Justice League had a lot to live up to in the second issue. It’s under more scrutiny to live up or exceed the expectations of the first. If anyone could pull this off Geoff Johns and Jim Lee are a team up to the task. In my opinion the second issue of Justice League does what any good second issue should do and builds upon the strengths of the first. The major critiques of the first issue was that it was the Batman and Green Lantern show. I remember the common thread of this being an extended Batman: Brave and the Bold story. You have to realize this is the team building phase, and this issue gives you the first major steps in building the Justice League.
The first steps being the classic Superhero misunderstanding fight. There’s a lot of fun to be had with this fight, there’s a some creative ways that make this different from a lot of these misunderstanding fights. Superman is worked up from running into a creature similar to what they ran into in Gotham City from last issue. A rare twist is in this issue, Batman is the voice of reason. Geoff Johns is having fun in building up the chemistry of this league and this shows in how this fight comes together. That’s a clever move on his part having Batman be the cool head between Superman and Green Lantern. Within the battle Jim Lee shows off some mind blowing double page spreads. Personal favorite of the spreads, Superman breaking the Green Lantern’s construct chains from around him. I could literally feel the chains shattering from the page. As they both realize Superman is riled up from his own fight, there’s no way of slowing him down, from there getting our first introduction in Justice League to The Flash.
The reason I reveal The Flash being part of the story is I wanted you all to know just how much of the Justice League gets set up in this issue. What’s interesting about how he gets introduced to us, he’s under a lot of scrutiny himself. Between Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison they give us the full spectrum of what it was like for the heroes in the early days of this New DC Universe. He’s much more reluctant to help Green Lantern out due to this extra complication in his life at this time. As the pieces start to come together I’m liking how you start to feel that you are truly witnessing the
formation of the Justice League before your eyes. Even as they’re still unsure you can truly see their potential just from this second issue.
The last part of the issue is focusing on Vic Stone and his Dad. One thing I’ll have to say is Geoff really pushes the jerk factor with Vic’s Dad. If any complaint I had about the issue is the fact that Geoff doesn’t do a good job of balancing out the Dad’s personality. Outside of that minor quibble, you get lead to where the Justice League’s and Vic Stone’s life will eventually intersect. From the looks of the last page of the issue, we’re in for one brutal ride in the next one and I for one am looking forward to seeing just how this is going to come together.
Justice League‘s second issue shows that Geoff Johns and Jim Lee are on the right path with this series. The first issue with some was slow, but this issue I would say was far from slow. Jim Lee’s artwork was on fire, you can tell he loved cutting loose with those double page spreads, with just glorious work within this comic to match up with Geoff’s writing. This is a comic that truly shows two creators in sync with each other. I cannot wait to see what the next issue will hold for us, and really this starting to develop into one great series in the New DC Universe.
