Jonathan Edwards 7/18/18 Jonathan Edwards 7/18/18

Review: DC/Young Animal: Milk Wars

By Jonathan Edwards

DC/Young Animal: Milk Wars is a weird kind of crossover. I know, big surprise from the story about the extradimensional corporation Retonn weaponizing milk to “homogenize” the DCU. But, what I mean is, it’s not a dedicated five-issue miniseries, nor is it a five-part story taking place in single issues of the various books involved. Instead, it’s five separate one-shots, each pairing DC and Young Animal characters. Now, Grant Morrison did something similar with The Multiversity, but there, it directly ties into the narrative. Whereas, with Milk Wars, it’s a stylistic choice more than anything else. But, what makes it truly strange is the fact that two of the one-shots, Mother Panic/Batman Special #1and Shade the Changing Girl/Wonder Woman Special #1 have little to no impact on the plot. You could remove both of those issues and their respective characters, and the story literally wouldn’t change at all.

Dustin Cabeal 6/6/18 Dustin Cabeal 6/6/18

Review: The Unexpected #1

By Dustin Cabeal

The only good thing that’s come from Dark Night Metal is that there’s a slew of new characters flooding the DC Universe. There’s not much of a chance that all of these new characters will stick around, but I like when DC attempts character creations like this because we might see them later down the road, re-invented and more interesting. After the big “you better own that character” boom of the mid-2000’s creators seemed to stop creating new characters for the big two which left this void of potentially dumb, but awesome characters.

Dustin Cabeal 5/16/18 Dustin Cabeal 5/16/18

Review: Crude #2

By Dustin Cabeal

There’s just something not quite there with this series yet. While the first issue was generally enjoyable, this second issue feels like it’s treading water with the same pacing and slow build up. If this was the board game of Life, we’d still be in the circle for college waiting to get our career… meaning we’ve wasted two turns with shitty spins.

Jonathan Edwards 5/2/18 Jonathan Edwards 5/2/18

Review: Action Comics Special #1

By Jonathan Edwards

I love Superman. Plain and simple. When I was a kid, I only really liked him because, well, I was a kid, and he was a superhero. The superhero. And, for a few teenage years, I didn’t like him for all of the easy, low hanging fruit reasons to dislike him. He’s too strong. He’s boring. His one weakness is too readily available. Blah blah blah. But, when I finally sat down and actually read books like Superman: Birthright, Superman: Secret Identity, Kingdom Come, and All-Star Superman, I quickly came to love him for everything he truly embodies. So, you better believe I was hyped when I found out that, among other things, Rebirth meant the original Superman was returning to the limelight. Now, just a couple of weeks ago Action Comics #1000 came out and paid thorough homage to the legacy of the Man of Steel. Admittedly, I stopped reading Action Comics after a couple of months, mainly because I found the other Clark Kent (when that was still a thing) to be insufferable. However, I absolutely picked up that issue, and it was fantastic. So, I am kind of surprised to see Action Comics Special #1 come out this week. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems a bit strange, maybe even pointless, to release a special right after the infinitely more special 1000th issue.

Jonathan Edwards 4/27/18 Jonathan Edwards 4/27/18

Review: Justice League of America #29

By Jonathan Edwards

As singer and songwriter Adele once wrote and sang, “this is the end.” In this case, it’s the end of a long, at times bleak, trek of a comic titled Justice League of America. I remember being really excited when first hearing about the book, its interesting cast of characters, and all of the possibilities that came with them. And, the first four Rebirth one-shots, focusing on The Atom, Vixen, The Ray, and Killer Frost, respectively, were all promising prequel tie-ins that each built up more and more hype for the main book. Then, Justice League of America: Rebirth #1 came out, and it was different. Everything suddenly felt less thought-out and put together and more superficial and contrived. However, this wasn’t an isolated incident. Justice League of America issues #1 through #4 followed the trend with a weak and irritating first story arc, and things only went further downhill as the series continued. Slightly over a year later and here we are with Justice League of America #29. And, long story short, the conclusion to “Dawn of Time” sucks, but the series finale afterward is marginally better.

Jonathan Edwards 4/25/18 Jonathan Edwards 4/25/18

Review: Justice League of America #28

By Jonathan Edwards

After reading and reviewing the absolute hot mess that was Justice League of America #27, I found a question prodding me from the back of my mind: had the introduction of Ahl, God of Superheroes, really been as out of nowhere and slipshod as I’d thought while writing that review? It seemed too poorly thought out for even Orlando, so I did some quick research and discovered that it might’ve very well tied into the recent Milk Wars crossover event between JLA and pretty much every book from DC’s Young Animal imprint. As such, I opted to verify those claims for myself. This led me not just to read the entirety of Milk Wars but also reread the first four issues of Doom Patrol, read issues #6 through #10 for the first time, reread parts of JLA #27 and #22, and, of course, read Justice League of America #28. It could perhaps be considered an excessive amount of reading, as Ahl is only relative to five of those eighteen issues. What’s more, only two of those appearances were in series other than JLA proper, and not even those make his presence here any less problematic.

Jonathan Edwards 4/13/18 Jonathan Edwards 4/13/18

Review: Justice League of America #27

By Jonathan Edwards

Well, here we are at the beginning of the end for Steve Orlando’s Justice League of America, and holy shit is this issue terrible. I mean, Jesus, this book’s been bad in the past, even awful, but this takes the cake. From the utterly laughable premise to the entirely clumsy execution, everything about Justice League of America #27 reads like Orlando isn’t even trying anymore and is instead phoning it in as much as possible. Maybe this is his way of being petty and getting back at DC for canceling his crappy book, or maybe he somehow thinks this is a quality idea. But, it really, really isn’t, and it kind of has to be seen (or at least heard) to be believed.

Jonathan Edwards 4/13/18 Jonathan Edwards 4/13/18

Review: Justice League of America #26

By Jonathan Edwards

As it turns out, “New Life and Death” isn’t just the same type of story “Deadly Fable” was. No, as Orlando shows us with Justice League of America #26, “New Life and Death” is also a retread of “Panic in the Microverse.” Except, this time, it ends exactly how I said “Panic in the Multiverse” should have ended in my review of Justice League of America #17, with the villain willingly sacrificing themselves to save their home. The problem is, in the context of “New Life or Death,” that ending makes no sense. Especially since here it doesn’t matter who sacrifices themselves. But, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.

Dustin Cabeal 4/11/18 Dustin Cabeal 4/11/18

Review: Crude #1

By Dustin Cabeal

When I see Steve Orlando’s name and a Russian theme I’m never terribly surprised. I did an interview with Orlando a few years back during his first Image title and remembered discussing how he’d found his artist and that he had real-world experience working in Russia (in 2018 I’m sure some people just gasped, but four years ago not so much). In that regard, I wasn’t surprised by the setting for Crude.

Jonathan Edwards 4/4/18 Jonathan Edwards 4/4/18

Review: Justice League of America #25

By Jonathan Edwards

Simply put, Justice League of America #25 is a boring issue. And, I don’t mean just low-key. Low-key is to be expected from the issue following a story arc’s conclusion. Some writers monopolize on that phenomenon by writing the issue as an epilogue or character-focused one-shot. Orlando has attempted that at times throughout his JLA run, and it would’ve worked if those issues had been better. However, after finishing the arc he’d spent almost twenty issues building up to, he’s opted to start right in on the next one. Granted, that is perhaps more a symptom of him learning his run will soon end than his discretion as a writer. Regardless, the problem isn’t actually that he rolls right into another big (well, as “big” as two issues can be) arc. In fact, at first, it seems like this might actually be a great jumping on point if, for some reason, you wanted to jump on the book right at the end of its lifespan. But, what makes “New Life and Death” ultimately not work is the fact that it’s basically a less interesting, less relevant, and somehow clumsier, retread of “Deadly Fable” that also tries way too hard to tie into the events of Dark Nights: Metal.

Jonathan Edwards 2/15/18 Jonathan Edwards 2/15/18

Review: Justice League of America #24

By Jonathan Edwards

With Justice League of America #22, Steve Orlando rose to the occasion and finally wrote what I would call the first truly decent issue of his run on the series proper (meaning not including the prequel one-shots). Sure, issue #17 ended with some legitimate character development for Ryan, but that was in spite of the first half, as well as every other issue in that story arc, being crappy. And yes, if you ignore the art problems, the Annual was a relatively fine read. But, with double the page count and only about a third of the main cast (read: Lobo and Black Canary), it failed to represent or even adequately connect to the rest of the series, and it sure as hell didn’t give the impression that the book, as a whole, would be getting any better. However, that changed with JLA #22. We finally got a villain with some complexity to her, and none of the title team’s members did anything too stupid. And then, Justice League of America #23 managed to keep it mostly together. But, as I said in my review for that issue, it takes three to form a pattern. So, here we are with Justice League of America #24, the upshot of which is twofold. On the one hand, it appears that Orlando has indeed settled into a new, less stupid standard for his last half-dozen issues of JLA. But, at the same time, there’s been a conceptual short-sightedness that’s been at the heart of his work on this title, and it returns as clear cut as ever here.

Jonathan Edwards 2/5/18 Jonathan Edwards 2/5/18

Review: Justice League of America #23

By Jonathan Edwards

It seems I was wrong about “Deadly Fable” being only two issues long. Well, sort of. Because while DC claims the next issue is part one of “New Life and Death” (which is supposedly “following the Queen of Fables saga”), this one ends on a cliffhanger without any kind of conclusion in sight. Now, could I simply be taking DC’s description of next issue a little too much at face value? Sure. In fact, I hope that’s the case. But, it’s hard to be certain with a book that has previously failed to end arcs satisfactorily and at one point abruptly injected two flashbacks into the middle of a story before resolving its own cliffhanger. Of course, the biggest question regarding Justice League of America #23 is whether or not it keeps up the actually decent quality the previous issue finally managed to achieve. And, the answer is, again, sort of.

Jonathan Edwards 1/11/18 Jonathan Edwards 1/11/18

Review: Justice League of America #22

By Jonathan Edwards

Huh. In a lot of ways, Justice League of America #22 is a pretty decent, even good, issue. And, that’s legitimately surprising. Steve Orlando’s entire JLA run has been building up to this story, but so much of it has been mediocre (or just plain bad) that it was hard to expect much good to come from “Deadly Fable.” Any yet, so far, it’s avoided a number of previously seen pitfalls. In place of the usually paper-thin and blatantly wrong antagonists, we get one with relatively sounds motivations and rationales behind her actions and statements. At least for a villain. Instead of ungrateful civilians who’re willing to turn against the JLA at the drop of a hat, we get citizens that’re concerned and horrified by their defeat. And, even the majority of the heroes react and respond appropriately to their given circumstances. Killer Frost is perhaps the major exception, but at the same time, her irrationality isn’t wholly without justification either. It’s not flawless, but it is a substantial step in the right direction.

Jonathan Edwards 1/11/18 Jonathan Edwards 1/11/18

Review: Justice League of America #21

By Jonathan Edwards

Justice League of America #21 is a one-shot focusing on the book’s most likable character: Ray “totally not an insufferably whiny and pretentious man-child” Terrill. Yippee skippy. Of course, just like every other time JLA has put the spotlight on Ray, the goal is to illustrate just how good and fair and doggone heroic he is. And believe it or not, this is the most successful attempt made to date. Yet, it’s not because Ray suddenly and inexplicably turning into a decent character. Rather, it’s because he finally runs into someone that preaches and screams at him at least as much as he does to everyone else.

Jonathan Edwards 12/13/17 Jonathan Edwards 12/13/17

Review: Justice League of America #20

By Jonathan Edwards

Based on the first half of this issue, I was going to rate it a two out of five. Heck, I was even going to say that this wasn’t the worst way for “Precision Strike” to end. And then, I got to the second half. Suddenly, Justice League of America #20 changed from the flawed ending of a weak story arc to a nigh incoherent attempt to justify and explain away its bullshit premise. “All Prometheus needed to divide us was a video camera and a list of questions.” Yes, Ryan, but only because everyone he “interviewed” was written without the ability to detect his entirely obvious attempts to manipulate them. And, maybe it could’ve worked, at least a little bit if any of the previous issues put character development first instead of dedicating so much fucking time on superficial plots with one-note villains.

Jonathan Edwards 11/29/17 Jonathan Edwards 11/29/17

Review: Justice League of America Annual #1

By Jonathan Edwards

As of the writing of this review, I have read and reviewed every single issue of DC’s post-Rebirth Justice League of America. This includes the five one-shots released the first issue of the main series, which I liked. Justice League of America #1 and #2 were disappointing after that, but it wasn’t until about the third issue that I started being entirely outspoken about why the book and why it continues to suck. And in my review for JLA #12, I explained that having such consistently heavy criticism for it is why I don’t drop it.

Jonathan Edwards 11/22/17 Jonathan Edwards 11/22/17

Review: Justice League of America #19

By Jonathan Edwards

It’s ironic that a book as clumsy and heavy-handed as Justice League of America would title one of its story arcs “Precision Strike.” What’s more, I think Orlando himself might be realizing that and panicking. Because, in addition to more of Prometheus’s cliché “I planned for every possible scenario” speeches, we get two back to back panels where first the Atom and then Black Canary comment about the “precision” of the latter using her supersonic scream to overload the former’s bio-belt, defaulting it.

Jonathan Edwards 11/8/17 Jonathan Edwards 11/8/17

Review: Justice League of America #18

By Jonathan Edwards

Ugh. I realize that it was naïve for me to think that maybe, just maybe, since the last issue ended up being somewhat decent, this one would follow suit. Nope. Admittedly, the premise here isn’t an inherently awful one, but it’s one that requires some nuance and careful execution to work. And, therein lies the problem. Neither of those traits are among those that Orlando’s run on JLA exhibits, let alone excels at. What’s more, you can actually see the internal logic try to be established, start falling apart and eventually completely break down throughout the first few pages. So, by the time the “conflict” really starts, you’re already ahead of it and bored waiting for the story to catch up.

Benjamin Snyder 11/1/17 Benjamin Snyder 11/1/17

Review: The Shadow/Batman #2

By Ben Snyder

Picking up exactly where the last issue left off The Shadow/Batman #2 is another enthralling entry into the second crossover of two of the most iconic and historic characters in all of comics. While certainly not perfect in all regards, Steve Orlando and Giovanni Timpano do more than enough to justify the existence of this comic.

Jonathan Edwards 10/25/17 Jonathan Edwards 10/25/17

Review: Justice League of America #17

By Jonathan Edwards

“Panic in the Microverse” is finally over and thank god. I addition to the regular problems with this book, this particular arc has really dragged. And, it’s no mystery why. Injecting two full issue-length flashbacks right in the middle of your story, and before the cliffhanger you previously ended on, does no favors for pacing. That’s especially true when neither of said flashbacks provide any useful or necessary information and plot progression. But, that’s the past. How is Justice League of America #17 here in the present? Well, to be honest, it’s not bad. There are still a few hiccups along the way, but the core premise of how to stop the Microverse from being destroyed is sound, and we actually get a good chunk of time dedicated to developing Ryan’s character. Not counting any of the JLA Rebirth one-shots, this might be the best issue of this series to date.