Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Bryan Hitch
Artist: Tony S. Daniel
Inks: Sandu Florea
Colors: Tomeu Morey
Release Date: 20th July 2016

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This is the wrong story at the wrong time. Don’t get me wrong – this isn’t a bad piece of writing at all, indeed it’s classic Justice League, a tale of earth-threatening mysterious events, quakes, waves, and drone-like behaviour by people chanting for the rise of the Kindred. And the art is outstanding: Tony S Daniel is on top form, it’s stunningly good, with vast spreads and excellent detail. There’s pace, punch, good dialogue (Cyborg fanboying is highly entertaining), although it does struggle with the Green Lanterns (a broader DCU issue to be addressed, I fear).

The problems are twofold. The first is somewhat unavoidable, as it’s as much to do with the medium itself as anything else: it’s a question of chronology. It doesn’t ring true that this global event is occurring in the DCU when no other title is dealing with it, particularly at this crucial point in DC’s publishing cycle. This is not the only title guilty of this, but it’s most apparent here, which is the second problem – it doesn’t read like a Rebirth title. When you consider how Titans is tackling Rebirth, or Detective Comics, or Wonder Woman, they all feel like the Rebirth is contextually meaningful in some way – here, it seems to be glossed over (especially where Superman is concerned).

As a New 52 Justice League story, this would be fine. But as the Rebirth of planet’s greatest team of heroes? Not up to scratch.

Rating: 2/5.

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PREVIEW ARTWORK
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The Writer of this piece was: Sam Graven
Article Archive: Geeking Out
You can follow Sam on Twitter

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