Jonathan Edwards 9/27/17 Jonathan Edwards 9/27/17

Review: Justice League of America #15

By Jonathan Edwards

Are you kidding me with this one, DC? What an utterly worthless issue. Orlando finally realizes that it might be a good idea to show us something happening instead of just burying it in his trash exposition, but then he somehow thinks it makes sense to spend the ENTIRE ISSUE having Ray Palmer learn shit we already learned with the JLA. And to top it all off, we don't even get a payoff to the cliffhanger ending of the last issue, which, by the way, is also how this issue starts. How do you fuck that up so badly?! Furthermore, he apparently can't through a flashback without retconning the capabilities of a character he introduced a couple issues ago, nor was he able to keep that retcon consistent when it came up again only two pages later.

Jonathan Edwards 9/13/17 Jonathan Edwards 9/13/17

Review: Justice League of America #14

By Jonathan Edwards

Of course, Lobo isn't dead. I mean, there was absolutely no chance that DC would okay him being killed off in a random issue of JLA. Furthermore, it's clear from all of the cookie cutter conversations that he and Batman have had that Orlando is fully intent on having Lobo stick around for whatever "big" thing the Caped Crusader keeps insisting is on the horizon. So then why even have him be struck be "atomic lightning" in the first place? All it does is create inconsistencies within the story.

Jonathan Edwards 8/30/17 Jonathan Edwards 8/30/17

Review: Justice League of America #13

By Jonathan Edwards

Let's hit the ground running with this review; after finally straightening itself out so that its greatest sin was just being boring last issue, Justice League of America immediately missteps right back into the world of excessive, clunky exposition and underdeveloped concepts. I wish I could say I'm surprised, but I'm really not. I figure me not being surprised by that is itself not that surprising to anyone who's read at least one or two of my prior JLA reviews. But come on, no shit that wasn't Ray Palmer at the end of the previous issue, and now you're going to start off with multiple pages of exposition, completely forced and contrived conflict between Ryan, Lobo, and Killer Frost, and then you're going to cut away back to Black Canary and Ray fighting Afterthought? Well, at least that last bit was the only cutaway in the whole issue, and it's actually managing to build a slight amount of intrigue. However, the fact remains that it takes until a third of the way into this issue for the main plot to actually start progressing again. But even once it does, more exposition bogs it down, and then the issue is over without much else happening.

Jonathan Edwards 8/10/17 Jonathan Edwards 8/10/17

Review: Justice League of America #12

By Jonathan Edwards

Y'know, there actually is a reason I keep coming back to review this book despite my nigh constant condemnation of it. Actually, if anything, it's because I'm so vocal about how bad Justice League of America is that I want to be among the first to recognize it if I ever end up being wrong and this series does eventually get better. Now, is that the case here? Eh, kind of I guess? Personally, I'd only describe this as the least bad issue in a long time. Issue #10 may have been more substantial, but it still had its glaring problems. Justice League of America #12 on the other hand is bland, but it technically still functions. At least as far as structure is concerned. It's also the first issue of the series to properly follow-up on something that happened in the prequel one-shots. And no, Vanity, Caden, and Ray's mom showing up in the previous two issues don't count. Aside from that being a bad story full of holes in logic and other problems, the Might Beyond the Mirror wasn't introduced as a concept until issue #4 or #5. Anyway, Panic in the Microverse: Part One.

Jonathan Edwards 7/26/17 Jonathan Edwards 7/26/17

Review: Justice League of America #11

By Jonathan Edwards

What a piece of fucking garbage. As much as I've ragged on this series over these last few months, I'm honestly finding it a bit hard to believe just how bad this issue is. There's not a single redeeming factor present. It's an entirely worthless conclusion to a worthless two-part story, and Raymond Terrill is an idiotic dickbag of a character. If we didn't already know by now, this issue definitively shows just how self-righteous and hypocritical he is. He gets up on his soap box to scream about how moralistic he is for "giv[ing] people the chance to be good, instead of assuming they'll be their worst," and then he turns around and refuses to try and listen or empathize with the woman that raised him. Sure, she may have wished for a new family, but how does that hurt Ray? Nadine is right when she said Ray left, and he hadn't ever come back. The only reason he did this time was because the plot needed him to, and now we're supposed to feel bad because she moved on with her life? Fuck that. Ray has every right to have left the way he did. Because, it is true that the way Nadine was raising him was ultimately wrong. However, she also fully acknowledges that here, but that's still not good enough for Ray. No, to appease his narcissism, she needs to wallow in her past mistakes until the day she dies and never be happy again. Yeah, that's giving people the benefit of the doubt. That's justice. Go ahead, Steve Orlando, lecture us again about how paranoid and awful Batman is.

Jonathan Edwards 7/12/17 Jonathan Edwards 7/12/17

Review: Justice League of America #10

By Jonathan Edwards

This is not the worst issue of Justice League of America. In fact, as far as the amount of content goes, this might be the most substantial thus far. And, I would even say that the first couple pages are a promising start. However, it very quickly returns to the same old problems I've been complaining about for months. But what's more, this issue actually gives us a glimpse of the bigger picture. We start to see how things are supposed to tie together and build toward some future payoff. And, this newfound perspective is what makes the reason that none of it works that much clearer. Somehow, the biggest problem with JLA, a book that ships twice monthly, is that none of the plot points, character development, story arcs, etc. are given the time and space necessary to be developed beyond the bare bones concept.

Jonathan Edwards 6/28/17 Jonathan Edwards 6/28/17

Review: Justice League of America #9

By Jonathan Edwards

Would you believe me if I said that this book suddenly got better? No? Good, because it didn't. Justice League of America #9 is a laughably bad issue, a weak ending to a weak story, and it doesn't even feel like Steve Orlando's even trying anymore. Seriously, all of the conflict kind of just gives up halfway through this shit. I mean, I guess Makson does still try and fight the JLA for a page. But come on, he's not going to win. He's a wild man, and they're the fucking Justice League of America. Honestly, I don't even know how he gets in as many hits as he does. It's like Makson was supposed to have super strength for no reason, and then they forgot to ever mention it. Does it seem like I'm just diving right it? Yes? Good, because I am.

Jonathan Edwards 6/15/17 Jonathan Edwards 6/15/17

Review: Justice League of America #8

By Jonathan Edwards

No, this book still isn't any good, and no, I won't leave it alone. This issue feels like a whole new low in the perpetual suck that is this series. On top of characters being dumb, inconsistent, and poorly written, loads of development happening offpanel, a shitton of sloppy exposition telling us about said development, as well as an entirely artificial and manufactured conflict regarding the "hypocrisy" of Batman, Justice League of America #8 has the most convoluted train wreck of a story to date. Makson is a shit-tier villain, an even worse character, and the "twist" is flimsy and contrived at best. The fact that DC currently lists five more issues of JLA, all still written by Orlando, is insanity and could be used as proof for us living in an unfair world.

Jonathan Edwards 5/24/17 Jonathan Edwards 5/24/17

Review: Justice League of America #7

By Jonathan Edwards

How does Steve Orlando suck so bad at writing exposition? Seriously, he routinely has characters suddenly bring up plot elements and character developments that hasn't even been hinted at. Furthermore, he's written every villain in this damn book so far in exactly the same way. Lord Havok, Aegeus, and now Terrorsmith are all far too eager in divulging their entire backstory, philosophy, and subtext to everyone they happen to run into. No joke, the first thing that Terrorsmith does is say his name to security guards that were minding their own business. Admittedly, Orlando is going for a "he's pissed no one remembers him" angle, so him introducing himself outright should work. In theory. However, he fucks it up by drawing it out and, again, devotes too much time to shitty exposition dumps that are really hard to care about when the villain hasn't even done anything yet. It would've been infinitely more pithy if Terrorsmith introduced himself, the guards are confused but tell him he can't enter, Terrorsmith has some follow up one-liner like "remember the name," and then he transforms them into monsters. Boom, we've established our threat and foreshadowed his motivations. Sure, people unfamiliar with the character won't get an exact breakdown of how and why his powers work, but is that important to the story? Certainly not enough to front-load it. The details can always be worked in later if they're really necessary, and with the space saved, we could have actually seen him start to transform the guards. Instead of, y'know, just being told that's what happened.

Jonathan Edwards 5/10/17 Jonathan Edwards 5/10/17

Review: Justice League of America #6

By Jonathan Edwards

So, here we have the second part of a two-issue story called "Heart of the Bastich." If the title wasn't a complete giveaway, the main focus is meant to be Lobo. And from that, one can presume the purpose of this 'arc' would be to further cement him as a member of the JLA and better align him with their goals (as stupid as they may be), as he's easily been the furthest outlying for literally the entire run. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of metaphors would understand that the word "heart" in that title obviously implies that we are going to see the emotional core of the character, and that will likely lead to some kind of genuine growth. However, there are a couple problems with that here. For one, why the hell is Steve Orlando doing that with Lobo of all characters? Were people really clamoring for that type of development for him? Secondly, Orlando fucks it up.

Jonathan Edwards 4/26/17 Jonathan Edwards 4/26/17

Review: Justice League of America #5

By Jonathan Edwards

Welp, I'm back. And if you read my review for the previous issue of JLA, you'll know that means the book has, in fact, gotten worse. But funnily enough, it's not all that rage inducing this time around. It's shit, but it doesn't really feel like much of an effort is being made to convince us otherwise. It's more of a whimper than a bang as T.S. Eliot might say. That being said, shit is still shit, and I'm hard-pressed to let this alone as long as Steve Orlando continues to provide such baffling and stupid content in hopes it'll somehow justify the book's existence. So, here we go: Justice League of America #5.

Jonathan Edwards 4/12/17 Jonathan Edwards 4/12/17

Review: Justice League of America #4

By Jonathan Edwards

This fucking book. I was so close to not even bothering with this and dropping it all together. And then, I realized this was the finale of the first bullshit arc, so why not? I've been reviewing this series since Justice League of America: The Atom Rebirth #1 anyway. One more couldn't hurt. At least not that much. For anyone who might happen to be in suspense over whether or not Justice League of America #4 is any good, the answer is no, of course it isn't. It's not a good issue, and it's definitely not a good conclusion. It doesn't even feel structured properly. Some of the scenes feel like they should, logically, have their order switched, and for some reason, we need just about the whole JLA present for the last fight against Lord Havok, even though Vixen and Batman are still the only two that really do anything substantial. It's clearly meant to be parallel storytelling, but that only works when the separate stories have similar weight to them. And, it's really hard to care at all about most of the fights when Lord Havok is the only member of the Extremists that's been consistently developed. It wasn't good development, but I don't even know what Gorgon's deal is, yet I'm still supposed to give a shit the Black Canary is fighting him. For all I know, Gorgon could be the weakest member of the team.

Jonathan Edwards 4/3/17 Jonathan Edwards 4/3/17

Review: Justice League of America #3

By Jonathan Edwards

Justice League of America #3 is the comic book equivalent of a boat springing a leak, and to fix it, the sailor uses material they got from making two more holes. Then, after a moment of realization, makes four more holes to fix the two they just made. So on and so forth. I honestly have no idea what Steve Orlando is doing anymore, nor why he only seems to be able to bring up themes with same three or four ham-handed phrases. "People need to be inspired." "The world can only be saved through oppression." "People not gods." Yeah, Steve, we get it. How about you give as a sensible plot and/or some honest character development? No? Alright, whatever.

Jonathan Edwards 3/8/17 Jonathan Edwards 3/8/17

Oversized Review: Justice League of America #2 & Justice League/Power Rangers #3

By Jonathan Edwards

I decided to try out something a little different this week. Justice League of America and Justice League/Power Rangers are both books I've technically been reviewing since January. Back then, my receptions of the two series were fairly contrasting, with the JLA one-shots starting on the stronger side and JL/PR being crap. However, after the successive drops in quality that were Justice League of America: Rebirth #1 and Justice League of America #1, Steve Orlando's team up series is more or less on par with DC and Boom!'s mediocre crossover (not to be confused with Planet of the Apes/Green Lantern, their outright awful crossover). And, since both of these "Justice League" books also portray Batman as making bad decisions and dimension hopping antagonists, I might as well try something a bit different with them. That is, smash them together to review at the same time.

Jonathan Edwards 2/22/17 Jonathan Edwards 2/22/17

Review: Justice League of America #1

By Jonathan Edwards

I'm disappointed. After all the buildup (which I've already talked about at length in my reviews of all five JLA: Rebirth one-shots), I was at least expecting a more intricately build plot from the main book. Instead, we got this. I really have to wonder what point there is in having full issues devoted to setting up characters, when very little of what was in them carries over. I guess one would have slightly more context for the clumsy exposition when it's still thrown in, but that's negligible and inapplicable to those already familiar with the characters. Honestly, I'm amazed how lackluster this turned out to be. I went from "hopeful of the possibilities presented by this team up" to "might not even keep reading" in one issue.

Jonathan Edwards 2/8/17 Jonathan Edwards 2/8/17

Review: Justice League of America: Rebirth #1

By Jonathan Edwards

Well, here we are. After all the buildup of several weeks, four one-shots, and the entirety of the Justice League vs. Suicide Squad limited series, we get to see it all come together. This is a book I've been somewhat eager to read for a little while now, and it's only in part because I liked overall what writer Steve Orlando was doing with those aforementioned one-shots. My interest has been piqued ever since I first saw the team line-up. Batman, Black Canary, The Atom, Vixen, The Ray, Killer Frost, and Lobo of all people? It's a strange enough mash-up of characters that I couldn't help but be intrigued as to how the character and team dynamics might play out. And, it was out of that interest that I opted to first call Justice League of America: The Atom Rebirth #1 for review. One of my big curiosities going in to this issue was how it might integrate and/or build off of what was established in its immediate predecessors. Unfortunately, Orlando didn't end up doing too much of that.

Jonathan Edwards 1/25/17 Jonathan Edwards 1/25/17

Justice League of America: Killer Frost Rebirth #1

By Jonathan Edwards

Last week, I took a more big picture and thematic look at these JLA one-shots with Justice League of America: The Ray Rebirth #1. I talked a lot about how the very design of each one seemed to reflect the respective character that they were reintroducing. And then, after all of that, this one had to go and be written differently. Damn it, Jody Houser and Steve Orlando. Joking aside, Justice League of America: Killer Frost Rebirth #1 really does change things up. The origin story we get for her is little more than the Cliff notes version, probably because this is the same version of the character that was introduced during the New 52 a couple years back. Additionally, I stated that the previous one-shots felt more like they were a part of a miniseries rather than multiple standalone titles. I feel similarly about this one, but I'd be inclined to think of it as part of Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad more than any other limited series.

Jonathan Edwards 1/18/17 Jonathan Edwards 1/18/17

Review: Justice League of America: The Ray Rebirth #1

By Jonathan Edwards

Something happened after I read this book. I was comparing it to the previous two JLA Rebirth one-shots, and something occurred to me. The thing I liked most about Justice League of America: The Atom Rebirth #1 was the structure, as it served as a microcosm of Ryan Choi's experiences with Ray Palmer and The Atom. For Justice League of America: Vixen Rebirth #1, it was the color and how it was used to distinguish, but also link, her past and present. And then, there's this one: Justice League of America: The Ray Rebirth #1. As far as I know, this marks Ray Terrill's first appearance in the main DC continuity since 2011. Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti did write a four-issue limited series titled The Ray a few months after The New 52. However, that introduced a new character, Lucien Gates, taking up the mantle. Although, it doesn't look like anything was really done with The Ray after that. Lucien apparently showed up as a supporting character a few times, but that's about it. That is, until now. The reemergence of Ray as The Ray seems to coincide with the announced Freedom Fighters: The Ray animated series, set to appear on CW Seed later this year. Because, like the version of the character starring in that series, Ray Terrill is now gay.

Jonathan Edwards 1/11/17 Jonathan Edwards 1/11/17

Review: Justice League of America: Vixen Rebirth #1

By Jonathan Edwards

At the end of my review for Justice League of America: The Atom Rebirth #1 last week, I said that I fully intended to check out Justice League of America: Vixen #1, so here I am. Now, I may have known little about The Atom, but I knew even less about Vixen. I was pretty sure she could mimic the abilities of animal (likely due to being connected to the "Red" such as Animal Man and, I think, Beast Boy are), and that's about it. That does indeed turn out to be the case, and I'm super okay with it because animal mimicry is rad.

Jonathan Edwards 1/4/17 Jonathan Edwards 1/4/17

Review: Justice League of America: The Atom Rebirth #1

By Jonathan Edwards

DC's Rebirth, like all of its reboots, has meant very different things for each of its characters and books. For Flash, it meant the return of Wally West as well as the introduction of his cousin, also named Wally West. For Superman, it meant the New 52 Superman died (although, I'm not wholly convinced he won't pop back up at some point), and the original Superman replaced him. For Batman, it kind of just meant things continued business as usual. And for this book, it meant Ryan Choi is The Atom once again. And, knowing that he was The Atom at some point before marks one of the handful of things I know about The Atom (alongside knowing that Ray Palmer has played human MacGuffin in more than one book). As such, I decided to do some light reading on Ryan to get a little bit better of an idea where this book is coming from and where it might go. But, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.