Comic Review: Justice League Volume 1

Now that DC has ended the whole “Rebirth” label, there’s a new creative team on the company’s flagship superhero team.  Yes, writer Scott Snyder has taken over the team, and he’s got some familiar foes with a new plan that could be a lot bigger than most villain plots.

And that comes to light with the first volume of the new series, subtitled The Totality.

Snyder is building his League epic-in-the-making from the foundation of his big crossover event Dark Nights: Metal.  I didn’t find that particular story to be as good as I had hoped.  Truthfully, it was something of a mess.  But that story ended with the members of the Justice League breaking through the Source Wall in a desperate attempt to defeat the forces of the Dark Multiverse.  That said, Snyder followed up that with the No Justice mini-series with co-writer James Tynion, and that was actually much better, outlining that there was a real problem with the Source Wall wide open as things on the other side could come through and threaten all of existence.  That’s more or less where the new Justice League series picks up as Lex Luthor returns to his villainous ways and assembles a new Legion of Doom made up of himself, Joker, Sinestro, Gorilla Grodd, Cheetah, and Black Manta.  They have a plan involving harnessing various forces from the other side of the Source Wall in order to rewrite the entire universe to their liking.

On the other side of things, there’s the League, featuring a team that looks a lot like the animated series’ own line-up with John Stewart becoming the team’s Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl and Martian Manhunter joining Flash, Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Aquaman, and Cyborg coming in as what looks like the core team.  The big problem for the League is Luthor’s plan involves harnessing forces that are the opposite of the League’s own, starting with the Invisible Spectrum and the Still Force with the promise of more to come in future storylines.  There’s actually a good issue in the middle of the trade, written by Tynion, that outlines why exactly Luthor brought some of the members of his team together and detailing his whole thought process that actually worked really well, especially considering how little I’ve cared for Tynion’s Detective Comics run.  But this was a great start, with Snyder giving just as much time to develop his villain team as he does his heroes.  This is looking to be a great DC epic that will connect to all corners of the DC Universe.  I’m looking forward to more.  My only knock is artist Jorge Jimenez whose work is a little too angular for my liking.  He seems to switch off with other artists whose work I tend to enjoy more, but his art doesn’t work as much for me.  9 out of 10 basement surprises.