Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Justice League of America # 42

By Koppy McFad
February 27, 2010 - 00:33

The newly-reorganised Justice League battle a group of villains who have patterned themselves after the gods of New Genesis. Aside from the Mr. Miracle clone called Dr. Impossible, there are villainous copies of Orion, Lightray, Big Barda and other members of the now-vanished New Gods.

Beneath this mystery is the usual search for an ancient artifact of great power, not to mention the various League members trying to work out their internal problems. There are also flashbacks to the Silver Age, World War II and other events. What it amounts to is a walk down DC Comics' version of memory lane with cameoes by characters like the Blackhawks, Darwin Jones, the Challengers of the Unknown, etc.

Unfortunately, it is a rather leisurely walk which makes the story rather unexciting. There is fighting a-plenty in this issue with Atlas versus the League and Congorilla versus the evil Barda but it is written in such a casual, almost careless manner that it is hard to get interested in the outcome of the whole plot. 

The now overused gimmick of having multiple characters narrate the story in colour-coded  captions just makes the book even harder to read. Sometimes, you can't tell if the thoughts you are reading are those of Green Lantern or Batman or Starfire or whatever. You actually have to stop-- right in the middle-- and then go back and check if the caption was coloured for the right character, to make sense of it all. Seriously, why not just go back to using thought balloons? It would be more understandable and less pretentious.

The art is serviceable but not much else. The new villains do not have the threatening majesty that one would expect from bad guys who can trounce the Justice League. Bagley can certainly do much better.

Rating: 6.5 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12