With knowledge comes power; yet with Lex it seems that with knowledge comes an undying thirst for all the knowledge of the universe, leading to all the power of said universe. His current crop of cronies has failed to exact his plan, so who else do you turn to in a time of crisis.  With all those failures, Lex turns to a Batman, who as you would expect has his own agenda.
James Tynion IV, who has been killing it over on Justice League Dark, is called upon to kick off the next arc of the Totality story line, further dragging the heroes, piece by piece into a final play somewhere down the line. In doing so, he pulls into action another forgotten hero whose powers are required by Lex. Amid the interesting conversations between The Batman Who Laughs and Lex,which takes up the majority of the book, there are a couple of startling actions. Tynion, and Scott Snyder before him, have managed to deliver a book that is reminiscent of the darkness vibe of the Justice maxi series from a few years back.
The art in this issue is from Bat artist Mikel Janin, who over the last year has been involved in the big Bat story adding a huge amount of emotion into the marriage that wasn’t. It’s always surprising how an artist that is so great with one character, sometimes fails to hit the high notes on others. Janin’s strengths are the emotional beats of a story and the fluid action pieces. This issue doesn’t really have a lot of either which kind of feels like Janin is left floundering a little. The action scenes that are on show somehow lack the pop of Janin’s Bat work. Jeromy Cox provides the colors with a brighter scheme than expected, bearing in mind that there is a level of darkness woven through this whole series. Tom Napolitano provides the letters, imitating a couple of trademark styles that we have seen previously in Dark Metals and the range of one shots that hit the rack a while ago.
The Justice League is one of DC’s top-tier books, especially with the level of talent and the key characters that feature every month. At times, I do feel that the books are written with trades in mind. This series also can feel like setup on top of setup, though with a cast of characters to work with there are minor elements of closure. Moving forward, the Totality and the Source Wall has to come to a head, given as this book seemingly exists without the continuity framework of the core characters own books.
Writing – 4 Stars
Art – 3.5 Stars
Colors – 3 Stars
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Written by; James Tynion IV
Art by; Mikel Janin
Colors by; Jeromy Cox
Letters by; Tom Napolitano
Published by; DC Comics
Author Profile
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I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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