Justice League International #2

Justice League International may not be the star-studded lineup that the Justice League of America is, but at the very least, it can take credit for putting out two issues since the Justice League #1 debuted over a month ago (Jim Lee fails). Furthermore, both issues of J.L.I., created by lessor known talents of Dan Jurgens and Aaron Lopresti, are better than the one issue of Justice League by superstar creators Geoff Johns and Jim Lee.

This issue does a lot of things well. The most difficult task is that this is a large collection of mostly unknown characters. This team is nine members large, and the only ones who the average reader has probably seen before are Guy Gardner, Booster Gold, and of course, Batman. And yet, the reader is given strong clues to the personalities of nearly all the characters. Rocket Red and August General-in-Iron give us a great former communist rivalry of national superiority, Booster is a wannabe-A-list superhero still waiting for his big chance to join the J.L.A., Guy Gardner is an egomaniac, Godiva is a huge flirt not super-concerned with world-saving, and Batman is well, Batman.

What's great about this cast of characters is that it really is an international collection of heroes from different nations, as well as having an even divide in numbers between both genders, consisting of 5 men and 4 women. This is by no means a boy's club, as so many superhero teams tend to be.

This team is going to be experiencing many, many growing pains over the course of the two books. But what is encouraging is how the whole team is trying to prioritize the whole team's success over their own, even if they don't have the whole "teamwork" thing down yet. while some may doubt each others' abilities at times, at the end of the mission they all have a mutual respect for each other quite quickly considering they mostly never worked together.

Also, this is one of my favorite depictions of Bruce Wayne in the "New 52". His unwavering support for Booster Gold as the leader of the J.L.I. is quite refreshing. He clearly believes in Booster's ability to organize and inspire this team to greatness, even despite its initial struggles. He understands that Booster has been put in an incredibly difficult position, and is doing his best as a mentor to him, without ever undermining his authority.

Seriously, who is this?

What I enjoyed: This is a throwback to a classic superhero team-up comic. This is an extremely difficult task to manage nine team members without some of them getting left behind, but kudos to Dan Jurgens for giving each member their own voice and not leaving any in the background. Also, the scene with all the female members joking about at the U.N. Intelligence chief trying to tell Batman that he's not allowed on the team is priceless.

What I didn't: Am I supposed to know who the villain at the end is? He looks like a poor-man's Galactus.

Conclusion: I didn't have a whole lot of interest when this book was first announced, as it sounded like it'd be a poor-man's Justice League of America. But Jurgens has created a great mix of personalities that I hope continue to provide this entertaining dynamic. 8.4/10 (B).