Justice League #1

Title: Justice League
Issue: 1
Date: October 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciler: Jim Lee
Inker: Scott Williams
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Editor: Eddie Berganza, Rex Ogle
Cover: Jim Lee, Alex Sinclair, Scott Williams

And we're off! Here's the first of the "New 52" from DC. Justice League is taking a bit of a slow build, and a "Year One" type story that is set five years before the "present" in the new DC continuity.

Only three actual members appear in this issue (in costume, anyway), and Superman only shows up in the last couple of pages.

Up to then, it's essentially Brave & The Bold: Batman & Green Lantern. Except that Hal Jordan has somehow become an idiot in the new continuity. Don't they have Guy Gardner for that?

So the Batman is chasing a demonic-looking creature over the Gotham rooftops while an unsympathetic (but still horribly ineffective) GPD shoots first and asks questions later. Just as the demon/alien/whatever (I think he's one of Darkseid's actually, so I guess he qualifies as all three) is getting the upper hand, Hal Jordan shows up and has everything under control. No, really. He's got this. No problem. He's got the most powerful weapon in the universe, after all.

The Batman is all like "What? You mean this?" and swipes Hal's power ring like he's taking candy from a baby. Admittedly, this was a horribly contrived cheap shot, and I'd be up in arms if I was a raving GL fanboy. However, 1) I'm not a Green Lantern fanboy (in the words of Kurt Angle, "Green Lantern? Aquaman talks to fish and even he's cooler than Green Lantern!") and 2) As mentioned, this version of Hal Jordan is behaving like an egotistical idiot. So it was mildly amusing.

For no real logical reason, once the Batman and Green Lantern put their differences aside, they decide to go to Metropolis, because the creature they were fighting was an alien and they've heard that Superman might be an alien too, so clearly there must be a connection. This is a stretch even in the "Year One" context.

They show up and Hal decides that acting like a moron around the Batman wasn't enough. So he goes and ticks off Superman. You know how the song goes. You don't tug on Superman's cape and you don't spit in the wind. The result is about what you'd expect. Hey, come to think of it, if Superman had been dressed in yellow, Hal Jordan would probably be dead at the end of this book! Fortunately, they didn't go THAT extreme on Superman's costume changes.

Next issue promises Batman vs. Superman. I'm hoping the Batman pulls the "I've attached a bomb to a person somewhere and it will explode and kill that person if you touch me" trick. That one was pretty awesome the last time they rebooted Superman.

As for this issue, several pages of Jim Lee's art are pretty awesome: The first power-ring construct, a football scene involving Vic Stone, and the first splash page appearance of Superman are impressive.

Not much else in this book is.

Rating: 4.5/10