Justice League #1-12 “New 52” Review – Justice for One and For All

               I have been a DC fan ever since the days of the DCAU cartoons series. These cartoon series were so great that it encouraged me to read the comic books. When I started reading it really came with ease because most the characters were just like their cartoon counterparts. So, making the transition from cartoons to comic books felt really easy. I think that’s why people thought that DCAU series was so great. To be more specific, I started reading comic books right after Justice League Unlimited got cancelled. Yeah it was very sad time but I started to feel joy again reading these books. I read many series like Batman Hush, Infinite Crisis, 52, etc. But sadly I had to stop at One Year Later because time was really troubling me since I started college. I had no time to read so I stop reading comic books completely. Yeah another sad time had came but I got used to it. Fast forwarded to my 3^rd year when I heard the news of DC rebooting their entire DC universe I was sort of furious and mostly pissed off. Because I didn’t really like most of the costume designs and I was thinking all the characters I knew and loved were all gone. So as time went by after finishing college I began to reading comic books all over again. Boy, I was happy when I started reading the New 52. It really changed my mind and hoped for the better. Most the characters keep personalities, stories were good and I got pretty much use to the designs. Now that I read many reviews of New 52, I am motivated to write my own.

Justice League #1-6 takes place five years ago, when the team meets each other for the first time. There’s an evil threat of aliens invading the city.  Six great heroes decided to put their differences aside and fight off this new threat. Meanwhile the threat causes an accident to Victor Stone, a high school football kid. Now it’s up to his father to repair him and become a new hero, Cyborg. He eventually meets the others heroes and helps fight off Darkseid. The Justice League together as a team push Darkseid back to his portal while Darkseid marks that he will return.

Justice League #7-12 fast forwards the team to five years after the team has been assemble and gathered the publicity of being “the greatest super hero team ever”. Now there’s a new villain going by the name Graves. Graves was known as the author of the Justice League book called Justice League: Gods among Us.  The book was made after the man and his family was saved during the time of Darkseid’s fight. But since the tragedy his wife and daughter had obtained a disease and died. So, he now has this new found power and is trying to get his revenge on the Justice League. There also a few other things in these issues like Green Arrow failure to join the team, a sneak peak to Martian Manhunter’s secret behind the team, Steve Trevor’s past relationship with Wonder Woman, and the current Superman and Wonder Woman relationship. They also a Shazam feature included in each issue. Billy Baston is an orphan met by foster parents taking him home to meet the siblings. He struggles to get along with his family and the environment in school.

The Bad

               Justice League #1-9 was sort of really bad in my opinion. I really love Geoff Johns writing in Green Lantern because Hal Jordan seems like a real brave charmer. I also love his romantics with Carol Ferris. But in Justice League he acts like a real jerk which is out of character for me. I honestly don’t know what happened here. It feels so strange that Hal is a totally different person in Justice League than in Green Lantern and it’s also by the same writer. So it feels really out of place. Another thing I don’t understand is if Hal is acting like a jerk, why would Batman just reveal his identity to him? I mean really, Batman doesn’t know who he is. It’s been known that Batman has problem trusting people with his secrets and I really don’t see why he would tell someone he met in one day about his parents’ death and his identity. It’s too early for him to do that. Batman hasn’t revealed anything to Commission Gordon and has known him a lot long. This wouldn’t make sense for him to do that. After I read a few more issues I noticed everyone started acting like a jerk especially in the Shazam features. Seriously, Billy Baston yelling at the little girl just because she was annoying him was a little too much. I felt it was not needed. Green Arrow’s feature was okay. But I’m unsure if it was needed because Martian Manhunter’s secret wasn’t revealed. I guess we have to wait until JLA #1. I also think the Superman/Wonder Woman relationship should have went a little more slowly. Because I don’t normally see people pouring their feelings with a kiss unless they really know each other or have feelings they have been hiding from each other for a while. I also noticed the lines in Justice League were too cheesy as well. Words like “We got this” or “We got this, we’re the Justice League” felt too forced or corny in my opinion.

The Good

               I think Justice League got really good during the last three issues, 10-12. It seems like Johns eventually listened to his fans and changed the writing. He finally got rid of the all the jerkiness and cheesy words and made them the characters we all know and loved. The David Graves storyline was really interesting and I feel he’s a great villain. He really had a great purpose to fight the Justice League. The way to see his family die from a disease really made me feel bad for him. It was also cool to see all the great emotions affected each Justice League character when they see their dead loved ones. Jim Lee’s art was really amazing for me to see. I loved how the battles were really organized and each character had a chance to shine. There were beautiful colors in every issue as well.

  Verdict

               I’m giving these issues a 7.8 as a whole. I really dig the last three issues and I’m really hoping to read more. The writing has really gotten better and just had a bad start. I really loved Graves as a villain and I’m hoping see more of him in the future. I wonder what they are planning with Graves and Amanda Waller.

Note: I know this is a surprising score. But you got to understand when I don’t like something I’m going to point it out. I’m really not like other reviewers that just give it 5 stars just because it’s Justice League. I seen it a lot in comic vine which I think isn’t a good review. Every franchise has their faults and you have to really point that out. I’m just letting people know you’re not going to see that here.