Justice League #1

Wow oh wow....where to begin. I made this point with Batgirl, and I'll make it here too. This is the start of a whole new universe. A chance to retell the origins of the J.L.A., a chance to start everything off with a bang, a chance to grab hundreds of new readers who will pick up this book as the flagship book for the new universe. DC has a unique chance to hook-in new readers as a larger rate than ever before.

Damn you, Geoff Johns. Damn you.

Look the book isn't bad, it's just not that great. A lot of action happens, but there's no explanation really at all of why any of the events are happening. And the book only introduces 4 out of the 7 main Justice League members, and Cyborg isn't even half-robot yet! That said, it's good to see that Hal Jordan isn't invincible Mr. Perfect....at least not yet. That was my biggest fear of Geoff Johns penning this title. Now to show how block-headed he can be Johns did the silliest thing he could by having Batman take his ring off Hal Jordan's hand....wait what?

But anyways, it sets up the animosity between Hal and Bruce, and introduces us to a very angry Superman. But on the plus side, the action scenes are pretty darn good and the book looks gorgeous. Jim Lee will forever get a pass from me about taking forever to draw because he's that good and totally worth the wait.

Here's my other issue with this comic, the lineup:

 

All those characters int he background are the reserve list. Nowhere in there is Dick Grayson,who's regarded as the best leader in the D.C.U.. Not asking for him to be in the main lineup, but he should definitely be on reserves. Also, Cyborg's a part of the J.L.A., but not long-time members Green Arrow or Black Canary? And Deadman's on the reserves? I'm not saying he's a bad character, but why is Deadman everywhere the last few years. He's a good character, but not in need of being everywhere.

I'm probably being too negative and skeptical about the whole thing, but I'm entitled to my opinion and that's it.

What I enjoyed: Jim Lee is a superhero God-artist. While not everyone's a fan of the redesigns, my only main concern is that I don't know if all of DC's artists are good enough to draw them well on a consistent basis. All those lines are a lot of work.

What I didn't: Geoff Johns has too much clout at DC. He should be writing only Green Lantern titles in my opinion. He came up short on Flashpoint and he came up short here.

Conclusion: It gets a 77/100(C+). This isn't a total failure, but Johns has to do a better job than this if the new 52 is going to work.