Review – Justice League #3 (DC Comics)

Publisher: DC Comics
Script: Brian Hitch
Art: Tony S Daniel, Sandu Florea
Release Date: 17th August, 2016

Now this is shaping up nicely.

The Justice League is the corner of the DCU where everything is invariably dialed up to eleven. A threat too big for Superman to handle? Even if Wonder Woman and Batman pitch in? That’s a Justice League problem.

Bryan Hitch gets that. Frequently writers aim too low with the League, but here we see them up against a race of alien Giants, who are formed out of the amalgamation of hundreds of regular humans and fueled by the stolen powers of most of the Leaguers. Oh, and the Earth is about to explode if Superman can’t Boom Tube down to the Earth’s core and stop it.

Channeling Kirby as much as Morrison, Hitch is pulling off something special here. Like the best JLA stories, he gives little moments to the characters which help to show us not only how they interact with each other, but why they deserve their place on the world’s premier super-team.

Batman still doesn’t trust this new Superman, but wants him in the team all the same, as he can see past his own ego for the greater good, while Clark’s scenes with Lois and Jon are genuinely affecting. He’s staring death in the face here and they know it. As for Wonder Woman, well, she’s just terrifying.

Tony Daniel’s art carries the whole thing along at a fair clip, hammering out traditional, straight-up superhero art unabashedly. His characters look exactly the way Hitch is writing them, each nuance and trait perfectly realised, just as each punch and explosion is almost felt by the reader.

As launch stories go, this has got a lot going for it. Incomprehensible alien invasion? Accurate character portrayals? Widescreen action? Hopeless ‘do or die’ scenarios? The world’s greatest super-heroes? Justice League is ticking all the boxes.

Rating: 4/5.

PREVIEW ARTWORK
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