeal, but I do have a man-crush on Batman—too bad he fancies Robin. The first comic of “The New 52” is Justice League, and was released last week.

A good introduction
Justice League definitely does seem like a good place to start, five years before where I expect the other 51 comics to start —why else would it explicitly state the events take place “five years ago?” The cover promises Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and a bunch of other superheroes I have yet to become acquainted with. Unfortunately, this first issue only has Green Lantern and Batman in it.

The story starts off as Batman is chasing a transforming monster and Green Lantern comes to investigate because his ring has informed him the monster is an extraterrestrial. The dynamics between the two superheroes start off pretty hilariously, with their characters clashing from the very start. The part where Green Lantern said, “Hold on a second… You’re not just some guy in a bat costume, are you? Are you freaking kidding me?!” made me chuckle. Their meeting does well to introduce their characters, though, and certainly succeeds in creating a starting point for newbie geeks like myself.

Abducting Batman? Piece of cake!
While the art was amazing—I especially loved the new suits, as well as the little extra content in the back, explaining why the suits were drawn this way—the story felt weak. There isn’t much depth to Justice League yet, and things happen without much explanation. An example of this is seen when Batman deduces that they have found an alien computer and Green Lantern responds with “Alien… Maybe this is all connected to that guy in Metropolis,” proceeding to abduct Batman and go off to find Superman.

Will I buy the second issue?
I will. Even if it’s only to see more of those superheroes join the dynamics.

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