Justice League #30
DC Comics
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Jorge Jiminez
This is it, the Justice Doom War! According to writer Scott Snyder, this story is what his entire run has been building towards since the beginning. Which would make this story feel special if he didn’t say that for literally every story since Dark Knights: Metal. In fact, it would help if this story felt in any way different from any of his past stories. Justice League #30 promises to be the start to a new story, but I can’t help but feel like I’ve read this all before.
This entire issue is basically one giant speech from Starman. The first half is a recap of what’s been going on in the rest of this run. Which I don’t mind because even if you’ve read every issue up until this point, Snyder does little to ensure you know what’s going on. And the second half is Starman explaining the League’s plan to stop the Legion of Doom. And their plan is to travel to the past and present to stop the Legion of Doom. Wait a minute…that sounds oddly familiar to the recent arc in the Sixth Dimension.
In fact, almost every story in this run takes places in some alternate time or space. In this arc the Justice League is going back in time, in the Sixth Dimension they traveled to…well, I’m sure you can guess, and in Escape From Hawkworld, the League traveled to Thanagar Prime. In fact, I don’t think the Justice League has actually been on Earth since “Drowned Earth”.
Every story in this run feels incredibly similar. It starts with the League trying something impossible (with a mission debrief from Starman) and ends with the Legion of Doom getting slowly closer to their plan. While I love the idea of one over-arching story, every arc in this run feels incredibly linear. And it doesn’t help that I have no idea how any of these cosmic plot-devices work. The rules for the League and the Legion are not clearly defined, so nothing feels like it has much weight or consequence.
And on the topic of the Legion, let’s take a minute to talk about Lex Luthor. Scott Snyder’s Lex Luthor is so far from any interesting version of the character, which is beautifully represented by his new human/martain form. If you are going to use a character who specifically talks about how unlike Lex Luthor he is, why use Lex Luthor? Perpetua robbed Lex of any and all agency in this story, making him feel like a Steppenwolf to Darkseid instead of a Darth Vader to Palpatine.
The biggest saving grace of this story is Jorge Jimenez’ art. Jimenez really gets to shine in this issue, penciling about every hero and villain in the DC Universe. A lot of his panels really set the mood and scope of this story. Easily my favorite panel in this issue is the flash-forward of Perpetua’s arming storming the Hall of Justice. But there’s also a surprise appearance of Francis Manapul’s art at the end of the issue. Manapul only gets one page in the issue, but it might be the best in the whole book (and this is coming from a huge Jimenez fan).
Although this issue does a decent job of setting up the Justice Doom War arc, I can’t help but have low expectations. Every single issue of Justice League has felt the same for some time now. Unless Snyder has some huge surprises in store, I’m not sure this next arc will be anything to write home about. But by itself, Justice League #30 is a decent start to a hopefully climactic and suspenseful arc.
