Justice League Dark #27
DC Comics
Writer: Ram V
Artist: Amancay Nahuelpan
The league continues to battle the Upside-Down Man after his seemingly murdering John Constantine the last issue. I’ll say it right here. This issue rocked. The next issue will likely be the end of this series. An issue twenty-nine is planned as a tie-in to the “Endless Winter” event DC is starting. This issue and the next one really need to tie up the story James Tynion started in 2018. We got a good start to that here.
Ram has written an action-packed issue for us. The numerous league members go all-out in their own unique ways to battle the Upside-Down Man. Some of their methods harken back to previous storylines going back to the start of the series. We even get to see some fan-favorite heroes and villains return to help the league against their foe. On its own, this could’ve been a brilliant finale to this series of Justice League Dark. There’s a twist ending here though that dives right into the horror aspects that have made the series so enjoyable. That ending sets up one last chapter of this story perfectly and left me desperate for the next issue.
The art by Nahuelpan continues to look amazing. As I’d said, this is an issue that’s very heavy on action. This leads to a lot of downright beautiful splash pages throughout the book. Swamp Thing and Wonder Woman’s parts in this battle look particularly amazing. The returning characters get the absolutely stunning treatment they deserve and the final image of the issue is appropriately creepy. Nahuelpan has done great work on this series before but this is just a showcase of his brilliant artwork.
The lettering is handled well too. I always get a kick out of seeing the orange speech bubbles for Swamp Thing’s dialogue. Same for the gold outlines around the words of Dr. Fate. Wonder Woman also has some unique speech bubbles as she communicates across dimensions with one of the returning characters. They do a good job of emphasising power Diana holds over this character. She almost seems like a god in comparison due to it. The showstealer is definitely Constantine though. His monologue tearing down the Upside-Down Man in the first pages of the book is brilliant. You can tell he’s mortally wounded. The shape of the speech bubbles highlights that but it makes his words feel even more powerful. There’s also some nice use of the character-specific narrative boxes.
In summary, this was blooming incredible. An action-packed issue that’s so good that it feels like the finale. This is a magic-themed book though so naturally there’s got to be a twist to set up an encore. We get the usual realistic artstyle from Nahuelpan. I’d say this is some of the best work he’s done on the series. He does a phenomenal job across every page. I loved this issue and I think anyone who’s been following this series will too. Definitely worth reading.
Justice League Dark #27
The story of this is fairly simple. The league have been fighting this villain for the past couple of issues. Now the Upside-Down Man has slain one of their own and now they're each pulling out all the stops to end this threat. The story sounds simple but it's incredibly well-written with references to events that occurred back at the start of this series. It is action heavy but it's surprisingly well-written, especially the ending. The art from Nahuelpan has been consistently great and he's been given the opportunity to go all out here. The issue looks stunning from beginning to end and the lettering isn't as creative as some past issues in the series but it's pretty good too. This issue was just so satisfying as a long-term reader of the series and I highly recommend it to others who have been following Justice League Dark.
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