Other then music, no other medium has made a deeper impression on me than comics. But the superhero style comics represented by DC Comics have never been a part of that. It just has never clicked with me. The long history and back-stories of these styles of comics has made it even harder to get into.
Therefore, the recent DC comic reboot is ideal for readers like me. “Justice League” #1, one of the recently renewed comics by DC, balances action and character development in a way that provides excitement without feeling soulless.
The comic opens with Batman chasing an unknown villain while the police are chasing him, since they consider him and all superheroes, dangerous. When the villain has him at the end of his rope, The Green Lantern saves him by plowing a huge fire truck created by his scientific ring into the villain. This is how Batman and The Green Lantern meet.
That glowing fire truck is the perfect way to introduce The Green Lantern. His cocky, flashy attitude is my favorite thing about the issue. His swaggering overconfidence put a smile on my face and his various quips made me laugh.
Batman is not impressed with Lantern’s theatrics. Every conversation is thick with tension and their back and forth is what keeps the action from seeming meaningless. It is the thing that gives this first issue character. It’s this tension that provides the entertainment and it’s what made the story interesting.
Without the conflict and humorous dialogue the action would have been a bit too overwhelming and would have seemed meaningless. It was smart to focus the story on the two characters instead of trying to introduce too many characters at once. When I have tried to read other superhero comics, I would find my eyes getting tired, the explosions and bright colors just seemed to blend together. Reading “Justice League” #1, I now know I need something other then the action to keep me reading.
That is not to say that the issue does not have action. Nearly all the conversations between Lantern and Batman happen while they are fighting someone or someone is fighting them.
These action scenes get the job done. They are drawn well and fun to look at. My eyes didn’t get tired like often do. Like with the story, this comes from the decision of keeping things fairly simple.
The plot of the story smartly leaves much of the details of characters outside Lantern and Batman a mystery; the villain and other characters are introduced without a lot of direct information, but with more of an impression. It makes me want to find out whom these characters really are.
This element of mystery combined with the already established The Green Lantern and Batman relationship make “Justice League” a series I want to continue reading.