This is a spoiler-free review.
Justice League Rebirth #1 is written by Bryan Hitch with inks by Daniel Henriques and Scott Hanna and colors by Alex Sinclair.
Summary
A slightly new Justice League must form in the wake of a potential alien invasion.
Positives
The Justice League is pretty much the same as it was in the New 52 but with three new members to replace New 52 Superman and Hal Jordan. These three are Green Lanterns Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz and the pre-Flashpoint Superman. The strange situation with Superman is an intriguing concept. There is a natural question of trust with him. It is hard for the League to deal with him especially since they’re still grieving from the loss of their Superman. And Superman does not know how to interact with them because they’re not the people he knew on his version of Earth. I’m really interested to see where this goes.
Jessica and Simon are the highlight of the book. Hitch writes them with a really natural and fun chemistry. I definitely think they have the best dialogue of the issue and are the source of most of the laughs.
The cover is a cool image and is well drawn. I like that Superman and Batman are in the background while the emphasis is put on the other characters.
Negatives
The villain is fairly generic. It could become something more interesting in future issues but it’s a fairly standard threat so far. As a result, there really isn’t any investment in the Justice League fighting it which takes up most of the issue. I just don’t care about what’s going on yet.
I’m not in love with the art. Some stuff looks interesting but, in general, this style does nothing for me. It’s not bad by any means but it’s not that great either.
Verdict
This issue is just okay. There are some interesting ideas and some good dialogue but most of the issue is taken up by boring action involving a generic bad guy and the art doesn’t make it any more interesting. It could certainly get better but this doesn’t leave much of an impression. I would recommend waiting for the trade on this one.
