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Of Embassies and Origins - Justice League International Part 2 (Eaglemoss Collection v77)

  Review: Since we are doing a series of reviews focusing on Booster Gold over his nearly 40-year history, we include this one as a collection of some of his earliest appearances, dating to late 1987. That places the original publish date of these tales while his original solo series was still going strong.  This book is a beautiful, glossy hard-cover with smooth and heavy-stock paper inside, although the sometimes-low print reproduction quality leads to blurred and hard to read word balloons on occasion. It is also a rare book here in North America, as Eaglemoss Collections targeted UK fans with this series. At this point in the history of the 1987-rebooted Justice League, they have gained official United Nations recognition and sanction. To ensure their reach truly is global, they rebrand as Justice League International (as does the title of the series!) and they open new headquarters buildings around the world: New York, Paris and Moscow are included here. As this is a product of 19
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Traitors and Pawns - Justice League (New 52) volume 4 The Grid

Cover of Justice League vol 4 The Grid


Review:

From a recruitment drive to battles between three Justice Leagues, ending with the appearance of the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3, this volume packs loads of characters into a tight space. Beyond the Justice League regulars, we get Firestorm, Element Woman, Zatanna, Madam Xanadu, Martian Manhunter, Shazam and many more. Bring a DC Characters Bingo card!

Author Geoff Johns covers a lot of ground in this tale too, and switches between dark and creepy on one hand, to light and flippant and finally to intense, from deep bonds of trust to the broken trust when a mole in the Justice League betrays and nearly destroys them.

The grand battles that ensue give Ivan Reis a workout on pencils. The results are engrossing and compelling, a series of grand tableaus crackling with visual power. Other pencillers rotate in for a chapter here and there, barely noticeable though with so many different characters.

As big and intriguing as this story is, there are some holes that will hopefully be filled in by future issues. Who broke into the Batcave and stole the Kryptonite ring? It is much discussed but never explained. Cyborg's transformation into the Grid, the title of this collection, should be a shattering event yet it comes and goes almost without remark. An entire Pandora's Box subplot leads into Justice League of America actively working against the main Justice League. Almost too much to keep track of.

I particularly enjoyed the discussions of abuse of absolute power, which is a central theme to the whole Injustice project with its titles, books and video games. It is less central here, but we hear it in Batman's necessary precautions and in the little boxes he keeps on each League teammate - an identification of their weaknesses and how to exploit them. But why is Wonder Woman's box empty?

Ultimately the vast number of characters and ideas packed into so small a space becomes more bewildering than satisfying.


Description:

The event that the New 52 has been building towards since the beginning! #1 New York Times best-selling writer Geoff Johns (GREEN LANTERN, BATMAN: EARTH ONE) brings together almost two years of plot threads for an epic tale that will forever change the shape of the DC Universe. When the three Justice Leagues go to war with one another, who's side will everyone be on? Allies will be born, friends will become enemies and the DC Universe will never be the same.

Collects: JUSTICE LEAGUE #18-23

Authors: Geoff Johns
Artists: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Jesus Saiz, Oclair Albert
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: April 8 2014
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN: 978-1401247171
Pages: 176 pages


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