Justice League Dark 23
Jeff Lemire, Mikel Janin
Trinity War Crossover
Spoiler alert! You have been warned!
With the Trinity War raging (or, more accurately, inching) toward its no doubt exciting conclusion, writer Jeff Lemire has proven yet again that he just doesn’t quite have what it takes to be considered one of the big dogs at DC. The likes of Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi, Scott Lobdell, Brian Azzarello, Kyle Higgins, and Scott Snyder are simply not even close to being on the same level as Lemire. He’s an okay writer in that he does a decent job constructing strange worlds and awkward situations for D-listers, but he’s definitely out of his league when it comes to, well, the Justice League. All three Justice Leagues, to be precise.
The artwork is stunning, but even that can’t save the poorly-paced plot of this issue. We get a whole bunch of the same stuff we already know, essentially recapping the events of the first several parts, yet again, just in case you missed them. Again. Then we get some repetitive Madame Xanadu narration, heroes VS Wonder Woman (and then heroes VS Shazam!) fight sequences, with Lex Luthor heckling just to be a jerk, some Amanda Waller finger-pointing blame fest action, and then something that actually advances the plot, albeit in the last few pages of the issue, when Constantine shows up, steals Pandora’s box, and then is transported (along with Zatanna, who is oddly kind of uncharacteristically badass this whole issue) to where Xanadu is narrating and being held by the Secret Society. We then learn, on the final page, that something sinister is going to happen. Well, duh.
Again, this is far from a bad issue. It’s just a little disappointing due to its lack of progressing the story along or really telling anything new in terms of the characters we all know and love. I’m excited but somewhat skeptical of how this is all going to tie up nicely (AKA how it’s going to lead into the whole “Forever Evil” line-wide event and Villains Month). I’m sure Geoff Johns knows what he’s doing, but it would have been nice if he had a little less confidence in his friend Jeff Lemire on this particular event. Especially if they were going to co-write Justice League of America (which went drastically downhill these last two issues in terms of this reader’s interest level) and raise the price of the Justice League title (this one) that really served no purpose even before Lemire came on board. All in all, this issue got us to where we needed to be. I just wish it had been a dollar cheaper and two months sooner.
My Rating: 3/5
