Justice League Dark #18

DC Comics

Writer: James Tynion IV

Art: Alvaro Martinez, Raul Fernandez

I love James Tynion’s work. In the last decade he’s proven himself a fantastic writer with an ability to reliably crank out high-quality comics. His run on Justice league dark in particular has been incredible so far to the point that it’s become my favourite ongoing series. I’m a fan is what I’m saying and that’s probably come across in past reviews of this series. As a reviewer though I have to try my best to be impartial. Every comic writer has a bad issue every now and then and I believe that this is one.

Issue 18 starts off where the last issue finished. The Justice league dark (JLD) are on the defensive after the Injustice league dark (ILD) attack. Circe has stolen the body of Wonder woman and left Diana’s mind trapped in the collective unconsciousness at the mercy of the Upside-down man. In the meantime the JLD have retreated to a vault full of magical artifacts underneath the hall of justice.

Sadly, despite how meaty that synopsis may sound this issue manages to be fairly dull. There’s a bit of action but the issue is mostly just characters talking about what they plan to do. This would be fine if there was some dramatic focus on any of these actions but there isn’t. We see Circe making her plans, Zatanna and Constantine planning to use the artifacts in the vault, Wonder woman trying to make a deal with the Upside-down man and Khalid Nassour planning to become Doctor Fate. It’s a lot and I don’t feel like any of these situations got enough time to truly develop. It’s a shame since the desperate measures the JLD are going for all sound interesting at face value, the execution is just poor. Despite loving this storyline so far I’m not sure whether Tynion will be able to write this into a satisfactory ending.

The issue isn’t all bad though. I don’t want to give that impression. It’s serviceable. The dialogue is serviceable, although I didn’t feel the same emotion from the characters as I did in previous issues. The art by Martinez is also just as amazing as always. It really is just a case of there being too much squeezed in for a 23 page comic to handle. I’d recommend reading issue 18 of Justice league dark. It’s not awful or anything. Just be aware that it’s a weak point in what I would otherwise call Tynion’s magnus opus.