Comic Review: Justice League #7

Justice League #7

DC Comics

Writer: Scott Snyder

Artist: Jim Cheung

‘Good…’

Well here we are at the end of Scott Snyder’s first arc on this new Justice League series, it’s been an eventful ride so far and this issue doesn’t let up. Overall Snyder has done a pretty good job, though he has fallen victim to his usual thing where everything just works out okay. I’ll get back to that later but first I’ll go over the good points first.

Once again the characterisation in this JL series is great; every character feels like a good fit on both teams and I’ll always have a soft spot for the League members comparing their Batman impressions before agreeing that Clark’s is the best.

It’s also incredibly satisfying to watch Hawkgirl absolutely merk Lex Luthor, as he deals with being wrong about the Totality. I feel this is something that will play on his mind going forward; he gave up being a hero because of what he saw with the Totality and thus he hadn’t doubted the decision. But if he’s wrong about one thing, what’s to stop him from being wrong about the rest? And so on until he either goes super bad or goes well again. Bets are now open for which will occur.

Like I said in my review of the previous issue, Black Manta & Cheetah’s relatively small roles seem set to change as Aquaman & Wonder Woman literally say as much. Rather than try to fit everyone into the issue at once, the cast seems to revolve into the spotlight as the story demands it, with Superman and the Joker especially lacking in this issue after being prevalent in the previous ones.

Also, this issue ends with a surprise appearance from an older DC character, but I wouldn’t want to spoil it for any Justice Society fans out there.
Other than by telling you it involves the Justice Society, obviously.

Like I say for every issue, I love Jim Cheung’s art for this series. The slightly chunky character designs go great with Mark Morales’ colours and it’s just a great fit with the action. Hawkgirl’s fight with Lex Luthor is a showcase for how good this art team is.

‘…and Bad’

It’s not all brilliant in this issue, however, with the plot resolution being a little too convenient for my liking. It might just be me but I don’t like when everyone on the team bands together with the power of friendship and saves the day by believing in being a good person. It just feels like a bit of a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card for writers, given that it’s so abstract you can apply it to anything. (isn’t this basically how Metal ended?).

Also, the Earth becoming a White Lantern went absolutely nowhere, and that took me by surprise. I was really expecting that to be a bigger thing but it seemed to just be an excuse to charge the League’s Friendship-ray or whatever the explanation was. I guess we’ll just see what happens in case this comes up again later, you can’t just drop something like that in your story like it’s no big deal. (right?)

I know I’m being a bit negative here so I will say that I like the Flash’s bit, where he prevailed over his fear at what he saw in the Totality and chose to stay on the good path, unlike both Lex Luthor and Vandal Savage. I’m not gonna go into a whole ‘what makes a hero’ discussion here but it’s clearly the point that Snyder is making. It’s definitely possible that Lex will have another face turn (and probably another heel turn) by the time this series gets too much further.

‘What do we know of it at this moment?’

To conclude, this new JL series has been a blast so far even if Snyder didn’t stick the landing as well as I’d hope he would. It is big, exciting action at it’s best and I’m hoping that it ties into Justice League Dark and Justice League Odyssey, even if only thematically. If he brings some of the other characters into the spotlight then all the better, we’ve seen enough Batman & Superman for a lifetime. Bring on Black Manta cutting hands off everyone in the Justice League.