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Justice League United #2
DC Comics, $3.99, 32 pages
Released: June 11, 2014
Story Grade: C+
Issue Score: 65.00*
BARELY RECOMMENDED
"Justice League Canada, Part 3 of 5"
(22 pages / 91 panels / 2,263 words / 14:15 read time)
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Penciller: Mike McKone
Inkers: Mike McKone, Dexter Vines, and Cam Smith
Colorist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Eddie Berganza
In my review of All-New Invaders #6, I mentioned how I had dropped that title from the pull list at my local comics shop, but intended to seek out future issues because it ended up being pretty good. I similarly dropped Justice League United a while back and this is my last pre-orderd issue. However, unlike the reprieve granted to the Invaders, I won't be going out of my way to buy future issues of this book, at least not until back issues start showing up in the $1 bins.
Previously, I had joked about how what was Justice League Canada, then became Justice League United, really ought to be titled Justice League Random, based on the member line-up. That feeling is underscored in this issue when Supergirl shows up on Rann just because she happened to be flying around "halfway across the galaxy" on a happy little jaunt through space, which, by the way, strikes me as a very Silver Age thing for a Supergirl to do. And besides, isn't she currently a Red Lantern?
For the balance of this issue, the team really could be called Justice League Stands-Around-and-Talks-a-Lot. There's a brief bit of chatter to start with, done for comic effect, and then a brief battle with an unnamed monster, which gets sad later in the book when we discover it's really an aborted clone-baby. Most of the book is then given over to medium-depth, mid-level shots of Sardath explaining the aborted clone-baby project and JLUers standing around debating what to do about it. Given that we have two double-page spreads and one full-page splash, there's not a lot of room for much else, other than Hawkman and Lobo kicking each other around and, frankly, I've completely forgotten why they're doing that. Not really being brought up to speed on that subplot this issue, those pages do little to capture my attention. Also, I hate Lobo. And Hawkman just confounds me as I can never figure out which version I'm dealing with.
I also have to say I was disappointed in the subplot involving our new Indian heroine, Miiyahbin. Or First Nations hero, if we're being politically correct. There's a fairly exciting two page prologue of her and a friend uncovering the secret Rannian base from which the JLU was zeta-beamed last issue. Then a monster, presumably another aborted clone-baby, attacks, and Miiyahbin disappears. But after racing the gun across the mantle and making it go poof, Lemire, in stark violation of Chekhov's rule about guns and mantles, never addresses Miiyahbin again.
Now, her story arc may read better when these issues are eventually collected into a trade paperback, but what we get of her here makes for a pretty dismal reading experience under the covers of this one issue. At the very least, she should have popped up on Rann (I presume her disappearance was due to a zeta-beam) in the very last panel just as everything is going ka-blooey. As it is, no story element introduced is resolved, or even explored. All we really get is heroes standing around talking about the stuff that happens in the middle.
I should also mention that Lemire doesn't seem to get how Encyclopedia Galactica captions work. They are supposed to introduce a setting as if drawn from entries in something similar to the Encyclopedia Britannica. They are not you-are-here notations from the Randy McNally.
Now, I will say the whole multi-clone thing that is the New 52 Ultra the Multi-Alien is pretty neat, but it really makes no sense for the alliance of alien planets to have gone to all that the trouble to build a secret base in the Canadian wilderness just for the purpose of collecting some DNA from non-member Earth. After all, your corner cop can grab a DNA sample with a two-second swab, you'd think Sardath and his pals could've got hold of some with far less trouble.
So, we've got a flimsy reason for bringing random heroes together and once gathered what we get isn't that great. Really, it just seems as if DC has no idea what it wants to do with its Justice League franchise, and this book is proof of that. For my money, I'd prefer to see a Justice League of cosmic-level heroes led by Superman, and a Justice Society of street-level heroes led by Batman, with an annual team-up.
Until then, or until something better comes along, I'm out of this book. It's too bad. I'm really digging Lemire's work on Green Arrow, and McKone is a solid, dependable artist. This book really ought to be a lot better than it is.
Oh, one final aside, as long as I'm in bitch mode — I absolutely HATE the packaging on DC's books. The pages are so glossy they're all but impossible to read under any light source, and you need to literally wear gloves not to leave fingerprints in the darker inks of the card stock covers.
*[COVER: 7.50 — PLOT: 6.50 — SCRIPT: 7.25 — LAYOUT: 7.75 — ARTWORK: 8.25 — EDITING: 5.0 — COLORS/PRODUCTION: 6.0 — DOLLAR VALUE: 5.50 — COLLECTIBILITY: 5.25 —GOSH-WOW FACTOR: 6.0]
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