Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #3

Bought at Bob's Hobbies & Collectibles, Springfield MA USA.

Title: Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong
Issue: 3
Date: 2024
Publisher: DC Comics / Legendary Comics
Writer: Brian Buccellato
Artist: Christian Duce
Colorist: Luis Guerrero
Letterer: Richard Starkings, Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt
Editor: Ben Abernathy, Robert Napton

This was back to being a bit of a setup issue, with quick and relatively indecisive conclusions to the giant monster attacks on Central City and Themyscira. In fact, the destruction of Iron Heights Prison and the escape of most of the Flash's Rogues Gallery causes more problems than the titan Scylla does (Hey, look! It's Captain Cold!).

Meanwhile Superman appears to be dead as a result of taking a direct hit from Godzilla's atomic breath. Well, dead in the DC Universe, anyway... I mean actually, this isn't in regular continuity, so I suppose it could go either way. But it still lacks impact much in the same way most deaths or apparent-deaths in alternative continuities lack impact.

Supergirl's scene with Kong doesn't end up amounting to much either, and by the end of this, we're left with an ominous Lex Luthor bit and something of a pause in the action.

Going into this, it felt like it shouldn't be a transitional issue, but that's what we ended up with.

Rating: 5.5/10

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #2

First review of 2024! Bought at Bob's Hobbies & Collectibles, Springfield MA USA.

Title: Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong
Issue: 2
Date: 2024
Publisher: DC Comics / Legendary Comics
Writer: Brian Buccellato
Artist: Christian Duce
Colorist: Luis Guerrero
Letterer: Richard Starkings, Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt
Editor: Ben Abernathy, Robert Napton

With all of the preliminaries out of the way, we get right to the mayhem in this issue. Godzilla takes on Superman, Hawkgirl, and Captain Marvel (you know, the Shazam one), while the Batman and a bunch of Bat-family members go after um... okay, I need to look up a list of members of the Monsterverse B-team... Camazotz, who is attacking Gotham City. Two other Titans, Scylla and Behemoth, are attacking Central City and Themyscira respectively, but those battles will wait until next issue. No problem with that; this issue packs plenty of action.

The Justice League characters all get some good moments, and writer Brian Buccellato does a nice job of keeping them true to their characters while delivering fun interactions, including a feel-good moment of Batgirl knocking out Jason Todd.

Godzilla no-sells pretty much everything thrown at him. looking like a Doomsday-level threat to the Man of Steel by the end of this.

This was a fun issue that delivered on what it promised.

Rating: 7.5/10

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #1

Look! A (relatively) new comic! Bought at Bob's Hobbies & Collectibles, Springfield MA USA.

Title: Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong
Issue: 1
Date: 2023
Publisher: DC Comics / Legendary Comics
Writer: Brian Buccellato
Artist: Christian Duce
Colorist: Luis Guerrero
Letterer: Richard Starkings, Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt
Editor: Ben Abernathy, Robert Napton

There is a lot more focus on the DC characters than the Monsterverse in this mostly-setup introduction to this epic crossover. That being said, the setup for the crossover, featuring a series of mishaps in a plot by the Legion of Doom (remember Challenge of the Superfriends?), and the Toyman in particular, as they attempt a raid on Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

Clark, meanwhile, is in the midst of getting his act together to propose to Lois (she knows he's Superman, but they aren't yet married in this version of whatever continuity we're in here), only to have the moment (of course) interrupted by the arrival of Godzilla in Metropolis. Pretty much all of the expected mayhem is saved for next issue, but the interactions between Clark and the rest of the Justice League are really good, and the interplay between the Legion of Doom is at least entertaining.

Good setup. The action was a bit on the generic side, but business should pick up (as Jim Ross would say) once the Monsterverse Titans get fully involved.

Rating: 6/10

Justice League of America #80

First review in a while, and there have been big changes in my life since the last time I posted here. I'm typing this from our new apartment in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where we are currently settling in. I start my new day job here in a few days.

We were pretty limited in the amount of stuff we were able to bring over, and the packing was something of a whirlwind process. As a result, only a small stack of comics from the seemingly-endless backlog made the trip. I've got a baker's dozen comics with me...

... Plus about five graphic novels. After that, I'll have to find them locally.

In the meantime, let's start with a classic American issue: A Justice League comic from 1970.

Title: Justice League of America

Issue: 80

Date: May, 1970

Publisher: DC Comics

Writer: Denny O'Neil

Artist: Dick Dillin, Joe Giella

Thanagaran bad guy Norch Lor is stealing souls with something he calls a Ghenna box, and the JLA mostly stumble around trying to stop him. Lor's motivations are a bit fuzzy here, but basically he is out to preserve souls due to some impending universal apocalypse.

He is one of those pesky villains that gives the League more trouble than he has any right to. And unfortunately, the plot is loaded with little inconsistencies, down to the effects of his Ghenna thingee. It puts some victims into a coma while it leaves others in a kind of zombie-like condition.

I did like the fact that it is Canary who finally gets the upper hand on the bad guy (with a sleeper-hold, no less!), but the plot holes here were just a bit too frequent and too large. There was also a rather tired "an unprotected person can survive for 10 seconds in space" bit, which I have seen done in at least two other comics from this general time period. And the story hinted on the cover bears little resemblance to what actually occurs.

I did like to science facts backup features which took up a couple of pages of the book.

But a bad villain and a bad weak plot don't make for much entertainment value.

Rating: 4.5/10

Justice League #12

Title: Justice League
Issue: 12
Date: October 2012
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciler: Jim Lee, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, David Finch
Inker: Scott Williams, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, David Finch, Sandra Hope, Jonathan Glapion, Mark Irwin, Matt Banning, Rob Hunter, Joe Weems, Alex Garner, Trevor Scott
Colorist: Alex Sinclair, Gabe Eltaeb, Tony Avina, Sonia Oback, Pete Pantazis
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Editor: Katie Kubert, Brian Cunningham
Cover: Jim Lee, Alex Sinclair, Scott Williams

I've totally fallen behind on my New 52 reading, and this one generated a bit of buzz with the Superman/Wonder Woman kiss on the cover, so I skipped ahead to it.

This issue begins a transition into some membership changes for the Justice League that will go along with the release of a new Justice League of America title.

It also wraps up a plotline involving David Gray, who has abducted and possibly killed Steve Trevor as part of a scheme for revenge against the Justice League, who Gray blames for the deaths of his wife and children.

The final battle takes place on Mount Sumeru, which is conveniently labeled via caption as the "Mythic Valley of Souls". Not quite sure how it can be a mountain and a valley at the same time.

The battle pits the League against what appears to be the spirits of their deceased loved ones. It's well-handled, but nothing exceptional. This sort of thing has definitely been done before. A lot. Once the actual brawling starts, things proceed at a nice pace to endgame and about half the book ends up getting devoted to epilogue material, all of which is pretty good.

Most noticeably for me in these scenes is the fact that somewhere between issues 6 and 11 Hal Jordan stopped being a complete jerk. His scene here is great, and a lot more in keeping with the hero that Hal ought to be. Maybe the memories of the awful Green Lantern film are finally being put to rest.

Wonder Woman's scenes with Steve Trevor and with Superman were also good. Clark and Diana's  kiss (not really a spoiler here, since it's on the front cover) comes somewhat out of nowhere, but the lead-in dialogue worked well, and the earlier scene involving Steve was genuinely powerful.

Not disappointed I picked this issue up.

Rating: 8/10

Justice League #4

Continuing with the DC #4's.

Title: Justice League
Issue: 4
Date: February 2012
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciler: Jim Lee
Inker: Scott Williams
Colorist: Alex Sinclair, Gabe Eltaeb
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Editor: Darren Shan, Brian Cunningham
Cover: Jim Lee, Alex Sinclair, Scott Williams

There are really three things going on here. First is the introduction of Aquqman, who basically takes the attitude that someone has got to be the leader of the rather disorganized team of heroes that have banded together to fight the parademon invasion. And, well, he's the only one who's a king, so it might as well be him.

Green Lantern (still acting like an idiot) issues the "Really? What can you do that we can't?" challenge. The answer is a resounding "Talk to fish!" in the form of great white sharks jumping out of the water and nom-nom-nom-ing some parademons. Which is actually not all that impressive when you think about it. Lanter, Superman, or Wonder Woman could have done the same amount of damage with less effort and no endangered species in the line of fire. Still, the sharks plus Aquaman putting a trident through the head of a parademon prove sufficient to win at least a grudging acceptance.

In the midst of all of this is an attempt at comedy when Lantern just happens to "accidentally" have his hand on Wonder Woman's lasso and becomes a bit more truthful than he might have liked to be. So Lantern is consistently a sexist jerk. Yay for consistency, I suppose.

The other two big plotlines are the continuing origin of Cyborg, which is going about how you would expect, and the arrival of Darkseid, which is, well, big. As in two-page- turn-the-comic-sideways big. Nice job of making him impressive, but it will be next issue before he does anything more than announce his name.

Goofy fun, but this issue leaned a bit too heavily on the goofy side.

Rating: 5.5/10

Justice League #3

I'm on the road today and looking through the comics I have on me, all I've got is #3's from the New 52. So here's a little jump ahead, as I look at Justice League #3.

Title: Justice League
Issue: 3
Date: January 2012
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciler: Jim Lee
Inker: Scott Williams
Colorist: Alex Sinclair, Hi-Fi, Gabe Eltaeb
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Editor: Darren Shan, Brian Cunningham
Cover: Jim Lee, Alex Sinclair, Scott Williams

Amazingly, Hal Jordan barely gets any lines here, but it only takes him one word four letters long ("Dibs"; his reaction to seeing Diana for the first time) to cement his place as as sexist jerk for this issue.

Wonder Woman herself is the major focus of this issue, with a rather clumsily handled attempt at portraying her as totally naive to the ways of human civilization. The problem is that there is a fine line between naive and dumb, and Diana spends a bit too much time on the wrong side of that line. That being said, the kid who introduces her to ice cream is adorable and should be a recurring character.

The main plot here is a large-scale attack on Earth by enough parademons to make the heroes look somewhat impressive fighting them, but not nearly enough to actually mount a successful invasion.

We also get some progress on Cyborg's origin, as well as the introduction of Aquaman (who gets a great first line). Dialogue in general was pretty sharp. Flash to the Batman. "You don't have powers? I thought you were a vampire or something!" Ha! There's a cute introductory exchange between Superman and Wonder Woman as well.

Art continues to be great. It's nothing all that daring or innovative, but it looks great, and as mentioned before, it's really exactly the look that a big and loud action-oriented book like this needs.

Rating: 7/10

Justice League #2

Title: Justice League
Issue: 2
Date: December 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

We open with a quick introduction of Barry Allen, then it's back to Superman vs. Green Lantern and the Batman. This is a pretty standard, fight-until-cooler-heads-prevail scene, but it's handled well. The Flash joins in as backup called by Hal Jordan and he gets a particularly fun sequence against Superman.

Hal Jordan continues to be written as an annoying twit, which is frustrating for me, so it must be extra-frustrating for people who are actual Green Lantern fans.

Other than that, the character interactions are good, including a nice scene between Victor Stone and his dad, a head scientist at STAR Labs.

The art team of Lee, Williams, and Sinclair continue to do a great job of giving the book the big, explosive look that a major superhero team book should have.

A couple of backup features give us some concept sketches for Batman and Superman, as well as a text piece that does a reasonable job of laying down the foundation for introducing Wonder Woman next issue.

The major flaw in the first issue was Hal Jordan, and he's still terrible, but now he's essentially a fourth of the team rather than half, which is sort of an improvement by subtraction. Everything else is simply an improvement.

Rating: 7/10

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

Justice League of America #129

Title: Justice League of America
Issue: #129
Date: April 1976
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Martin Pasko
Art: Dick Dillin, Frank McLaughlin
Editor: Julius Schwartz

Nekron is an interdimensional monster who feeds on fear and is repelled by courage. In order to defeat the Justice League, he's dosed them with something that for lack of a better term I'm going to call "apathy gas". Basically all the heroes are now unwilling to risk their lives to save others. Which is inconvenient when Nekron is using various tactics to cause massive destruction on Earth so that he can feed on the resulting fear.

Fortunately, Wonder Woman was unaffected by the apathy gas. Actually, she was never dosed with the stuff. Why? Um, apparently she'd taken the day off on the day that Nekron chose to scout out Earth's superheroes. Well, I guess it advances the plot.

Anyway, non-apathetic Diana can use her magic-lass0-of-mind-control (it's in full-on mind control mode in this story) to get the guys to do their duties willing or not. Except that there could be some moral issues with compelling people to risk their lives. Even if they would have risked their lives normally. After teasing the moral dilemma in one scene, writer Martin Pasko then proceeds to ignore it for the rest of the book.

There's also a noble sacrifice! A Justice League member actually dies in this issue. I wonder how long that ended up lasting (I can assure you it was definitely not permanent; the character is still very much around).

The whole plot is more complicated and wordy than it needs to be, but it does end up telling a decent story when all is said and done.

Interestingly, the script has Oliver Queen delivering almost-swears ("when the spit starts hitting the fan" and "what the fudge just happened?"), perhaps in an attempt to distinguish him as the bad boy of the group?

I liked the classic King Kong tribute cover with Nekron's robot atop the Eiffel Tower fighting off the League while holding Diana in one hand.

Rating: 5.5/10