The Justice League

The New 52 Justice League: this book sets the course of the journey. I would say Vol.1 is the quintessential superhero team formation story. However, it's not that it's written will or has cracking art, but that it, err. . . it was actually written well and has cracking art, ignore me, I have a propensity for bullsh*t. 

I'm in my forties live these books. My excuse is that I see graphic novels as mindless easy reading fun. This first Justice League book is exactly that: fun! Following my reading order, the next book is Barry Allen's flashpoint story arc which created this universe; he returns home at the end of the book and his costume and his memories begin to change too. It was clever how he is absorbed into the new 52 version. In my forties!

The dialogue in origins, vol.1, crackles with energy and wit. I always say we get better action in print—it keeps your eyes on the page. Writers took risks and pushed boundaries, creating epic story arcs whilst teasing out personality. The opposite of Zack Snyder's DC films. 

DC died an embarrassing death on the big screen. From the Suicide Squad featuring that unforgivable Leto Joker, and the Batman vs Superman excuse—what went wrong? At one point, Wonder woman propped it all up, until her sequal was ruined, but it's okay; we have television shows, like Flash, where writers butchered flashpoint. Then there was that Flash movie, where writers butchered flashpoint. There are DC cartoon movies like the Flash 'Flashpoint' film, where writers butchered flashpoint. Did you like the way I did that? Maybe the original 'Starwars Trilogy' should be remastered again? 

New 52 is a masterpiece, and an exciting new dimension by DC to re-invent all of its characters! I really hope they don't reintroduce underwear on the outside of the trousers again! In Origin, we see a brand new Superman, Batman, Wonder woman, Lantern, Cyborg, Aquaman and Flash. You can see its influence on the Justice League film, but better.

Despite having a new and edgier version of the Justice League, with more modern personalities, back stories, costumes, it wasn't perfect. Superman was a bit of an a**e, which is. . . cool, I guess, ignore me! It took a while for readers to warm to him but, he has his place. Lantern didn't live up to his brilliant Blackest Day era and Lobo was a disaster! Yeah, not perfect. 

An unexpected delight was the "Throne of Atlantis" arc, which is about our 'surface' world's military attack on the sea Kingdom of Atlantis. I personally don't buy into Atlantis, but still, it was world-building and character developing. We see more than one side of Aquaman and his inherited bondage to the complex politics of Atlantis. It's not all brainless easy reading! 

There are real standout storylines such as 'Trinity War' and the grand 'Darkseid War' which is the natural conclusion to vol. 1, Origin. Darkseid is great, the planet is vicious and vibrant with torture and sadism. This is when I found myself in the full swing of DC comicry. The story made a rich but reasonably priced omnibus, bursting with threat. Threat for the characters. Who feels threatened while reading comics? Look at that grim b*****d!

So, looking back, the biggest success of the New 52 Justice League was how it managed to stay true to the core values of the Justice League while still pushing the envelope. In addition, the characters were flawed and brought qualities, but they always came together to fight for what was right—that's the superhero genre, isn't it? Now, there's an animated version of Origin, called War, which, err, well. . . it was sh*t. That's just my opinion. 

DC breathed new life into their universe and completely changed! I love this kind of madness. The Justice League did benefit from some of the best writing throughout the entire collection; it had to, though, didn't it? New 52 Justice League certainly paved the way for a new era of Justice League in the rebith series, it didn't really lead anywhere—dropped the ball.