Will Read Comic Books

We’ve seen in general that DC’s new52 is keeping pace with itself - the good books stay good, the mediocre books stay mediocre, and the terrible books stay terrible. While I’ve heard Stormwatch got way better, most quality jumps stayed fairly small. (I’m still not going to pick it up though.) One of the books that got marginally better with its sophomore issue was Justice League Dark.

Plot-wise, we’re still putting the pieces in place, so it’s still a little disjointed, but in this issue we get some magic dueling, as well as a piece on why Deadman, who is essentially a ghost, can’t be with his (living) girlfriend, Dove. The questions you immediately asked at the end of Brightest Day about their love post-boomerang are somewhat answered here, and definitely enters creepy, Swayze Ghost territory. While a little strange, it did perk my interest in Deadman enough to pick up the first two issues of DC Comics Presents, whose inaugural story centers on Boston Brand himself. Great cross-promotion.  

The only thing that bummed me out some was that other than the Deadman sections, I felt that the story is still moving too slow; something needs to happen soon. 

And right at the end, we get a fun twist with what seems to be a betrayal of a group that does not yet exist. Will it ever actually exist? Is this going to be like Seven Soldiers of Victory? I guess we’ll have to wait to find out.

One of the things I like about the book is how it subtly demonstrates everyone’s different magical and supernatural abilities - Zatanna’s backwards talking is different from Constantine’s rituals, which also feels very different from whatever Xanadu is doing with those cards. This is a great meld between Milligan and Janin and I look forward to seeing how they’ll work together when everyone is finally in the same room.

Speaking of the art, Janin and colorist Ulises Arreola do a bang-up job here. The style and colour palettes change with whoever we’re focused on, making for a distinct difference in tone, which of course helps the pacing of the book. The level of grit on constantine and enchantress compared to the smoothness of Zatanna and Xanadu make for a well-put-together book.

TL;DR

Another win, and possibly better than #1

WK

Another late one, and again, not for the lack of liking it. Puppies, man. I tell ya.

Enough of that - time for a Justice League iteration that piques MY interest. Justice League DARK. As my only book for the last week of the New 52 #1s, and as the book with the most magic-based characters barring Demon Knights, I was excited to read this book. 

And it is weird as shit. There is little other way to accurately explain what reading this book feels like.

But we’ll get to that. First, the preamble:

Since this is a new team with old characters, I’ll list the (eventual) characters of the book and give a little to each one:

• Shade the Changing Man - My dad had a compilation of comics that included Shade the Changing Man’s origin story from the 70s - He had a force field that made him look scary. I think things may have changed… I guess he had a Vertigo series, and that always makes things weird.
• Madame Xanadu - Another Vertigoer, all I know about her comes from Demon Knights.
• Zatanna - Sexy show magician whose spells are words said backwards. She shows up in mainstream stuff all the time, and I read Dini’s run on her solo book - fun character, though she didn’t seem as fun so far.
• John Constantine - Vertigoer. Spawned a terrible movie. Certainly one of the racier Vertigo titles. Standard occultist. Read a total of 0 issues.
• Enchantress - She’s crazy, probably evil, and that’s all I got.
• Deadman! A ghost who possesses people to get his point across. Read a few of his stories from the 60s and 70s. Has potential for coolness.

So there you go. I don’t know if there has ever been a magical super team, but this seems as good as any. Except that I think they are all batshit nuts.

Our intrepid writer, one Peter Milligan, has spent a lot of time on the other side of crazy, I hear. He wrote the Vertigo Shade title, which, after looking at the Wikipedia page, is suitably gonzo. He seems to have brought that flavour to this book, because everyone is totally screwed up, as is the situation that begins the book. Enchantress is crazy and kicks the Justice League (not Dark)’s collective asses - seems magic throws a wrench in certain peoples’ invincibilities (I’m looking at you, ‘Super’man…). Xanadu sees some bad things in the future and tells Shade to show up. Apparently Shade made a friend and then she melted. He misses her, I think. Crazy. June Moon, alter ego of Enchantress, has a metic ton of copies out in the world getting killed. Crazy. Zatanna knows Batman, sneaks off to fight bad guys. Constantine says “bullocks”. Deadman is hiding in some lady’s room. Crazy.

You get some decent action and a final page that shows what the future team is up against. Like Justice League, not everyone has met yet, but unlike Justice League, I think we’ve seen everyone. (Well - it seems not everyone. Sounds like there’s a new character added to the roster) Of course, unlike Justice League, this is a whole lot crazier. Bit of a slow start, but the characters are interesting and screwed up enough to make me see what kind of train wreck goes down (in a good, in-story way).

The art is by Mikel Janin with colours by Ulises Arreola, topped off with a decent cover by Ryan Sook. The art certainly adds to this book - There’s a faux painterly style to it, with a heavy dash of photoshop overlay, though done much better than Stormwatch (man I hated that book!). It works with the whole otherworldliness evoked by crazies with magic powers. The character face lines are a bit too smooth for me - their simplicity seem inconsistent at times, on top of supplying a somewhat poor juxtaposition to the previously-mentioned overlays. Not terrible, though.

Have I mentioned that this book is crazy? This is what it must be like to do drugs. That being said, I really like the crazy; it’s clear that Milligan is going somewhere with this story arc and I’m along for the ride - hopefully we’ll see a bit more interaction between the members soon.

TL;DR 

This book is crazy in a “I’m going to keep buying this book” type of way.

WK