Comic Review: Justice League Dark #24

Justice League Dark #24

DC Comics

Writer: Ram V

Artist: Amancay Nahuelpan

It’s time. Ever since James Tynion started this wonderful series we’ve seen it build to a confrontation with the Upside-Down Man. Now, the Justice League Dark is finally confronting the monster that’s been lurking behind the scenes all this time. This is something I’ve been waiting forever since this villain was first introduced. Now Ram V is giving us this story so let’s see how the first chapter turns out.

The story itself is fairly simple. Zatanna has become convinced that she can resurrect her deceased father, Giovanni Zatara, by going to “The Other Place”. This is the dimension where the Upside-Down Man resides. In order to do this Zatanna has been gathering materials for a spell that’ll transport her there. At the same time, the rest of the team is dealing with the fallout of the previous storyline. Constantine has left the team and Wonder Woman has been left doubting her leadership skills while Swamp Thing travels America. Meanwhile, Man-Bat is finally recovered from his injuries and Khalid is adjusting to being the new Dr. Fate. In other words, each member of the team has their own little source of drama keeping them busy.

Most of this issue is told from the perspective of Detective Chimp. He’s the only one who knows what’s going on with every other team member. As a result, he’s trying to pull the Justice League Dark back together. I’ve enjoyed Chimp throughout this run so it was nice getting an issue that focused so heavily on him. I’ve worried that since Ram took over this book he may not live up to Tynion’s work on this series. This is his first issue since the annual where he’s had sole credit as the writer and things look good. Ram really seems to get these characters and his handling of them throughout the issue is spot-on. The previous storyline had its ups and downs but this ranks with the best of Justice League Dark. His writing of Zatanna was especially great here. Any doubts I had are just gone after this.

The artwork by Nahuelpan is terrific. There are so many little details used in his work that just add so much to the book. I mentioned that Khalid is still having issues with the idea of being the new Dr. Fate. There’s a set of pages in here where the helmet is off and he’s discussing this with Kent Nelson. In one of the panels, you can see the reflection of the two in the helmet. Little things like that which a lot of artists might not even think of. Then there’s how well he shows the emotions of these characters in their body language and facial expressions. It’s just stunning work.

The lettering is done to an extremely high quality throughout the issue as well. There are two narrators throughout this issue. Giovanni Zatara introduces the issue and Detective Chimp covers the rest. They both have different narration boxes to separate the two though. Zatara is a light yellow with red text while Chimp is in gold with white text. It’s a very nice touch. Then there’s the Zatanna dialogue. I don’t want to go into spoilers too much but she visits a bar during the story. At this point, different speech bubbles are used to signify that Zatanna is drunk. It’s just one more thing that adds to the visual storytelling of this issue and helps flesh out the character. Really lovely work.

All in all, this was a great start to what may be the final storyline of this series. If it is the end and Justice League Dark continues like this then it’s going out with a bang. This was an amazing issue. The art was just delectable and there’s a fantastic use of lettering throughout. It’s also really easy to understand. There’s nothing hugely complex here so this is a decent jumping-on point for new readers. I loved this issue and I think if you’ve been following this series or you’re new and just like a bit of magic in your comics then you should grab a copy. You won’t regret it.