Justice League Dark #16
DC Comics
Writer: James Tynion IV
Artist: Alvaro Martinez, Brad Anderson & Raul Fernandez
If I was to ask you to recommend a great, ongoing horror comic then how would you respond? Immortal Hulk, right? I think most comic fans would right now. Justice League Dark or JLD hasn’t gained the same notoriety as the Green Goliath but not for lack of quality. I was skeptical of the series at first too. The team of Wonder Woman, Zatanna, Man-Bat, Swamp Thing and Detective Chimp battling magical threats didn’t seem that enticing. I was wrong.
Since its debut, JLD has provided a stunning tale of sorcery with a constant sense of dread in the background. In these last few issues though it’s been starting to feel like Tynion is building towards a finale. We’ve seen Circe as this lingering threat since she helped the team early on and now that ignorance is coming back to bite them. In the past couple of issues and the annual, we’ve watched her build up her own Injustice League consisting of Solomon Grundy, Brother Voodoo, Witch-Boy, and the Floronic Man. In this latest issue, they finally go to war against their heroic counterparts and it gets gruesome.
This is an action-heavy issue, despite this, I really have to praise Tynion’s writing on this issue. We’re in the middle of an ongoing story arc and he still manages to work in a flashback to make this book more accessible without it feeling forced. The action is brilliant but I think the best part of this issue is the dialogue. I love how Diana’s compassion and Circe’s greed and cruelty are captured and highlighted through it. It’s an incredible contrast between them that really defines why they’re arch-enemies. One other aspect of it is how terrifyingly sadistic Circe comes across due to her dialogue here. A lot of people just know her as that woman who made Batman sing in a JLU episode so this kind of writing makes it far easier to see her on the same level as the Joker or Luthor.
The artwork has been consistently amazing since the series started too. We’ve had Alvaro Martinez on pencils that entire time who’s going for a detailed, realistic look that’ll delight fans of his time on Detective comics. Alongside this, we have the brilliant Raul Fernandez on inks, who really does a fantastic job here. One of my favorite panels here is on a page where Circe has just explained her masterplan to Diana. It’s good on its own but the inkwork around Diana’s eyes as she realizes how mad Circe has become really fills the scene with emotion. It looks like she’s about to cry and completely sells the love that Wonder woman has for her “sister”. That’s without even mentioning the great work done on characters like Constantine or Man-Bat.
The colors deserve notice too. Throughout this series, the tone has been pretty dark and the colours have matched that perfectly. In this particular issue, a nice touch was how the backgrounds of scenes set within the collective unconscious are intentionally duller compared to the more colourful characters interacting within it. It really helps highlight those characters and make them seem more important to the reader.
Overall this was a fantastic issue and it’ll be great to see how this story goes into future issues. I think it might actually break my heart a little when this series eventually ends. Definitely give it a try if you haven’t already.
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Justice League Dark #16
This is a really good book. If you're a horror fan in particular then this issue has some Resident Evil-style stuff that you'll love. There's a couple of characters that could've done with a drop more time and a new reader might still find it hard to get into despite the flashback but I really heavily recommend this issue and the series as a whole.
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