Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
All it takes is one person to turn everything you thought you understood about the world of comic art and graphic novels upside down, shake the stupidity of pre-conception out of your head and spank you with your rolled up, tattered copy of reasons why company is better than the other.
Just as Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez with their Locke and Key series has more than proved, the world of D.C. Comics has vastly improved since they restructured their super hero series in the New 52 and in Geoff Johns, who must be credited with bringing Arthur Curry/Aquaman to the very forefront on the D.C. Universe, especially after many years of being considered one of the very lightweight comics to have seen the light of day, now brings that extra something to the D.N.A. of the Justice League.
From the opening panels of Volume One, Origin, the D.C. equivalent to Marvel’s long-running Avengers series is a luxurious affair, rich in its story-telling, mindful of the complex nature of each character’s particular long standing history and fan’s thoughts on each one. Now though they have finally captured something that the artists and writers at Marvel seemed to have concluded long ago that teamwork, the multi-layering of different facets, both in the world of the superhero and in the real world of cut throat marketing and ideas is one that needs to be pulled in the same direction lest the whole endeavour fail miserably.
A huge ensemble cast, much like in big budget films, needs a careful hand on the tiller and in Geoff Johns, the captain of this particular strip is up there with the legendary Bob Kane, creator of Batman for his effortless way of getting behind the costume and into the mind-set of each hero and the public’s attention to them.
Origins brings together the old established favourites of D.C.’s past look at hero co-operation from the title Justice League of America, Superman, Batman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Aquaman and teams them up with new hero Victor Stone, A.K.A. Cyborg. This fellowship of the green ring, if the Green Lantern had his way, is forced together, in the good old fashioned narrative way to destroy a common enemy that is attacking the Earth. What makes the story fascinating from the start is the very subtle dropping of the word America from the title in the new version.
This is certainly a great boon to the ideal of collaboration, the underwater king of Atlantis, a hero from Krypton, a new breed of cybernetic hero, a man who can run faster than anything else on the planet, an Amazonian warrior princess, a Human with the superpowers of an alien race and a man whose intelligence and undoubted bravery goes hand in hand for his reckless way of taking down criminals; they aren’t just American or make America their home, they could be from anywhere and that is the point. Rather than being a symbol of liberal American values and critically showcasing the United States as a dominant world superpower for which it belonged in the 1960’s through to the present day, it takes the story to heart of the people, it is not a bandwagon for right-wing extremists to show their idealistic nonsense that America is right because of its might. It shows that Humanity, pulling together, can overcome any adversity that is thrown at it.
With splendid art work supplied by Jim Lee and Scott Williams, Justice League is a terrific departure from the so called Silver Age of comic artistry. Alongside the crop of writers and artists that have come to the fore since the 1990s Jack Kirby, Bob Kane, the undoubted King of them all Stan Lee have now got so many new and exciting disciples that perhaps Gold and Silver Age of comics becomes an irreverence.
Justice League: Volume One, Origin is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.
Ian D. Hall