Comic Review: New Super-Man and The Justice League of China #24

New Super-Man and The Justice League of China #24

DC Comics

Writer:  Gene Luen Yang

Artist: Brent Peeples

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

New Super-Man has been a favorite ongoing of mine for a while now, just because it feels like a fresh spin on the Justice League mythos and offers a genuinely different offering with its focus on spirituality. Even though the series is coming to an end with issue #24, it ends on a good note that helps bring the whole series to a close in a (mostly) satisfying way.

I’ll start by getting my biggest gripe out of the way, and it’s just that it feels that this isn’t the end until we actually get to the end. This story should have been two issues at least or could have spread to a longer arc as well. The idea itself is a good one, and it makes sense for Gene Luen Yang to leave this until now but it still feels like there are some pages missing in the middle here.

Essentially, Kenan pledges to rescue Master I-Ching from the realm of ghosts but instead ends up taking both himself and his team there instead. Whoops. Whilst the rest of the team face off against the evil ‘future’ versions of themselves, Kenan meets his own. This version of Kenan claims to have abandoned the ‘noisy, stinking masses’ and thus has become the ‘Perfect Man’. By embracing both yin and yang, future Kenan has become Radical-Centrism-Man and promptly has Kenan drowning in his own fears before a little deus ex machina magic occurs and I-Ching appears to save the day.

Balance is Key

After kicking future Kenan’s ass, and having him admit that his abandonment of humanity was to avoid being hurt, he turns to regular Kenan and tells him to ‘let go of the goodness that can never be’ and ‘embrace the goodness that is’. It’s an admirable sentiment and a good conclusion for the story, as Kenan fully embraces that his real family may be disappointing but his family in the Justice League of China are more than enough. Once again, my only real issue is that this feels like it should have occurred after another issue or so, so that the readers could consider Kenan’s situation and his future in a deeper manner. But hey, time constraints get us all I guess.

Also worth pointing out is that Brent Peeples’ art is as outstanding as ever. His drawing of the realm of ghosts, in particular, is atmospheric without being so dark that it drowns out the action, and the dark version of the JLC are distinct enough without being different for the sake of it. I’m hoping that his career at DC continues, I could definitely see him working on something like a Titans book or Batgirl.

All things considered, this wasn’t the perfect ending to New Super-Man that I was hoping for, but that’s down to editorial more than anything Gene did. That being said, it was still a great conclusion to the themes that this series has been talking about, and it even sneaks in a great little Justice League reference from the New 52.

Here’s hoping that this isn’t the last we see of the Justice League of China.