TPB Review: Justice League International vol. 1

by J. M. Dematteis, Keith Giffen, and Kevin Maguire

Collects: Justice League #1-6 and Justice League International #7

The Lowdown: It's the 1980's. A band of C-list stars (and Batman!) make up a newly reassembled Justice League. Not only do they have trouble getting on the same page but the mysterious Max Lord is pulling strings behind the scenes. Hilarity Ensues!

The Review: I guess I should get one thing straight before starting with this review: I don't read DC comics. Outside of a couple Superman books and a variety of Batman books, I generally am pretty absent-minded when it comes to most of the wider DC universe and it's characters. It was only a year ago that I found out that there were hundreds of Flash's and hundreds of Gren Lanterns.

So why did I take a chance on a Justice League book, well...hype, mainly. Possibly curiosity as well. I've heard excellent things about this run, plus right now I need a good laugh. So I dived into the Justice League International vol. 1.

Unfortunately it wasn't nearly as good, clever, or funny as the critical acclaim would have me expect...at least it isn't yet. Rarely did I ever laugh out loud during this book and frankly it's still stuck in a fairly typical superhero story genre and it rarely ever breaks out of that. The few times it does, you can see some great machinations at work. The constant bickering between Green Lantern Guy Gardner and Batman is one of the highlights of this book and actually comes to a head in a chuckle-inducing climax. Unfortunately I thought the aftermath of that rivalry was very wearisome. Guy Gardner is a highlight character of this book and he's a constant thorn in the rest of the Justice League's side due to his less than thrilling personality. In other words, he's a dick and his antics provide the most fun in this book.

But even the antics of Guy Gardner couldn't push this book into the upper echelons of greatness. Like I said before, the plotting is thickly rooted in 1980's superhero tales with a couple of the "nyuk-nyuks" on the side. The stories have a lot to deal with the themes left over from the cold-war, such as nuclear holocaust, international policies, and the brink of World War 3. The stories are certainly outdated for this new age of reader. Oftentimes I felt the stories were downright boring and if it weren't for the potential of better things to come I would have not considered continuing. Also the characters, like I said I'm not knowledgeable of the DC universe so characters like Blue Beetle, Black Canary, Booster Gold, Martian Manhunter, Mister Miracle, Captain Marvel, Guy Gardner, they meant nothing to me. This book struggled to make all the characters stand out, even though each one has at least one defining characteristic. Like I said before, Guy Gardner was the funnest of the bunch for me. Blue Beetle who is typically the one that garners the most attention didn't do much for me.

The artwork on the other hand is also pretty conventional. But Maguire excels at facial expressions, showing little nuances from panel to panel, and the art in the panel of the climax of the Gardner/Batman rivalry is fantastic. Also we have a very rowdy bunch in terms of variety in costume design, making it very easy to tell which character is which. All the characters look different and that's something I've had a problem with, with other artists first starting out on a series. His action gets lost in the shuffle but this series is less about action anyway. Maguire is perfect for the job and often times he does it well.

Final Thoughts: It's still a pretty conventional superhero book at this point and honestly it's not the greatest book, but it is the starting point and a decent introduction to most of the characters. Things pick up in JLI #8, but you really should start here to get acquainted with the going-ons. Also you can't miss the classic Gardner and Batman interactions.

7.5/10