DC Comics’ New 52 — Justice League #3 Review

Oh, Justice League. You are perhaps the most erratic title of the New 52 (at least of the ones I routinely read). You show promise, then dash my hopes. You seem like you might be building toward something, then you stall out. I want to like you; I really do. Thus far (all two issues), it’s been difficult, though.

That said, things may be looking up for what is (ostensibly) DC’s flagship superhero title. Given my previous letdown with getting my hopes up, I am hesitant to pin too much importance on what this issue signifies for the series, but it’s hard to not get at least a little excited. Why?

Well, you see, this issue actually feels like a meaningful part of a meaningful story. Johns sticks with his formula for the series thus far (incorporate new member of the team that was teased at the end of last issue, end by teasing the member who will be developed next issue, try to make it interesting in between), but it feels substantially more successful this time around. As opposed to last issue’s dialogue-heavy fight scene (that was one of the more boring superhero fights ever) which dominated the story, this issue brings Wonder Woman into the fold by having her actually setting out to do something heroic, and running across the rest of the team in the process. While I don’t particularly care for Diana’s characterization here (the whole “Amazon’s first steps into man’s world” thing has been done before, and her voice in this instance makes her seem too naive), at least she’s doing something. It should also be pointed out that Johns does emphasize the warrior side of Diana, which is a focus I initially wasn’t overly fond of in the Wonder Woman solo title, but I’ve since come to love.

Anyway, Wonder Woman is in some way involved with the US government it seems, but strikes out on her own to take out a threat. This leads her down a trail to the still-developing, as-yet-unnamed Justice League who are naturally encountering the same Darkseid-related threat, which is being blamed on the presence of superhumans. Anyway, conflict and camaraderie ensue and, despite Aquaman’s appearance at the end of the issue, Diana declares this sausage fest to be officially over.

Oh, there’s also some development on the Vic-Stone-becoming-Cyborg front, but as usual, it wasn’t terribly exciting. It did seem like this issue’s story about “Vic and the Family Stone” tried less hard to make you feel sad for it, and in the process made me connect with it a little more. Not much, but a little. As with a lot of things in this series, I feel like this subplot is being dragged out for no real reason. The same is true of the main plot as well, but in this issue both seem to actually be making a bit of good progress.

The art is the one area that’s remained relatively consistent (aside from a few blunders last issue). It’s Jim Lee through and through, though, so whether it’s consistently bad or good will depend on your feelings toward his distinctive style. I won’t rehash everything I’ve said about Lee’s style in previous issues, but I will say that (in addition to being somewhat hypersexualized of course) his Wonder Woman wasn’t great. Her face seemed to change dramatically from panel to panel sometimes. Sometimes it worked and sometime it didn’t, but some consistency would have been nice. Obviously they’re drastically different styles, but Cliff Chiang’s Wonder Woman puts Lee’s to shame. I also don’t know how I feel about Lee’s Aquaman, at least based on the splash page (no pun intended) at the end.

Overall, I feel like this series is getting on track and is actually making some progress. It still isn’t quite living up to what I would expect from the main DC title, but it’s getting there. I give it a 4/5 with my hopes for this story being somewhat restored.