Review:
With this book, which collects the second half of the brief run of Justice League International, the New 52 era JLI, and Booster Gold as a team leader, fizzle to their anticlimactic end. The premise was sound: a UN-sanctioned, globally representative metahuman peace-keeping force, fronted by someone comfortable with the media spotlight. Heroes from nearly every continent. Globe-spanning challenges and adventures.
The formula had worked before, granted with a lot more silliness, in the late 1980s first edition of Justice League International and its connections to Justice League titles set in Europe and America. But ultimately it falls flat in 2012. It was clearly time to either reboot or end this series.
For a time, a radical reboot seemed in the works. This collection opens with the immediate aftermath of the bombing of the United Nations, seen at the very end of volume 1. The chaos, heroism, confusion, death and mourning packed into an intense first chapter of this book start us off with a bang. And what an impact the bombing had on the team! Gavril aka Rocket Red is dead. Ice is badly wounded, her leg shattered like, well, ice. Vixen is out of commission and in hospital. Fire is in a deep coma. We are set up for a major overhaul, potentially a whole new direction.
Instead, we get a wandering and unfocused plot. New character like Batwing pop in and out. The team jumps halfway around the world and back on a wild goose chase. Budding relationships disappear. Heroes behave out of character.
The final panel of the last issue of the series is artistically set up by Aaron Lopresti and Matt Ryan to look like the start of something new. The heroes have survived and rededicated themselves to each other and their cause. But even this wrap-up is at odds with its own scattered lead-up, so much so that it feels like a forced happy ending.
The book also includes the Annual and one issue (#9) from Fury of Firestorm. But they only serve to compound the lack of focus. While including the Firestorm issue does fill in some of the details of their Paris diversion, the characters are so embedded in their own plotlines that it leaves JLI readers more confused than enlightened.
For its part, the Annual, written by Geoff Johns and Dan Didio, is more interested in setting up the return of Brother Eye and the next major crossover event than in furthering the stories and characters of the JLI. In the process, they muff significant bits of the continuity, such as it was, of this short 12-issue series run.
There are glints and glimmers of gold in this disappointing book. The heroism, confusion and sorrow after the UN bombing is very well handled in both its writing and visuals. Lopresti and Ryan give us some fun panels over the course of these chapters, a personal favorite being the dissolving of Guy Gardner's ring creation once they arrive back in New York and no longer need it.
But ultimately this disappointing series ends with a whimper. 2 capes out of 5.
Description:
Trying to collect themselves after an extra-terrestrial attack and death of a teammate, members of Justice League International expected to bask in glory and appreciation. However, Booster Gold, Guy Gardner, Batman and company are learning that's not the case as a new threat, one far more dangerous than anyone dared suspect. Called Breakdown, he emerges and attacks with dire results, forever altering the team and sending it in a bold, new and unexpected direction!
Collects: Justice League International #7-12 and Annual #1, plus Fury of Firestorm #9
Authors: Dan Jurgens
Artists: Aaron Lopresti
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: Jan 8, 2013
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN: 978-1401237936
Pages: 200 pages
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