If the story that DC Comics's Justice League: Trinity War ended up being had been the story that readers had been expecting, I might consider it a passable, amusing first meeting between the three Justice League teams.

Unfortunately, the build-up and denouement of Trinity War so significantly differ from one another that it's hard to see what might otherwise have been a satisfactory story as anything other than a disappointment. And it's too bad, that.

[Review contains spoilers]

Every reader -- and I make that broad statement unequivocally -- went into Trinity War expecting that it would reveal the truth about Pandora, the mysterious figure who "caused" the New 52 relaunch in-story in Flashpoint and who appeared in every New 52 #1 issue, and about her fellow Trinity of Sin. While Trinity War does broaden Pandora's background somewhat, her role in Flashpoint and the reason she's been dogging DC's heroes is touched on not at all.

Moreover, Trinity War's big reveal is that Pandora's box is not the mythical artifact we believed it to be (despite, inexplicably, that anyone who touches it "goes rogue" for a brief amount of time) but rather an Earth 3 Mother Box that brings to our world the Crime Syndicate. As such, nearly none of the build-up of Pandora matters to the end of Trinity War; this includes the three issues of the Pandora series that see her fighting evil wraiths supposedly released from the box but whose origins are ultimately left completely unexplained. Said wraiths appear nowhere in the Justice League, America, and Dark issues also collected here, such to underscore just how tertiary Pandora, the series and the character, is to this book.

Were Pandora a character who had simply cameoed in the Justice League titles for a bit ahead of this inter-title crossover, none of this would be an issue. Two examples of relatively "big" Justice League stories come to mind -- the 1990s Justice League "Judgment Day" crossover and the 2000s conclusion of Grant Morrison's JLA with World War III -- each of which upended the Justice League status quo and each of which had villains who had been teased for a bit in just the affected books leading up to that point. But, in neither case was the audience lead to believe that the bad guys were anything more than a catalyst for the character development and other changes in the stories.

The Pandora situation could be likened to all the cameo appearances the Monitor made in 1980s DC titles prior to the Crisis on Infinite Earths series and reboot, only the Monitor factored specifically into Crisis's resolution and Pandora, with the same kinds of appearances, not at all. Moreover the entire Trinity of Sin makes a fairly poor showing in Trinity War, despite that the book opens with their origin in the Free Comic Book Day issue from a couple years back; the Phantom Stranger "dies" halfway through and never appears again, and the reader learns nearly nothing about the third leg of the stool, the new Question.

All of this is a shame because for what it actually delivers, Trinity War is a fun, if not especially ground-breaking, inter-title crossover. Between some early teases and how the story starts, it seems that Trinity War will pit the three Justice Leagues against each other in the angst-y style some might expect from the New 52. Instead, the Leaguers rally around each other, and around an injured Superman, relatively soon into the book. For those who miss some of the camaraderie between heroes found in the pre-Flashpoint DC Universe, aspects of Trinity War may feel like a heroic breath of fresh air. There's also a significant amount of the story that deals with DC's Big Three trinity, contrasting Superman's and Wonder Woman's moral codes, for instance, or Wonder Woman's belief in magic versus Batman's belief in science, all of which is enjoyable.

These good character interactions help to mask what's ultimately a thin plot, which again wouldn't be such an issue except for the extent to which Trinity War had been hyped as a big deal. A lot of the story simply involves the various Leagues running around between a variety of locations -- Kahndaq, the ARGUS base, the House of Mystery, Belle Reve prison -- arguing with one another for a while, and then moving on to the next place. This is true for many crossovers of this type, but there's a significant amount of dead ends that the League traces down here "just because," until story's main villain, the Earth 3 Outsider, finally tips his hand with a plan that seems more complicated than necessary except for what the authors needed to fill six parts of the story.

Given said hype surrounding Trinity War, I was surprised by some of the editorial difficulties revealed in the full collection. A couple of times it seems like one title doesn't know what another is doing, as when Deadman seems to go off with one faction of heroes but then shows up with another, with dialogue explaining away that he'd changed his mind. Trinity of Sin: Pandora #3 is placed, both in the collection and in DC's official checklist, before part five, Justice League Dark #23, but it actually takes place between parts five and six, creating a bit of confusion when the characters aren't where they're supposed to be (and Shazam looks considerably different, prematurely).

As well, though I like the Phantom Stranger and Constantine series individually, in all their tie-in issues are less than necessary, with neither adding anything substantial to the story and both being easily skip-able (though again, not so unusual for events and their tie-ins of this type).

One of my difficulties with Trinity War exterior to this collection has been the splitting of the various parts into the various individual trades; the parts of Trinity War feed into one another so closely that it seemed hard to make sense of the parts on their own. Ironically, in reading the full Trinity War collection, it became slightly easier to sense the individual titles' identities among the parts. Trinity War is structured better than a number of other crossovers in that it's a continuous story instead of each part being told from the different teams' perspectives (a fault, very often, of the Green Lantern events), but the various titles' identities do show through -- that the Justice League of America issues include a bit more of Steve Trevor and Amanda Waller, that the Dark issue focuses more on the captive Madame Xanadu, and so on. Reading Trinity War in parts split between three trades may not make sense the first time, but it might be easier after one full read of the whole thing.

As I mentioned, Justice League: Trinity War reminds me of the Justice League crossover "Judgment Day" -- a bunch of battles with smaller enemies leading up to the main villain, and three Justice Leagues sparring and working together. "Judgment Day" isn't well known, but I remember it fondly, and the same is true for Trinity War; except for the story's final surprise, there's not much here to go down in history, but it was still an entertaining Justice League story. It's just a shame that whatever was intended by having Pandora appear in all those New 52 issues didn't come to fruition in this book; perhaps DC and the creative teams' hope was that if the story came close enough, the disparities wouldn't show, but they do. The strength or not of the Forever Evil story that follows will probably say much about how Trinity War is remembered.

[Includes original and variant covers]

Fair warning that as with my recent review of Aquaman Vol. 3: Throne of Atlantis, this review of Justice League Vol. 4: The Grid might properly be called an "Uncollected Editions" column, in that I will mostly focus on the issues collected that precede the "Trinity War" tie-ins -- so, issues #18-20 and not issues #22-23 (issue #21 appears in the Shazam collection). This is ahead of my full-fledged Trinity War review, coming up.

I tend to like the first act of Justice League titles better than the second act. Grant Morrison's JLA was fairly superlative all the way through, but I favor pre-Rock of Ages to post; I dig Steel and Huntress being part of the League, but when I read a Justice League title, I want to read about the Big Seven, not their associates. I pretty well liked the line-up of Brad Meltzer's post-Infinite Crisis Justice League, too, but inevitably around Final Crisis-time most of the big guns bowed out and we were left with the second stringers. Not bad, but not my preference.

Part of this undoubtedly comes from the fact that the Big Seven are so big that their individual titles often take precedence; Batman, for instance, had to leave Meltzer/Dwayne McDuffie's Justice League because of the events of Final Crisis and Batman RIP. I think that's always the way -- a Justice League starts with A-listers to get people reading, and then once the title has its legs, the A-listers go back to their properties and the B-listers come in. Also I think writers sometimes struggle to find conflicts more powerful than the Justice League -- there's less drama in pitting powerhouses like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman against a threat than there is pitting inexperienced heroes against the same. And so the Justice League's first act gives way to its second.

Unfortunately, The Grid marks the same for Geoff Johns's New 52 Justice League, and much too soon for my tastes. Green Lantern has been out for a while and doesn't seem to be coming back, and then additionally it seems we're losing Superman and Flash after Forever Evil. Johns will offer some interesting replacements, but my sense is that's not a Justice League line-up people will want to read long-term. The Grid's three pre-"Trinity War" issues are largely a "junior Justice League" tale, and I found myself feeling a bit like I'd read them before.

[Review contains spoilers]

Undoubtedly Johns has some understanding that he's treading worn ground here, and I half expect that's an attempt to make pre-Flashpoint Justice League fans feel more welcome. I mean, an attack by Despero is quite literally a cross-continuity rite of passage for incoming or outgoing Justice Leagues at this point -- for the ending Justice League International, for the ending JLA title, for the second act of McDuffie's League when James Robinson came on, and so on. Despero here attacks the League with no real purpose other than "revenge," to an extent where it feels like Despero is not so important in this story as what Despero represents is.

I respect that, to an extent; like James Robinson pitted his Justice League against the Crime Syndicate and ultimately proved his League was worthy of the Justice League name, it's not completely wrong for Johns to use Despero as shorthand to Element Woman, Firestorm, and the new Atom as having "made it." The difficulty is in the mixed message -- the three new Leaguers actually get trounced by Despero and are saved by Martian Manhunter, so we don't so much come to respect the new Leaguers as we are, in story, let down by the new Leaguers. I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to take from a story where the three new Leaguers prove themselves not worthy of being part of the League; compare these issues, for instance, with the JLA one where Green Arrow Connor Hawke beat the Key single-handedly.

Probably the other difficulty is that we understand by the end that the new Atom Rhonda Pineda is a plant by Amanda Waller, and Element Woman is somewhat inscrutable at best and carries the baggage of possibly being a time-displaced Flashpoint character at worst. This leaves Firestorm as the only real perspective character to care about in the issues, even though Johns largely tells the story from the Atom's perspective. If I'm disinclined to read about secondary League characters, I'm even more disinclined to read about ones who won't be sticking around, which I expect is the case with Element Woman and Atom (and even Firestorm doesn't seem to be present post-Forever Evil).

While I'm picking, another problem with the Grid three-parter is that it involves a number of different artists -- I spotted Jesus Saiz, Ivan Reis, and Gene Ha at least. All of these are accomplished artists in their own rights, but I wouldn't say any of them closely resemble one another, so there's a jarring effect as the reader moves from issue to issue.

The first chapter, issue #18, is the one I liked best, a "recruiting day" issue with the requisite "heroes gathering in the meeting room" scene (though again, that this sequence is so familiar is also an argument for its exclusion). Inasmuch as many heroes have not yet interacted in the New 52, it's cool to see Zatanna talking to Black Canary, for instance, or Black Lightning and Blue Devil with Superman. At the same time, that these heroes refuse or are not offered League membership in favor of Element Woman, Firestorm, and the Atom is hard to believe, frankly.

Johns's B-plot to the story is also interesting, though at the same time also evocative of stories past. When new couple Superman and Wonder Woman intercede in a Middle Eastern war, Batman has to have "the talk" with them -- no, not that talk, but the one about how the world might perceive a dating Superman and Wonder Woman as a threat. This leads to revelations about Batman's contingency plans for taking down the other Leaguers, with shades of Mark Waid's Tower of Babel, and also that Superman had entrusted Batman with a Kryptonite ring, a la Dark Knight Over Metropolis (though where in this continuity Superman got a Kryptonite ring, I couldn't say). Johns scores points with his revelation of what can take down Wonder Woman and his non-revelation about what can take down Batman (Joe Chill's gun is my guess, if that makes sense in this continuity), even if the whole thing does seem repetitive.

If, like me, the New 52 Justice League has been hit or miss for you, Justice League Vol. 4: The Grid might feel like a miss. Fortunately, I've been having luck with the odd-numbered Justice League volumes -- I liked Origin and I definitely liked Throne of Atlantis; Trinity War isn't Vol. 5 per se, but I'm optimistic nonetheless. At least, the big guns will be back in action.

[Includes original and variant covers, including Trinity War triptych covers, and sizable script vs. art section]

Up next, the main event -- Trinity War.

Geoff Johns's new Justice League of America is an entertaining amalgam, but one that defies easy definitions. Previously, Justice League of America was "the" Justice League, and where that title offered iconic action, its spin-offs filled smaller niches -- Justice League International was a humor title, Justice League Europe was more character-driven, Justice League Task Force was at first an espionage team-up book and later, a Teen Titans-esque heroes in training book.

Justice League of America Vol. 1: World's Most Dangerous is a bit of all of these, in one. It's far from a "bwah-ha-ha" book, but Johns and especially initial artist David Finch have some amusing sight gags here. The book is ostensibly character-driven, though less so here than I understand it will be in the future; rather, in comparison to Justice League, the America title is a tad sharper, punchier, less grandiose, rather like comparing Superman to Green Arrow. Justice League took six issues to tell its first story, whereas America gets in two missions in the same amount of space.

And "missions" is a good word for it. Though the Justice League of America team is supposed to be a public, government sanctioned super-team, a lot of their missions are covert, and the spy theme is helped handily by Suicide Squad's Amanda Waller's ongoing presence. There is an element of youth, like John's JSA or Teen Titans, but then there's also the sense of these characters as misfits, like for instance Judd Winick's Outsiders. And even as the team runs covert missions, their adversaries are flashy super-villains, the kind one might more expect to find in the main Justice League title.

Taking all of this together, I'm not sure I necessarily "get" yet what Justice League of America is meant to bring to the table. In trying to be a spy book and trying to be a misfit book and trying to be a Justice League title, it is not quite fully any one of these, though I enjoyed the attempt. America mainly affords Johns the opportunity to put his own spin on a number of key DC Universe characters -- Stargirl and Green Lantern Simon Baz, each of whom Johns created; and also Hawkman and Catwoman, among others, characters with troubled portrayals in the New 52 that Johns can perhaps help smooth out.

[Review contains spoilers]

Geoff Johns's set-up for Justice League of America seems to tell a lot about where it's going. The first issue essentially profiles each of the team members individually, and it is the most revelatory of the issues. Johns shows Hawkman, for instance, killing a mugger while pretending that the mugger is a Thanagarian criminal. I haven't read the second Hawkman collection yet, but the first was dicey as to whether the New 52 Hawkman is actually from Thanagar or not. As of Johns's America, however, what came before doesn't really matter -- Johns's Hawkman is maybe insane, maybe homicidal, and with Savage Hawkman's cancellation, this is now the place to plumb the mysteries of Hawkman in the New 52.

The same is true for Stargirl, whom Johns also imbues with two or three different mysteries (including one involving familiar star-related names); Johns even teases a Catwoman-related storyline that I couldn't tell if it had arisen from the regular Catwoman title or if Johns went off on his own. Either way, each of America's characters have a lot going on individually, and for the most part Johns has or will soon have sole ownership of them. The Secret Society storyline here is interesting, especially with the villains Johns trots out, but I sense the real meat of this series lies one or two books down the road, when Justice League of America can dispense with the Trinity War/Forever Evil crossover stuff and get down to telling stories about these characters themselves.

In this way, America seems like it's destined to be a kind of team-up, rather than "team" book -- one month it's Hawkman, guest-staring these other seven characters; the next month it's Stargirl guest-starring the Justice League of America, and on and on. And I wouldn't mind a book like that so much, frankly.

Where this first volume of Justice League of America really works is when you can lose yourself in these specific heroes versus these specific villains, and leave the New 52 considerations aside. It's hard to figure exactly where America fits into the New 52 landscape, but surely I understand Green Arrow, Hawkman, and Martian Manhunter squaring off against the Shaggy Man. In this, and in Johns pitting the team against Professor Ivo's robots, Justice League of America feels for a moment like a classic Justice League title, more so  than the main Justice League title has so far. This is an odd reason to read this title -- however "classic" this book might feel, it's never going to star the "Big 7" -- but pleasant as a side benefit. (Another nod along the same lines is America's resurrection of the Invisible Jet. Any chance the team may need a secondary base, say in Happy Harbor?)

There's a smooth transition between artists David Finch and Brett Booth essentially between this book's first and second storylines, and that eases a fairly significant change. Though I rather like Booth's work on Teen Titans, it's Finch that solidifies America's Mission Impossible aesthetic in the first chapter, with tight panels and sharply defined figures. Finch also gets the facial expressions just right, as when Waller confronts Steve Trevor with evidence of Superman and Wonder Woman's relationship, or when Vibe scoots his chair away from the bloodied Hawkman.

Booth's style is too cartoony, taking this book in a less realistic direction that would lessen its difference from Justice League proper, I think (though Booth does see fit to zip up Catwoman's costume, which Finch draws ridiculously unzipped throughout his issues). Fortunately Doug Mahnke is taking over for Booth, and like Finch, Mahnke can bring a more controlled sense to the artwork that better fits the tone of the book.

World's Most Dangerous includes the series' two Trinity War issues. There's considerable jump between where America #5 ends and where #6 begins; the changes in status quo aren't so hard to follow, but it's hard to get into the story with the first and third parts missing. I surmise DC included the Trinity War issues with this first volume of America so that the next volume could be devoutly a Forever Evil one. For those not picking up the dedicated Trinity War volume, the wait until next April for Justice League Vol. 4 and until next August for Justice League Dark Vol. 4 before the two issues here make sense will probably be a long one.

Matt Kindt writes the Martian Manhunter back-ups also collected in this volume. I have been increasingly taken with Kindt's Mind MGMT, but these stories didn't move me. The first few are supposed to take place between the pages of Justice League of America, but it's hard to see exactly where and so they come off disjointed. The latter are a new origin for Martian Manhunter J'onn J'onzz, which is a gutsy move for Johns and Kindt -- the New 52 Manhunter must have an origin some time, but the result of relegating it to back-ups instead of say, a Martian Manhunter mini-series, is to make it seem rushed and without the grandeur Manhunter deserves. For me, a disembodied Earth entity accidentally killing off all the Martians is a far cry from the Mars-based conflicts of John Ostrander's take or even the precious Silver Age idea of a scientist transporting J'onn to Earth. I wouldn't be surprised nor disappointed if later on in the New 52, another writer stepped in and gave J'onn a revised origin with more pep.

Justice League of America Vol. 1: World's Most Dangerous is a book right now mostly in service to exterior crossovers, which is never a good place for a fledgling series. At the same time, with its conspiracies within conspiracies and mystery villains abounding, Justice League of America reminds me a little bit of JLA and other titles right before Infinite Crisis, which is definitely an auspicious comparison. I like the team Geoff Johns and company have assembled here, even if I'm not quite sure what he's doing with them, and that's enough at least for me to give the second volume a shot.

[Publisher review copy]

Next week ... Catwoman: Death of the Family and Injustice!

The flagship New 52 title hits its stride with Justice League Vol. 3: Throne of Atlantis. Writer Geoff Johns pares down the cast such to focus on a few very specific characters and relationships, and it brings some welcome depth to the book (not to mention the story's aquatic antagonists). With the most recent Aquaman collection, that title has been on an upswing, and it buoys Justice League along with it in this crossover.

[Review contains spoilers]

Throne of Atlantis's first two issues explore the relationship between Wonder Woman and Superman, and the over-protectiveness Diana feels toward the League and her friends, including Steve Trevor. Johns's kiss between Superman and Wonder Woman in Justice League Vol. 2: The Villains Journey was wholly unconvincing, as it was meant to be; in Throne, Johns has the characters back up and get to know one another better, and what emerges is a believable basis for their attraction. Superman finds someone who understands his responsibilities; Wonder Woman learns how to have a private life amidst her superheroics. Johns's Wonder Woman is a wholly different character from Brian Azzarello's portrayal in the main series; while I like Azzarello's portrayal, I'm curious here for the first time what a Johns-written Wonder Woman series might be like.

Toward the end of Villain's Journey (and even in part since Justice League Vol. 1: Origin), Johns has built up to a confrontation between Batman and Aquaman over leadership of the League. We've seen League leadership fights before (most notably in Justice League International) and I worried this would devolve into a fistfight or a schism within the League, a story told already too many times. While Batman and Aquaman do come to blows, surprisingly they later each admit their own errors and reconcile.

It's perhaps a shame that Batman and Aquaman each accepting fault should be so surprising -- in our fiction and in the real world, we more commonly see factions schism than compromise -- and Johns's less angsty, more reasonable solution is welcome. Also, Batman and Aquaman is not a team-up we often saw in the entirety of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe, and Johns succeeds in giving them a conflict where both have a natural role and would logically work side-by-side.

Finally, Johns gives Cyborg a wrenching decision in these pages that, as much as I'm curious about a Johns-penned Wonder Woman series, makes me wonder what Johns could do with Vic Stone, too. Coming out of Villain's Journey, Vic is increasingly concerned about losing his humanity -- he wonders even if his consciousness might simply be a computer program that believes itself to have been human. Vic's scientist father offers him an "upgrade" that would allow Vic to survive harsh climates, but at the cost of his one remaining lung. Vic opposes the change initially, but as soon as he needs the upgrades to rescue the League, Vic agrees -- even as the audience stands shocked at his sacrifice. Vic has been a cypher in the first two League volumes, but here we understand his capacity for heroism. If the Justice League title lacked heart before, it has it now.

Following from the excellent Aquaman Vol. 2: The Others, in which Johns resurrected and defined Aquaman nemesis Black Manta for the ages, he gives the same treatment to Ocean Master here. As is Johns's wont, Ocean Master is no cookie-cutter foe, but actually a passionate ruler of Atlantis who legitimately believes his city has been attacked. Even better, Ocean Master turns out not to be the story's true villain; rather, Johns plays on our pre-Flashpoint sympathies, reintroducing a beloved character and then having him turn out to be the mastermind behind the Atlantis war. This was clever on Johns's part and caught me by surprise, and it's a stark reminder that while some names remain the same, the New 52 characters are not the same as their predecessors.

Jim Lee departs art duties on Justice League before this volume, replaced by Ivan Reis (coming over from Aquaman); Paul Pelletier replaces Reis on the other title. I've come to associate Reis's work with Aquaman now, and his presence here on Justice League helped make the story feel less like a crossover and more like the next issue of a Aquaman/Justice League title. I have enjoyed Pelletier's work on such titles as Superboy and the Ravers, though I'll need a bit longer before I agree he's right for Aquaman; Pelletier's sunnier, smoother style doesn't convey the seriousness of the Justice LEague or Aquaman the way Reis and Lee did, and I'm not convinced the Aquaman title is the better for it.

Justice League Vol. 3: Throne of Atlantis is a more traditional tale of the League in action than the Vol. 1 origin story (even despite Green Lantern's absence and Flash bowing out early on); its twists, turns, and inter-team politics are stronger than the same in Justice League Vol. 2: Villain's Journey. This marked improvement in Justice League gives me hope for the future; Trinity War can't get here for me soon enough.

Once upon a time, DC Comics superheroes wore their collars low and their underwear on the outside, and the Justice League consisted of second-generation heroes including Batman Dick Grayson, Donna Troy, Supergirl, and others. With focus shifted to the New 52, DC cancelled the hardcover of James Robinson’s final collection of his League run, Justice League of America: The Rise of Eclipso, but the book emerged later in paperback amidst the first wave of New 52 collections, a veritable message in a bottle from another era, bobbing in a sea of change.

Robinson’s story is enjoyable if madcap, as Robinson’s Justice League stories have tended to be — the action shifts back and forth in time, characters leave and return at random, the Leaguers call each other “babe” and “doll” and seem extraordinarily concerned with each others' emotional well-beings. That won’t be for everyone, but it’s clear Robinson likes and respects this team, and that the characters like one another — this League may be the closest to friends that I can recall — and that makes for a pleasant read especially when the team’s fate is decided in the last chapter.

[Review contains spoilers]

Justice League, like Bryan Miller’s Batgirl and indeed in many ways very similar to it, was a title that addressed the New 52 relaunch head-on in its closing pages. The team decides to disband, notably not because of any internal strife but simply because the team members have grown up and some have even been emotionally healed by their time with the League, and they’re ready for the next step in their lives. Dick and Donna speculate whether the world will remember their League; perhaps not, they think, but they agree at least that it’s been “a blast” serving together in the League.

Though the creation of this League was separate and unrelated to DC’s later decision to reboot their story universe, it does seem an appropriate League to end the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Justice League on — indeed it’s hard to imagine the “old” Big Seven coming back after this League had filled their shoes. Former Robin Dick Grayson and Donna Troy, especially, are the original sidekicks, and to see them lead the Justice League and then, moreover, to leave it, seems inescapably the conclusion of the post-Crisis League’s story arc; this is even further compounded by having children of the Justice Society, Jade and Jessie Quick, present as well.

What may be most controversial in the conclusion is Donna's statement, via Robinson, that she herself hopes to be forgotten by the world (and by implication, the reader), though her wish makes perfect sense in terms of how Robinson has, smartly, portrayed Donna -- what may be the most honest portrayal of Donna Troy so far. Donna is a character considerably buffeted by the whims of creators — married, divorced, mystically pregnant, killed and resurrected, with multiple origins, and not only did her son die, but she later had to kill her son’s zombie corpse. The capriciousness with which creators have treated this character (specifically, this female character, while her male counterparts escape similar fates) ought offend the reader, and in his four Justice League volumes Robinson has channeled that offense into Donna’s new, considerable anger — she herself is angry at how the “universe” has treated her, and she struggles to control or surmount that anger.

It is a little easy, but then again necessary given Robinson’s foreshortened run, that it turns out that all the pain Donna has undergone has purified her soul such to allow her to defeat the villain du jour, Eclipso. With that success, Donna feels her anger has left her, and she decides to retire to a normal life, hoping, again, that her superhero days will be forgotten. Given the greater lows than highs of Donna’s adventures, I see Robinson’s point and I’m inclined to agree with him — perhaps the best thing for Donna would be to see her left alone, rather than brought back in the New 52 and subjected, invariably, to more shenanigans. More likely, however, Robinson probably gets it right when he has Dick Grayson, foreshadowing the Wally West/Stephanie Brown wars to come, grin at the camera and says, “I can guarantee not everyone is going to forget you.”

The other seven issues of Justice League collected here (plus, for good measure, one issue Robinson wrote of Justice Society) are, again, enjoyable, though the Eclipso story itself differs not that much from Eclipso stories past, despite Eclipso’s constant espousing that he’s committing his mayhem differently this time — though still on the moon, and still with a bevy of eclipsed heroes (where is my Eclipso: The Darkness Within omnibus, anyway?).

What does differentiate the story, however, are some of the philosophical knots that Robinson, through Eclipso and his alter-ego Bruce Gordon, ties himself in — how Eclipso believes his previous plots against Earth my have been inspired in him by God such to guarantee Eclipso’s defeat, and now by working against his own impulses he may be able to supersede that “determinism” and kill God himself; or how Eclipso identifies Earth as God’s device to channel faith out into the universe, and by disrupting the moon and therefore the water in people’s bodies, Eclipso can “break faith,” essentially, and kill God. It’s weird, heady stuff, but the fact that it’s heady is more than made up for by the fact that it’s also not superhero comics as usual, and that’s a good thing.

In all I found the preceding volume, Justice League: Omega, more focused and less predictable than Justice League: Rise of Eclipso, but Robinson’s erstwhile Justice League is still a joy to read. To be sure, Robinson has defined Congorilla’s voice for a generation, and it’s nice to have him write Starman Mikaal Tomas — any chance DC might take Robinson’s Starman and sew it more or less whole cloth to the fabric of his New 52 Earth 2 series? It’s unlikely, but we can hope.

[Includes original and variant covers]

Someone say Earth 2? We continue our James Robinson spotlight week with a review of Earth 2: The Gathering, coming up.

There's a point in Dan Jurgens's Justice League International: Breakdown where Booster Gold and Guy Gardner are sparring, when they're talking about the "other" Justice League, or even when Batman's being threatened by a prominent pre-Flashpoint foe, that it's easy to forget this all takes place in an "alternate" New 52 reality. Yes, Guy and Ice haven't dated quite as long and yes, Booster and Fire aren't as good of friends, but as one might've expected would happen, at some point there comes a certain "leveling out" in which these same characters, with similar personalities and in similar situations with the same teammates, simply revert to their pre-Flashpoint selves.

As a title, Justice League International very obviously lacked the drive and modernity to succeed. Fans of Booster Gold and some of these other characters, like the Great Ten's August General in Iron, will enjoy their appearances here, however, and hopefully this book is indeed a launching point for some of these characters to appear again later elsewhere.

[Review contains spoilers]

The greatest difficulty with Justice League International: Breakdown, illustrative of the title's problem as a whole, is the central villain, actually named Breakdown because of his meta-human abilities. Breakdown is an authentically frightening-looking figure in his rust-colored suit and tattered black cape, as depicted by Aaron Lopresti. But Jurgens teams Breakdown with a trio of distinctly un-frightening henchmen — Lightweaver, Intersek, and Crosscut — each of whom Lopresti gives a dated 1990s appearance; the young Crosscut, who compares fighting the JLI to playing video games, is especially annoying. Despite some rather startling deaths in this title, the villains always seem ridiculous (including Breakdown, who looks out of place in the constant daylight battles) and so in connection the JLI also seem ridiculous, and ultimately the book itself comes off as less relevant and "in the moment" than Justice League or the new Justice League of America.

Neither does Jurgens ever quite make full use of the "International" aspect of Justice League International, which in this day and age would probably bear exploring (versus, for instance, Greg Rucka's superlative international politics and use of some of these same characters in his Checkmate run). The villains are meant to be driven by a certain "Occupy" mentality, but their complaints seem rather surface-level and it's never quite clear why they should oppose a team of UN-sanctioned heroes who publicize their own identities. "Occupy" was equally poorly-depicted in Ann Nocenti's Green Arrow: Triple Threat and possibly this is a trope DC Comics should start avoiding, Gail Simone's upcoming Movement comic notwithstanding.

What's enjoyable about Justice League International is, again, simply seeing some of these characters together. Jurgens has written Booster Gold and Guy Gardner on and off for years and he knows how they work, and his Guy, especially, is nicely layered as reflects the way that depictions of Guy have changed over the years. Jurgens takes a curious step in sidelining four members of the original team at the beginning of this book (and killing two supporting characters), replacing them with just two new ones, such that Interational Vol. 2 almost feels like a different book with a smaller, more compact team. It's equally fun to see new favorites like Batwing and OMAC alongside Booster and Guy; in that one attraction of team books is to see lots of costumes together, this has that in spades.

Geoff Johns and Dan DiDio's International Annual at the end of this book may be the highlight, though it's unfortunate Jurgens or at least Lopresti couldn't have taken a hand there too. It's a tad confusing — one really has to be up on the final events of OMAC to follow it — but the threat to the League is at least more pronounced. There's also a bunch of continuity teases at the end — this is, perhaps, the best part — that will gets fans salivating for wherever these plotlines should show up next.

Breakdown is an interesting read also because it is, as the name implies, the story of a team breaking down (Jurgens, ironically, came on to the old Justice League America title just after it, too, went through the era-ending "Breakdowns"). At the beginning of the book the team is essentially fired by the UN, and though the spend these pages tracking down the villain who attacked them, they arrive at the end still fired and going their separate ways. It would seem Jurgens received a lot of lead time to end the title (this is essentially a seven-part finale), or else perhaps Justice League International was never meant to amount to more than this; there's hints of the old continuity in the first volume that suggest maybe International was already in the pipeline when the New 52 hit, and perhaps six issues already-prepared and six issues to close it out were all we were ever supposed to get.

International crosses over with Fury of Firestorm in these pages, too, but I almost found myself wishing DC had held back the Firestorm issue and only printed it in Firestorm Vol. 2: The Firestorm Protocols instead. At the end of one International issue, the JLI leave for Paris thinking Breakdown is responsible for a crisis at the Eiffel Tower; in the Firestorm issue, they too-conveniently find a rogue Firestorm causing trouble instead. When, in the next International issue, Guy complains of their "wild goose chase," Jurgens is being too honest; this is a thin crossover for crossover's sake, and one that deals more with the events of Firestorm than it does with the Justice League.

Again, if you like to watch Booster Gold and Guy Gardner bicker, or if the August General knocking around with OMAC and Batwing is your idea of a good time, Dan Jurgens's Justice League International: Breakdown delivers an enjoyable superhero team story for a weekend afternoon. This is not a blockbuster action story of the likes that Geoff Johns and Jim Lee produce, and maybe that's an attraction for some, but in the end Justice League International needed to deliver more to really be a contender.

[Includes original covers]

Tomorrow, our last Saga of the Swamp Thing review. Don't miss it!

In examining the emotional dilemmas of a young Justice League, Geoff Johns succeeds with Justice League: A Villain's Journey. Unfortunately, this rich characterization struggles to come to the forefront beside a mostly generic Justice League story, and it's for this reason that the book, like the first volume, may still be dismissed as action movie fluff. Neither does it help Justice League be taken seriously that the story mostly turns on the romantic meanderings of the team's sole female member, Wonder Woman.

[Review contains spoilers]

Among the interesting tweaks that Geoff Johns made to the creation of the Justice League in Justice League: Origins is to establish that the Leaguers are reluctant allies more so than friends, and that their partnership is mainly so that each will be treated with less suspicion individually. Five years later, Johns takes this to its inevitable conclusion -- the Leaguers don't all necessarily like or trust one another, but they have pretended to do so in order to protect their collective reputations.

This is a rich and unique conflict; it’s meant that over the five years, the League has had to pretend to a united front, exhaustingly wary of any public hint of discord, else life become difficult for all of them. To that end, the League has largely set itself apart from humanity, refused to take any new members, and lets Steve Trevor's government ARGUS division speak for them, lest their secret be found out. In essence, the Justice League becomes an additional "secret identity" for each of the heroes -- it keeps the world, necessarily but tragically, from learning that the League is actually made of people who have good days and bad days and don't always get it right the first time.

For anyone who's had to hide their foibles, opinions, or "real selves" from family or peers so as to be accepted, the difficulty Johns sets forth here is infinitely relatable, and underscores the importance of bringing back the "secret identity" concept, in total, to the DC New 52.

This is set, however, against the League's conflict with David Graves, a one-time League biographer who believes the League responsible for the death of his family, and so takes an ill-defined vengeance on them with the help of mystically-granted powers. Graves's seemingly limitless powers take whatever form Johns's story needs -- though Graves mainly appears to control a band of fear-inducing wraiths, he can conveniently teleport from scene to scene with ease, and he also manages to take control of every television, cell phone, and computer in the world. All of this before the League learns that Graves was somehow misled about his powers' origins, though Johns doesn't even hint at what the larger scenario might be.

Graves's "broadcast" powers come in to play when he shows the world a fight between Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, destroying the League's clean image. But Graves has not "pushed" the heroes into fighting, as it initially seems; rather he simply seems to take advantage of their fight and displays it. Graves's motivations are as shifting as his powers -- he attacks the League, he wants to break them up, he wants Wonder Woman to undergo some tragedy specifically, he wants the League to help resurrect his family -- and finally, the League handily defeats him without much epilogue.

The upshot of this is a story not terribly different from former League battles against foes like the Key (who even appears here), Dr. Destiny, or the like. Graves is unremarkable himself (though his Jim Lee-created costume is cool in a Frank Langella's Skeletor kind of way), and for a story called "The Villain's Journey," Graves's journey is really beside the point -- this is the League's story, though the narrative only seems to acknowledge this around the edges. Justice League wants very much to be Justice Society, where in stories like Black Reign or Thy Kingdom Come, the plot- and character-conflicts were one and the same; Justice League hasn't captured that smooth duality quite yet.

It's also generally problematic that Villain's Journey turns, essentially, on the problems with having a woman on an all-male team. Trevor has protected the League and buffered them from inquisition largely because of his unrequited affection for Wonder Woman. The other Leaguers understand this, but take advantage of Trevor's services because he's convenient to have around. Ultimately it's Diana's conflicted feelings about Trevor that cause the public falling out with Green Lantern; then, the book's cliffhanger conclusion is a kiss (with no earlier build-up or romantic tension) between Wonder Woman and Superman.

One can extrapolate that if Steve Trevor didn't have feelings for Wonder Woman, and if Wonder Woman hadn't spurned him, Graves wouldn't have been able to use Trevor against the League. The players could as easily have been Green Lantern and UN representative Catherine Cobert or Batman and the Suicide Squad's Amanda Waller (a pairing that should totally happen), but instead the team falls apart because it's their only female member who's wishy-washy about her suitor. In combination with the Superman kiss, Diana emerges as Justice League's go-to romance character, as if the book isn't sure what else to do but punt her between relationships.

Certainly Justice League is good escapist entertainment and the Jim Lee-penned sections are pretty to look at, but it's this general creakiness of the storytelling that makes it hard for me to recommend Justice League unequivocally.

Villain's Journey starts off with a "day in the life" focus on Trevor, and then also a one-shot team-up with Green Arrow. In this chapter, and really throughout the book, Johns offers shout-outs to events in other titles (Batman, Justice League Dark, Justice League International, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman, among others), which nicely demonstrates how Justice League functions as the "spine" of the DC New 52. Johns also teases untold battles between the League and villains like Amazon and Weapons Master, a boon to long-time fans because it offers some indication that the classic League stories may still be in play. Best of all, Johns shows that the Martian Manhunter did indeed join the League at some point (even if he later fought them), preserving J'onn's "classic" role in this title.

Often Justice League titles have either told grand stories with the Big Seven or detailed stories with second-tier heroes, but rarely both. Justice League: The Villain's Journey succeeds in giving the Big Seven personality, but loses the grandness in the shuffle. I'll keep rooting for it, though; a Justice League story of the likes of Geoff Johns's JSA: Stealing Thunder would be something to see, indeed.

[Includes original and variant covers/

Tomorrow, the start of a special Collected Editions series, reading Alan Moore's Saga of the Swamp Thing collections. See you then!

[Guest reviewer Zach King blogs about movies as The Cinema King]

I've spent the last few reviews in this series pulling apart DC's "Greatest Stories" trades, which centered around a single character (or a legacy character), but now it's time to see these folks in action -- especially with Marvel's "other team" recently debuting in their own movie. Let's join JLA: The Greatest Stories Ever Told!

I'm not expecting to see Antarctica or Detroit in these pages, nor am I expecting much diversity in the cast. The greatest JLA stories, after all, have almost always included the Big Seven. Ultimately this volume needs to contain stories in which every JLA member plays an important role, in which the team aspect of the group is emphasized. It's especially interesting that this is the only "Greatest Stories" collections which directly invokes continuity by linking the contained stories to "mega-popular hits like Identity Crisis!"

The sum of the parts being more than the whole in this series, let's take a look at what's inside this volume.

"Origin" (Justice League of America #200, March 1982): I'm still puzzled at how the editors choose the first story of these volumes. Sometimes it's the first appearance; sometimes it's a terse retelling of that story. Here we have a case of the latter, by Gerry Conway and George Perez. There's nothing wrong with this, but it seems included just so we get some Perez in this volume.

"The Super-Exiles of Earth" (Justice League of America #19, May 1963): The first full story in the volume is better than I was expecting. A lot of Silver Age JLA stories might get a bad rap for being overwrought and a bit improbable, but this one is actually exciting. The JLA are exiled from earth after evil doppelgangers besmirch their good names. I was riveted to find out what was actually going on here, so major kudos to Gardner Fox for a story that's held up for almost 50 years. (I won't spoil it here, of course!) Sadly, Aquaman gets no love here, since he's relegated to a spaceship for the entire story simply because he doesn't have a secret identity; characters keep referring to his absence, which made me think he was going to come back and save the day, but it seems Aquaman's real secret identity is Rodney Dangerfield -- can't get no respect.

"Snapper Carr -- Super Traitor" (Justice League of America #77, December 1969): Dennis O'Neil pens this deceptively strong story in which the JLA is targeted by the mysterious John Dough, champion of the average. The story starts off as extremely dated, with team "mascot" Snapper Carr and Dough swapping 1960s slang, but O'Neil quickly gains control of the story by making Dough an architect of anarchy. The story contains the classic JLA trope of "villain underestimating Batman" (which Grant Morrison later used to great effect in his JLA run), but it never feels hackneyed or implausible -- especially once the truth about John Dough is revealed, a twist O'Neil handles with aplomb. Only two problems occur to me: one, it's extremely bizarre to hear the ultra-liberal Green Arrow quote Ayn Rand on the virtues of individualism; and two, the art by Dick Dillin is merely serviceable until the very end, when his final pencilwork on John Dough bungles the character's visual such that he's almost unrecognizable. Otherwise, a solid tale -- two in a row!

"The Great Identity Crisis" (Justice League of America #122, September 1975): There's no question this story is in the collection as a kind of exclamation, "I got your Identity Crisis right here!" But only superficial similarities persist; we have Dr. Light manipulating the League, but this time it's Light doing the mindwiping, rewiring the Leaguers' brains so that their secret identities get jumbled (i.e., Bruce Wayne thinks he's Oliver Queen, etc.). The "greatest" element here is undoubtedly the moment when Superman emphasizes the necessity of learning each other's alter egos, but this story isn't quite as enjoyable as the prior two; it's a bit muddy, the threat doesn't seem that significant or dangerous, and the resolution is too speedy -- a clever concept by Martin Pasko but without much punch or pizzazz.

"The League that Defeated Itself" (Justice League of America #166-168, May-July 1979): Here we come to the first truly disappointing story in the volume, a Gerry Conway/Dick Dillin tale in which the Secret Society of Super-Villains (The Wizard, Professor Zoom, Star Sapphire, Plantmaster [Jason Woodrue], and Blockbuster) swap brains with the League. As the Mike Tiefenbacher introduction points out, this is the same Secret Society which returns after Identity Crisis to plague our heroes, but the story here is overlong and not especially well-executed. The idea is sound, but the villains are uninspiring, and it's sometimes unclear who's being possessed by whom. Dillin's artwork has by leaps and bounds improved since "Super Traitor," but I would have preferred a bigger threat (where's Lex Luthor in this volume, for example?) to match the "Greatest" banner. Aquaman's presence is actually missed here, especially since Red Tornado essentially plays his role by falling down on the job and incessantly castigating himself for it.

"Born Again" (Justice League #1, May 1987): With nary a "Bwa-ha-ha" in sight, the first issue of the Giffen/DeMatteis JL (no A) reboot still holds up very well, capturing much of what was best loved about this series -- the off-kilter humor, the brilliant character dynamics, the attention to super-heroics. While I might have chosen the "moving day" issue of JLI to exemplify better the humor present in the series, there isn't much to complain about with this one. It's a great encapsulation of an era much loved despite a concept that could have earned the malignment of the entire fan community. Poking fun at the Justice League? Unthinkable! Yet Giffen and DeMatteis, replete with the exquisite facial expressions rendered by Kevin Maguire, pulled it off. The only bad part about this inclusion is that it'll remind you how there are still a few uncollected volumes out there (a tender subject on this site, I know). [Don't get me started! -- ed]

"Star-Seed" (JLA Secret Files #1, September 1997): Readers of this blog will know I have only good things to say about Grant Morrison, who penned this update on the Starro saga, but despite your knowing I'll glow about this one, here goes. In Morrison's nostalgic-revisionist pattern, the JLA encounters Starro, ostensibly for the first time and against the advice of The Spectre, who would rather see Blue Valley destroyed -- untenable collateral damage in the eyes of the League. The art by Howard Porter recalls the best of the "Big Seven" era, rendering our protagonists as larger than life and rippling with bulging muscles. I'm torn on this story because its apparent weakness is that Batman defuses the threat almost by himself and without much exertion. Yet this is precisely what I've always loved about Morrison's DC work -- his Batman is indomitable and indefatigable. Is it a great JLA story? The way in which they circumvent The Spectre's prohibition is clever and very much worthy of inclusion, but in the final battle it's really a Batman story in which the other Leaguers serve only as (useful) distractions.

"Two-Minute Warning" (JLA #61, February 2002): This Joe Kelly/Doug Mahnke rectifies Morrison's narrowed focus by giving the League a battle they all need to fight (giant sea monsters, and with the JLA sans Aquaman, no less), but I suspect this story is included because it shows all the Leaguers summoned from quotidian peacetime into conflict -- a side we rarely see when the heavyhitters get together. Kelly does well recording each Leaguer's voice outside of character (save Batman, who appropriately never leaves character), and Mahnke's hyper-detailed "ugly art" captures the grotesque nature of the awful beasts and their monstrous leader. Even Plastic Man gets a moment to shine, and the story's conclusion with the Martian Manhunter on monitor duty reminds us of the neverending battle.

Ultimately, I'm a little disappointed we didn't get the original Starro story (though I'll never complain about a Morrison update), simply because it might have showed how much the JLA changed from their inception to the Morrison age. I probably would have replaced the overlong "League that Defeated Itself" with a few shorter and snappier stories, but overall this was an exceptionally exciting volume, with great stories representing each important era of "the Big Seven."

Of special interest to the collection-minded on this site (i.e., all of us), the glue on JLA: The Greatest Stories Ever Told's binding was particularly weak, falling apart by the time I finished reading the first time. Now the volume resembles a hardcover with a slipcover, the meat of the book having fallen out from between the covers in one brick.

More Greatest Stories reviews: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Flash.

Next time in this series, I'll invoke the name of the wizard and call down the lightning with Shazam!: The Greatest Stories Ever Told. See you then!

Coming up next week, the Collected Editions New 52 reviews of Men of War and Batwing.

With the success of Grant Morrison's JLA in the late 1990s, Justice League comics got serious, a far cry from the Keith Giffen/J. M. DeMatteis Justice League International super-comedy of the 1980s. In between those two extremes, however, had been a short, cogent Justice League run by Dan Jurgens in early 1990s, which combined humor with action and notably connected with the famous "Death of Superman" storyline.

Jurgens therefore approaches the DC New 52 Justice League International: The Signal Masters with some level of experience and prior success, as does artist Aaron Lopresti, who just drew Justice League: Generation Lost, the virtual "old" DC Universe precursor to Justice League International. What humor is contained in International, some might mistake for a lack of sophistication, but indeed the book has a nostalgic charm in the vein of the older Justice League stories. More's the pity that Justice League International is cancelled after the next volume, but hopefully Jurgens will show up elsewhere on the DC Comics line with these characters in tow.

[Review contains spoilers]

As opposed to the DC New 52 Justice League: Origin, in which the Big Seven Justice League meet, coalesce into a team almost immediately, and then take out the New God Darkseid, the Justice League International bicker their way through their first two issues and then ultimately retreat from the earth-churning giant robots they encounter. This doesn't seem much the premise of a super-team to follow, but the appeal of this League's characters -- Booster Gold, Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Fire, Ice, and Rocket Red in the "old" DC Universe's International, among others -- is their status as underdogs; Justice League is the team readers would want to be on, and JLI is the team readers would likely encompass.

The team comes together and defeats the villain Peraxxus in the end, of course; when the U.N. threatens to disband them, the heroes support one another and stay together. This pluck, again not quite the same as what one gets from the Justice League proper, is endearing to the audience.

Jurgens makes a significant decision to not only include Batman in this title, but to lend leader Booster Gold Batman's support. Long-time fans know this is a significant change over International depictions of old, where Batman would barge in, take over, and alienate all of his teammates. At the end of Generation Lost, Booster had earned Batman's trust both by defeating Max Lord and through Booster's secret work preserving the timestream; there's no such reason given here, but Batman's support of Booster again rallies the audience to do the same.

Jurgens's characterization of Batman is milder than most, even than that of Batman's depiction in Scott Snyder's excellent Court of Owls and other DC New 52 titles. When Batman asks Guy Garnder to stay with the team because "helping people is what we do," it seems almost quaint, though this Batman is easier to take than the one in Snyder's story who punches his partner Nightwing to make a point. That Gardner and Batman even coexist in relative peace here at all is an item of interest, given their storied rivalry in the classic International (including Batman's "one punch" knockout of Garder). Though those stories no longer "exist," Jurgens takes how the characters have matured since that time as a launching point for a more mature JLI -- still with some humorous in-fighting, but far less outlandish than the International of old.

Even as the main plot of Signal Masters has the League fighting an alien threat, the book also sees the League's headquarters bombed by an angry militia, though the source of their anger is tougher to define. The group seems to be upset that the U.N. gives the so-called "Hall of Justice" over to the U.N.-sponsored JLI; the group says the Hall is "theirs" and the JLI are "sell-outs." Without some background as to the role of the Hall, the group's claims don't make sense -- the Hall was a Justice League base in the "old" DC Universe, but if that's the same in the DC New 52, why is it abandoned and why do the protestors feel ownership of it? Jurgens would seem to try to parallel any number of real-world protests, from the Occupy Wall Street movement to arguments over what to build in former World Trade Center areas, but this manifests. It comes off as the weakest part of a story that has otherwise good characterization throughout.

For the first time in the DC New 52 collections, it may be come apparent to readers how much has been lost in the relaunching of DC Comics continuity, even if there's been some requisite gain. Fans will remember Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis's I Can’t Believe It's Not the Justice League, a sequel to their classic International stories, in which Booster, Guy, and Fire venture into Hell to save the deceased Ice, including a heart-rending moment when they might have to leave her behind.

The number of issues these characters have appeared in and the amount of continuity baggage they all carry may be daunting to new readers, but it also allows for emotional reading in the amount all the characters care for one another. Jurgens's Leaguers here are friends, and certainly Jurgens is aware of the characters' "old" relationships, but it's not the same as having that history down on the page. This doesn't lessen Signal Masters, but there's an aspect of "getting the band back together" that would have been present in the "old" DC Universe and is not present here.

Justice League International: The Signal Masters succeeds in what it does not try to accomplish. This is not a widescreen action book (though Lopresti is no slouch in the action department, as well as expressive faces in scenes of dialogue) nor is it a story of sure-fire, confident heroes. Rather, the JLI is a ragtag group, not sure what they're doing or if they should even be together, comprised of some familiar faces, and fans of these characters won't be disappointed. Possibly low sales ended Justice League International after the next volume, or possibly DC Comics has other plans for these characters -- hopefully it's the latter (and failing that, a DC New 52 Booster Gold series by Jurgens!).

[Includes original covers, sketchbook section by Lopresti]

From DC New 52 team to DC New 52 team -- coming up, the Collected Editions review of the DC New 52 Stormwatch.

The DC New 52’s Justice League: Origin is a summer blockbuster of a story, one that puts me in mind of the Avengers movie about to arrive in theaters. We’ve rarely if ever had such a widescreen rendition of the first meeting of the Justice League, and as an action flick it's lots of fun. This is a Justice League story you can give to any reader that they can understand without much preface.

At the same time, Geoff Johns and Jim Lee’s Justice League surprisingly seems less of a re-imagining of the team than it is an exercise in shoring up Johns’s own take on these characters. Johns’s characterization of Flash Barry Allen is easily recognizable here, as is his presentation of Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Jordan’s relationship with Batman. Up to now, Johns’s slightly-modified Green Lantern and Flash were variations on early depictions; with Origin, for better or worse, Johns’s depictions become fact.

[Spoilers follow]

If Flash and Batman were the stars of the recent Flashpoint, Green Lantern and Batman are the stars of Origin. From the outset, Origin is the story of the independent Batman convincing the even more self-reliant Green Lantern that joining a team is not only a good idea, it’s a necessity. In a clever scene, Batman guesses that Hal’s bravado comes from trying to prove himself to a dead parent (only Batman can psychoanalyze in the middle of battle), and it’s the kick in the pants Hal needs to finally lead the team. That’s correct – while the League never formally elects a leader here (it is certainly not traditional League-leader Superman), to a large extent that leader appears to be Hal Jordan.

It’s here one begins to wonder if Johns’s interests might carry too much weight in this Justice League story – but then again, as DC’s Chief Creative Officer, there might no longer be much distinction between Johns’s interests and DC’s. Green Lantern is the hero; the animosity between Green Lantern and Batman introduced in Johns’s Green Lantern: Rebirth now stretches all the way back to the origins of the League; Flash Barry Allen solves cold cases under Director Singh at the formation of the League just as he did in the recent Flash series by Johns.

There's a benefit to this in that Johns's work of late -- both Rebirths, for instance -- will be what's most likely to sit next to these DC New 52 volumes on bookstore shelves, so new readers will find uniformity and similarity throughout. Experienced readers, however, might be surprised at how tangible Johns is in these pages through the choices he makes, possibly to too great an extent.

With Origin, we find ourselves in a new DC Universe, one familiar yet subtly different than the one we just departed. It's hard to tell if Johns is setting up future plotlines or just name-checking characters, but New Teen Titan's Sarah Charles is behind the scenes at Victor Stone's transformation to Cyborg, as are the Metal Men's Dr. Magnus and second Atom Ryan Choi. Also along are villains T. O. Morrow and Professor Ivo, and marginal character Mr. Orr from Superman For Tomorrow, but also having appeared in a now out-of-continuity Cyborg miniseries. One wonders again if Johns is simply trying to provide continuance (if not continuity) from old to new; that Cyborg miniseries might not match up any more, but it's possible the differences would be slight enough a new reader wouldn’t notice.

This is a brasher Justice League than what we're used to, perhaps to emphasize the youth of the team. Green Lantern is more of a jokester than he has been, resembling the animated Justice League's Wally West. Flash mentions he can't "do jack" at work because of his secret identity and Green Lantern says Batman's "a total tool." This strikes me as trying too hard -- neither of those phrases are especially "cool" as is, and are only likely to date the story going forward. My hope is that Johns has done all of this purposefully, and he'll tone down those elements in the next book set five years later.

As a whole, however, I did like Johns's portrayal of the team and their motivations for coming together. Johns introduces an anti-establishment tone to the League; Green Lantern has had "conflicts" with the Air Force and Flash doesn't even want to appear in public, for fear of the bad press and public condemnation he's received. As Superman says to Flash (taking a page, perhaps, from Grant Morrison's current Action Comics characterization of Superman), "You look like someone who wants to do the right thing, but the same can't always be said for everyone in positions of authority."

Individually the heroes have been scorned, but in defeating League-level threats they earn trust. This makes the League a team of outsiders, forced with a certain amount of desperation to stick together or else be marginalized on their own. If that sounds like a certain team of mutants, you may not be far off, but I appreciated the slightly darker edge with which this imbued the League.

Johns further underlines this distinction with a narrative slight of hand. The League eventually earns the title of the "World's Greatest Super-Heroes," but they start out as the "World's Greatest Super-Humans." They are heroes, but they are not heroes first; rather they're human (even the Kryptonian) and fallible, and just one failure, we gather, away from losing the trust they've just barely earned. I don't mind so much a Justice League that has to work a little harder for their success than they have before.

It's guaranteed Justice League: Origin is going to rankle some readers, especially the paranoia upon which this League is founded and how it's decentralized away from DC's Big Three (or away from Superman and Wonder Woman, at least). I found the story functional and interesting, if not necessarily ground-breaking (Johns reinvents villain Darkseid not at all, and the main conflict is a typical heroes vs. Darkseid match). Johns and Jim Lee, however, are a powerhouse team that can tell a story with distinct depth below the surface, and I have to believe that portends good things for the Justice League going forward.

[Includes covers, sketchbook section by Jim Lee and others.]

We've entered the DC New 52 ... now it's time to get Dark! Be here Monday for our first review from the Dark section of the DC New 52, Animal Man: The Hunt. See you then!

Grant Morrison's JLA was what it claimed -- one couldn't read that title without thinking, "This is the Justice League of America." I felt more tentative about Joe Kelly's JLA run that followed, but somewhere in the middle of The Obsidian Age's time-traveling craziness, I again thought to myself, "This is the Justice League."

Writer James Robinson sets out to accomplish the same in Justice League of America: Omega, and it works. Omega is a superheroic romp of the best kind, a frenetic, messy story stuffed with years of obscurity and continuity and esoteric guest-stars, that sizzles in its conclusion when the heroes snatch victory from defeat. Robinson embodies the characters in a manner different from any of DC Comics's other team book writers at present, and creates a model for what team books can be in more ways than one.

[Contains spoilers]

To be sure, Robinson's Omega is a heady mash-up of a dozen other DC Comics. The alternate-Earth Crime Syndicate of America (a conflation of Grant Morrison's JLA: Earth-2 graphic novel and Kurt Busiek's Trinity miniseries) have infected their own and the Tangent universe (from DC's Tangent fifth week events) with a deadly dark matter, and need to resurrect Alexander Luthor (killed in Infinite Crisis) to reverse the damage (no one acknowledges that the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Luthor is not actually the Luthor of their world). Aiding the Syndicate is a band of Apokolips-enhanced villains lead by Dr. Impossible, who instead betrays the Syndicate and tries to resurrect Darkseid (late of Final Crisis). The story involves a number of double-crossed, flashes back to the Countdown to Final Crisis and Day of Vengeance miniseries at least, and even includes the "dark" Supergirl not seen since the early days of the Supergirl series some six years ago.

If it sounds confusing, it is -- gleefully so. Consider the conversation between the title characters at the beginning of the Starman/Congorilla one-shot included here; there's a remarkably text-heavy two-page spread where Congorilla references Green Arrow, Sirroco (briefly of Superman: Camelot Falls) the Shade, and elements of Justice League: Team History and Cry for Justice, and that's all before Animal Man and Rex the Wonder Dog show up. And yet, it's exactly the kind of conversation one might expect two superheroes to have discussing a mission, if there weren't a writer who needed to be concerned what the reader might or might not understand. We've established already that Robinson writes like an Aaron Sorkin screenplay, with enough interruptions and deviations to drive any reader to madness, but in Omega it's elevated to a kind of devil-may-care continuity free-for-all, true to the characters even if the reader gets left behind.

Robinson, however, demonstrates he's cognizant of the weight of all this continuity. I've mentioned before that Robinson's Donna seems "off" in a way, angrier than we think of her in the classic Marv Wolfman New Teen Titans stories. Robinson addresses that here, as Donna considers her own rage, borne from a sadness and tiredness from numerous tragedies, including the death and gross resurrection of her own son during Blackest Night. Donna's anger, however, seems as much directed as her circumstances as it does the architects of those tragedies, the comics writers -- she calls her past "convoluted ... to such a degree that I've long since decided to ignore it, when I'm able." Donna's rage must reflect how daunted Robinson and other writers feel to use this character given how much baggage she carries; in Donna, Robinson gives outlet to the lost reader, simultaneously giving Donna Troy an awareness of the continuity puzzles she poses and also giving her license to ignore them entirely.

Indeed, Robinson's League becomes something of a home for wayward heroes, especially those mistreated by other writers. At the forefront are Donna Troy and Jade, each who have been at times more the foils for male characters of their titles than characters in their own right; in the book's first self-contained chapter, the two agree to a partnership built on their own merits. With Congorilla and Starman on their own for most of the book, Robinson presents a League that is predominantly female, likely a first for the team. Robinson also uses three gay characters -- three is not a lot necessarily, but it's more than one finds in other titles, and it's unlikely Robinson fosters all of this inclusiveness accidentally. Robinson makes strides for diversity in a Justice League title (probably not since Gerard Jones has the League been this diverse) but also this goes again toward how "normal" Robinson's League is, in a way -- just as it's likely superheroes would have continuity-rich discussions, it's just as likely not every hero on a team would be male or straight, and Robinson's League becomes more "realistic" in its difference from the standard fare.

Justice League of America: Omega is the first solo adventure for this League (and, with the DC Relaunch, actually also the penultimate one) and Robinson makes no secret his desire to "legitimize" the team's incarnation in this book. In the previous volume, Dark Things, Starman and Congorilla wonder aloud when they'll be recognized as the Justice League; here, the "Omega" storyline is just underway when Superman himself assures other heroes that this team, the Justice League, will save the day. It's too quick, and with no basis for Superman to believe so, but the story of Washington D.C.'s residents trapped in a dome with only this team of heroes to save them from the villains is very compelling (especially Jesse Quick's underrated role constantly moving the people from spot to spot for three days). In the final pages, a seemingly defeated Batman reveals that his plan to stop the rampaging Omega Man has been in play all along, and it's a twist worthy of Morrison's JLA adventures. This may not have been the Justice League when the Omega started, but it feels that way when they announce themselves in the end.

[Contains original and variant covers. Printed on glossy paper.]

James Robinson has one more volume of Justice League, The Rise of Eclipso, before the title gives way to the DC Relaunch, after which he turns to a new Shade miniseries. I can't really feel disappointed by James Robinson working with the Starman characters again, but Robinson on Shade feels like playing it safe, the writer working with characters he knows and can do with as he pleases. I'd be happy to see Robinson again on a team book, and a mainstream one at that -- his Justice League is out of the ordinary just in the way the comics expanse probably needs.

Coming up this week, new reviews and another entry in our new series, Cancelled Trade Cavalcade. See you then!