[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Writer: Bryan Hitch
Artists: Jesus Merino, Andy Owens & Adriano Lucas
Summary
The Justice League is forced to confront their fears and anxieties because of a strange entity.
Positives
The cover by Tony S. Daniel and Sandu Florea is a cool image. I like the way the characters are placed and how the space used. It also looks like they might be on the Watchtower which is a nice touch. I like displaying the conflict between the League even if most of the fights featured don’t occur in the book.
The interior art features pencils by Jesus Merino with inks by Andy Owens and colors by Adriano Lucas. It is really nice art. Lucas’ colors, in particular, are wonderful. I especially love a panel in which Wonder Woman and Aquaman are pulling a broken ship. There is a lot of great imagery like that throughout the book.
I love the concept of this issue. Forcing the League to confront their own anxieties is interesting. And I like that it stems from Jessica who is the character that actually suffers from an anxiety disorder. Most of the characters have a unique fear that the issue deals with differently. I like that some of the issues are internal such as Batman’s guilt, some have to do with other members of the League such as Superman’s frustration with Batman and some have to do with society such as Wonder Woman’s distrust of the government.
I like the ending quite a bit. It is stated that there will be consequences for the actions taken in the issue and I am curious to see how the League deals with what happens in this issue.
Negatives
The issue is over written and way too self-analytical. There is absolutely way too much dialogue telling the audience what is going on. The creature has a narration throughout that never shuts up. And it’s telling us things that we already know. It’s unnecessary and makes it feel like I am being talked down to. The result is that it feels more like a thesis paper on these characters than a story where they feel like real people.
Aquaman and Wonder Woman kind of have the same fear. There really isn’t a distinction. The two are pretty much the same character which is strange because everyone else is fairly well characterized.
Verdict
The issue has a lot of good ideas and some nice scenes but is ultimately too analytical without being enough of a story first. It feels more like a term paper on the Justice League. However, the art is strong and I do like what Bryan Hitch is setting up. I recommend waiting for the trade on this one.
