Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Whatever they were paying Geoff Johns at D.C. Comics, to be honest it really was not enough. Almost single handed, (when isn’t writing a single handed occupation unless it involves film scripts and American television comedy?) he revitalised, what was in the eyes of many a dying flag ship, the crumbling dust of an empire that had been ground seemingly apart by Marvel’s prodigious output and the emergence of some true independent greats. Whether Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Terminator, Locke & Key or any other superbly written graphic art novel, D.C. seemed to be only holding together in part due to the bankability of its greatest creation, Batman.

Geoff Johns, Aquaman, The New 52, a true mix of intelligent, deferential to the past but giving readers of D.C. Comics hope and a sensational buzz of what was to come on the next page, excellently drawn characters and sympathetic to the abundant history that stalked, sometimes with too much weight, each hero in the D.C. world.

Marvel had done something similar with their 2099 series but arguably there was not that many fans of the comics and graphic novels produced. Not only did Marvel unhinge their history but made the future bleak. In The New 52 series had exactly the reverse effect. In those that may have left the comic powerhouse for more exciting pastures, Aquaman and Justice League, to name but two, strode across the land, knocked down many an imaginative person’s mind and re-introduced themselves with great stories and superb art.

Justice League was no different, the mix of some of the true greats of D.C. plunged together was a potent storm even before The New 52 series took effect. Yet what Geoff Johns pulls together, what stares the reader in the face is someone who actually cares for the task he has been entrusted with and gives each player in the story ample billing. However it is not just the side story of the encroaching love triangle between the two super heroes of Sperman and Wonder Woman and the very human Colonel Trevor, nor the interaction between the arrogant but likeable Green Lantern and Batman, it is the fact that, as the title of volume two suggests, this is a story dedicated to the villain of the piece. Not just a run of the mill villain but a man whose sole, and indeed soul, purpose is to destroy the reputation of the Justice League; not to rule the world, not for gain or the power but to save Humanity from treating the costumed powerful beings as Gods.

It is a premise that has so much going for it, especially as the villain who has taken it upon himself to take down the Justice League was at first the man to give them credibility as a team unit. However, and with the huge underlined overtones of the September 11 attacks on New York, the very air he and his family breathed in on that fateful day when the city was attacked contained dust that would eventually have severe implications on their health.

The sad dejection facing the team that they were in part responsible for what happened to him, for his mind being turned in such a way that his only option was turn to a darker path shows quite brilliantly that evil isn’t necessarily inherent, it can come down to how life and circumstances has affected the psyche of a person.

With excellent artwork by Jim Lee and Scott Williams, Justice League: The Villain’s Journey is compulsive reading.

Justice League Volume 2: The Villain’s Journey is available to purchase from World’s Apart, Liverpool

Ian D. Hall