That Alligator Won’t Stop Staring

Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato

Flash is one of those guys I’ve never had a huge attachment to, but love the idea and vibes of his rogues gallery, and in general I think he’s got a strong theme and potential. The collective criminals he clashes with always held my attention better, but maybe this issue will turn things around. Mind you I have previously read bits and pieces of this run previously, but never this inaugural issue, so let’s get things moving.

The scene is the Central City Tech Symposium, where Barry Allen and his friend/date Patty are in attendance because… well, it’s never really stated as to why they’re there other than it’s where they decided to go on their date, I guess. It isn’t long before Barry’s train autism gets the better of him and soon he’s enamored with a model Monorail that runs on a proposed renewable green energy. Soon he and Patty get wrapped up in conversation with a Doctor Elias, who has a very sinister haircut indeed. The monorail is a passion project of his, and for a few panels the trio talk about “the law of congestion”, which has no real relevance in the rest of the issue, but is so specific it must come up again in a later one.

Anyways, GOONS burst through the glass ceiling and fire sleeping gasses into the crowd. Time for The Flash to race into action!

I just like the way Barry’s costume warps around him here. Manapul’s artwork and Buccelleto’s colors in this book are gorgeous, I love this painterly style, and they’re the only creative duo in the New 52 that I’ve looked at so far who have actually used the medium of comics in a way that suits the storytelling capability of comics.

Case in point, look at this. This is how you utilize the strengths of comic book pacing and time, this is so good. I could write the entire review about how smart and refreshing this page is compared to every other New 52 No1 I’ve looked at in totality, but I digress.

The Flash summarily beats the goons, who retreat in a helicopter, leaving one of their own behind who Barry throws through a building window to prevent him being smashed on the sidewalk below. Barry vibrates through the city street but the intensity of the vibration causes the street to be destroyed anyways. It’s a fun sequence of an early hero still working out their abilities, even if it doesn’t read as well as it could.

Remember that guy Barry heaved through that window on his trip down? Well, he didn’t make it. After returning a “portable genome decoder” to Dr Elias that had been stolen by The Goons, Barry goes to do his real job as a forensic scientist on the very body of the man he tried to save. You kind of just have to assume Barry’s job title is forensic scientist based on your pre-existing knowledge of who The Flash is because they don’t ever actually say it here expressly. To make matters stranger…

The armed mercenary is none other than an old friend of Barry’s, who we learn a little about in flashback, but not enough to make Manuel engaging as a person. The crime scene team are ambushed by determined reporter Iris West, whose advances to learn “the truth” are rebuffed by Barry. We get introduced to Barry’s crime lab team at the precinct, but don’t learn much about them either outside of a few names.

Singh’s got a good vibe, I vaguely remember him being a major player later. Is that blonde girl Patty? Who even is Patty? Who’s to say. I’m also embarrassed to admit it took me a few read throughs to even clock Barry was in the scene, he’s just so inconsequential to this sequence.

Barry reminisces on Manuel and the last few days on a rooftop in a page that’s not compositionally impressive but beautifully colored all the same. Much to his relief, he did not kill Manuel, who died mysteriously unrelated to being smashed through plate glass. Flash asks to borrow Elias’s definitely not evil MacGuffin Genome Decoder device.

Cannot stress enough how much I like the art in this book.

Barry spends the evening trying to work out the mystery in yet another well composited page that very nicely captures the simultaneous impatience and monotony of research while avoiding Iris’s calls.

As he’s doing his detective work, a hooded figure creeps in, revealing himself to be none other than, who could have guessed it, Manuel, alive and (man)well. Manuel’s on the run from mysterious plainclothes assailants, and before you know it, he and Barry are hot-footing it through the city streets with their pursuers close behind. Barry takes an opportunity to “clumsily” fall into the river and let The Flash emerge in his place.

The Flash catches up with Manuel only to discover:

MANYuel!

It’s a decent enough set up, there are definitely more than a few strings to pull here, and you get a decent scope of Barry and the immediate people in his life, even if all of them are relatively light on characterization, particularly Manuel, who despite the whole issue hinging on, never really presents himself as likable, interesting or worth investigating the death of outside of being Barry’s “friend.” I am not at all intrigued by the mystery of Manuel.

In relation to this, characters like Iris don’t really have much to say or do, and not enough of this version of the Flash is different enough from any other version. It hardly feels like a reboot, you could say this is just a continuation of any previous Flash run and you could probably justify it. Maybe even if there was a simple change like Iris being Barry’s coworker in the forensics department instead of Patty, that could go a ways to making this feel like a fresh new era with different ideas for the Scarlet Speedster.

It is a solid issue though, if nothing else the art alone is enough to keep coming back.

7/10.

Would I read more of this? I might revisit the Reverse Flash arc that I read years ago, and maybe see how weird the New 52 Rogues are, but I don’t know if I’d read it consecutively from here.

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Deep in the Amazon rainforest, The Zat's most snaggle-toothed nemesis has trapped The Zat and their beleaguered companions in his most fiendish trap yet, a bio-dome filled to the brim with prehistoric monsters: The Valley of Hellicoprion! Will Zat and co. escape to steal another day? Or will they become extinct? Only time will tell…

Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chaing

Azzarello’s always been a hard sell for me. I find most of his work irredeemably grimy, unpleasant in an un-fun way, and oftentimes more than a little racist. Wonder Woman has a long, hard, beleaguered history of being written by the wrong person, oftentimes a male writer with no perspective on womanhood or compassion (sometimes they’re even ex-CIA). Combine that with the idea of The New 52’s generally more warmongering take on Diana that ranges from bloodlusting warrior to sexy womanchild, and I was more than a little trepidatious about approaching this book.

That said, it was… fine. Surfacely, it has more or less what you expect from a Wonder Woman book; gods, monsters, and the seeds of sisterhood, but there’s a vacuousness here that never quite shows signs of being filled. Let’s get into it.

We kick off in Singapore, where Apollo, god of the sun, hosts threee young ladies whom he promptly murders by throwing them off the skyscraper they’re partying on and using their bodies to channel the Fates. There’s two instances of murder as a form of summoning in this book, which, while an interesting concept, this is the least interesting of the two. I do kind of like Apollo’s design here, the gods we see in this book do at least have a unique look that sets them apart from the mere mortals. Though later Apollo pops this skin off to go full Human Torch and that is decidedly less interesting.

“I guess you could say I’m the sun of a king” is cute wordplay, I’ll give you that, Brian. What I got hung up on in this sequence is Apollo’s claim that he and the girls are on “the tallest building in the world”. And while they may be on the tallest building in Singapore (which circa 2011 would be Republic Plaza), the Burj Khalifa would have been completed in 2009, so either Azzarello or Apollo’s got his facts wrong here.

Anyways, Apollo has summoned the fates to tell him a prophecy that one of Zeus’s unborn children will slay a member of Zeus and Apollo’s family and usher in some sort of Grecian Ragnarok. It would be nice to think Apollo’s learning this to altruistically help his family, but he did murder those three girls, so probably not.

Said unborn child is currently riding shotgun to his mother, Zola, who we’re introduced to on a farm of some kind. Is it her farm? Her family’s? No idea, all we know is she’s camped out there in her underwear (classy, guys) with her rifle and her wing-ankled buddy Hermes.

Who’s doing his damndest to convince her she’s in trouble. I also quite like this Hermes design. Very birdy, with his extremely birdy feet and inexplicable WWI trench warfare helmet. I know the situation is weird, girl, but if a seven foot bird-man appears in your house to tell you assassins are on their way, maybe listen.

Said assassins soon shoot Hermes in the gut with a comically large arrow and burst their horsey selves through the door:

As far as centaurs go, these guys are kinda cool. This is the second instance of summoning via death we see in this book, as the centaurs attacking Zola were born of horses in the nearby stable who had their heads scythed off in an unnecessarily detailed scene, by a mysterious woman (clearly Hera) draped in a peacock feather cloak. I do like this parallel to Pegasus being born Medusa’s severed head, I just don’t know if we had to see it happen on panel. At the last second, Hermes hurls Zola a key that teleports her to London, conventinely into the bedroom of a sleeping Diana, who’s implied nudity almost feels contractual somehow.

I’m always torn on this fit. I think it’s just the lack of gold that steers me away, the full silver doesn’t feel as regal, and the stars on the bodice don’t do enough to break up the carapace lines. I kind of appreciate that the choker almost reflects her bondage roots, but you know that wasn’t the intent.

Diana agrees to help Zola and follow the key back to Hermes, who’s bleeding out (red blood for some reason and not golden Ichor) rapidly. Diana agrees to help Zola because _______. She never really gives a reason, she’s just altruistic I guess. That’s kind of the biggest problem with this issue, is as an introductory issue, it doesn’t tell us a single thing about Wonder Woman as a character, she simply is, and does things simply because she is the protagonist. She’s caring and dangerous, I guess that’s all you need to know.

Seeing her do this never gets old.

Diana battles the centaur assassins, brutally chopping the female one’s arm off and pushing the male one off-panel where I guess he experiences shame, and together the two gallop away. Diana tends to Hermes, who with his dying words reveals the obvious if you’ve been paying attention: Zola is pregnant with a powerful baby.

Apollo casts the ignited remains of his improvisational muses from Singapore’s tallest tower and the issue hits us with the ever vigilant cliffhanger.

As far as action packed openings go, this is fine. It has the decency to drop you foot-first into the action, but not the courtesy to really endear you to either of its primary characters. I really don’t like the brutality of New 52 Wonder Woman, casually lopping off arms or stabbing Darkseid in the eye in Justice League, while being a warrior is a key part of her character, so is compassion and only going as far as she needs to during a physical conflict. Giving her a sword feels like an uncreative out to solving violent problems tactically.

The idea of Apollo and Hera as sort of counter-antagonists with Diana swept up in the middle is interesting, but it doesn’t really set up any agency for her off the bat. I’m sure that will build once you get to the issue her revised backstory is revealed in though, given the forces at play in both her N52 origin, and this current story. As it is, this issue feels like the second or third in an already established storyline, and while the hook is decent enough, it doesn’t do quite enough to keep that hook embedded.

Maybe I should be reading issue zeroes instead. Oh well.

5/10. Would I read more of this one? Doubtful.

Next up: THE FLASH!

Satan Descends Upon Earth - Gustave Doré, 1866

The Deluge - Gustave Doré, 1866

The Giant Antaeus Lowering Dante and Virgil - Gustave Doré 1868

The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun - William Blake, 1803

By Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis

Look, Aquaman has always been cool.

I’m not sure where the “Aquaman sucks” psyop began, if it’s a product of his rather toothless incarnation on Superfriends, or fallout from modern dull-witted comedies like Robot Chicken or Big Bang Theory, but it’s always had no real basis in fact.

I was a little worried this was going to veer too hard in the opposite direction and overcorrect like they did in the 90’s during Hook Hand Aquaman days; Aquaman rules, he’s cool as hell and you’re and idiot for thinking he’s dumb, and while there’s a certain level of that here, it’s not Jason Momoa egregious. I actually quite like how Johns portrays him as really just kind of a regular guy, but let’s get into the bulk of the issue.

As far as I know, The Trench is a concept introduced in this run, and honestly? Fish monster men from deep in the bottom crevices of the darkest ocean? Pretty cool. I’m not sure they’ll be “the most talked about new characters in the DC Universe” as advertised in the New 52 preview catalogue, but still cool.

The Trench dwellers are hungry, they’re spooky, and they just learned there’s a whole surface to explore and devour. As creepy and gulper-eel-like as they are, I can’t help but laugh imagining them reaching the upper pressures of the ocean and popping like Blobfish. Deep sea creatures don’t fare well in shallow and surface waters, their bodies are too pressurized. In reality Aquaman just has to wait for this problem to solve itself.

Meanwhile, he’s got land problems to solve: namely vague robberies by vague robbers!

This scene’s pretty fun honestly, I like the idea of his suit and skin being tough enough to mostly deflect bullets, due to having pressurized Atleantean skin or something. Despite putting on a good display and just trying his best to help (he heard the sirens from the harbor of Unnamed City), the cops still make fun of him before and after he leaves.

That’s honestly my biggest gripe with the issue, is a lot of it feels like expository damage control. Most of the regular people around him vocally air their misconceptions about him that have been parroted over the years (talks to fish, needs to be in water, etc.) in a sort of strawman way, and we haven’t even gotten to the diner yet. It makes me wonder how all these misconceptions about him proliferated so fast in-universe when superheroes have only existed publically for about five years (probably Fox News).

How’s that trident attached to his back? Aquamagnets?

Aquaman stops for lunch at a seafood restaurant, which is cute. Like I said, Johns really goes out of his way to establish that Arthur, despite bearing the responsibility of kingship and domain over Atlantis all the ocean, is still kind of just some guy, and this restaurant was a favorite of he and his (implied late) father’s growing up. Unfortunately he’s then set upon by more strawmen, who take issue with his lunch order:

I’m surprised he doesn’t talk about the complexities of the ocean food chain, that’ll shut that nerd up. A blogger invites himself to interview poor Aquaman at his table and drag more exposition from him, inferring that most people don’t believe Atlantis exists? Which in real life makes sense, but people live there in the DCU, it’s real. This also includes my favorite exchange in the book, how does Aquaman make any money:

Love the idea that in his spare time, he’s just reading old pirate maps and tracking down doubloons. For how long is that a sustainable model? I have no idea but it got a laugh out of me. Arthur’s got a dry wit throughout the book which I really enjoy. Less enjoyable is this blogger’s attitude, as the interview turns sour and he has the nerve to ask what it’s like as “nobody’s favorite superhero.”

Rightfully, Artie takes off, but not before leaving some doubloons for his waitress to put her kid through college. I’m not sure what the value of two unspecified doubloons is, but it’s a nice gesture.

Which leads to my favorite overall sequence of the book, in which Aquaman reminisces about his father, and likens his protection of the ocean to his father, a lighthouse keeper, and his protection of sailors, before Mera joins him and bids him to join her back in their undersea home. Aquaman falters at this, he doesn’t want to rule Atlantis, he doesn’t feel he’ll ever be accepted as one of the Atlanteans, he just wants a quiet life with Mera. It’s such a gently written sequence, I was pretty surprised.

Offshore, some fishermen attempt to haul in a catch when one of them is pulled overboard and devoured by a Trench denizen-

Revealing it’s a whole school of the pointy toothed buggers. To be continued!

While nothing revolutionary, I actually really enjoyed this one for what it was. A solid introduction and re-aligning of Aquaman’s character and abilities, and a neat spooky threat for him to contend with. The only thing it could really use is a little more depth for Arthur and Mera overall, but I’m sure that will kick in during later issues.

8/10

Will I read more of this? Maybe the first complete arc or so!

By Jurgens, Lopresti, and Ryan

It feels hard not to compare this to the other mainline Justice League title (which I reviewed previously), just given the nature of them both being JL books. But before I get ahead of myself, let’s break down the premise here. It’s a simple one: the UN, in the growing infancy of superheroes, jealous of the fact they can’t have the regular Justice League under their thumb, assembles a team of heroes whose identities are public knowledge with the intention of them serving the world at large.

They’re assembled together by this man:

Andre Briggs, who I was disappointed to learn was Not Jackson King, aka Battalion. For as “integrated” as DC wanted Wildstorm to be in this blossoming universe, it’s amazing they didn’t have more Wildstorm characters fill more roles. Placing King here, as a precursor to him joining Stormwatch and one day becoming Weatherman, feels like it writes itself. King himself hasn’t had a canon appearance since the New 52 reboot, but I digress significantly.

Anyways, Briggs has a list of potential supers, whom he presents to “The UN Global Security Group” which evidently consists of… three people. A delegate from China, Russia, and The UK. There’s no way in hell America wouldnt barge itself into that meeting and you know it. After some deliberation, the council sign off on a team:

And how do control a team of largely amicable, friendly, and altruistic super powered individuals?

Throw them under the bus if anything goes wrong I guess. Seems like a bad plan to me. Actually, it sounds like an Amanda Waller plan… seriously though, this just seems unnecessary, none of these people (okay, maybe Guy) really run the chance of going completely rogue, a “failsafe” to keep them “in line” just feels paranoid.

As for the team itself, It’s a lineup that consists of mostly familiar faces, some returning cast members from the infamous Kieth Giffen JLI, new recruits Vixen, as well as General August in Iron and Godiva, the latter of which I’d never heard of before. It’s evident from the get-go this isn’t the fun-loving, hijinks heavy crew of Giffen’s day even if a few key players are here.

Something I will say I appreciate about this first issue is that the team are assembled right away. No need to laboriously add each member to the roster “naturally”, they’re summoned, and they arrive. The problem here is more that you don’t really get a read on who any of them are save for Guy Gardner, who establishes that he is indeed the same bull-headed Guy he’s always been. Booster Gold, the assigned leader, doesn’t have a trace of the personality you might associate with Booster, no showmanship, no charisma, just a stoic, novice leadership role. It’s a problem endemic to every character here, not only do you not really get a read on their personalities, but unless you’re familiar with them already, at no point is it evident what most of them do. Sure, Fire and Ice are pretty self explanatory, but I had to look up what Godiva’s whole deal was, and I’d have never guessed “prehensile hair”. But when you’re balancing this many members, I get how it might be hard to make any one of them shine at first.

Once the crew’s assembled, Batman also shows up to help boost sales make a connection to the major League and provide a little guidance for the team’s first mission investigating a series of disappearing surveyance research teams. Turns out those teams are being dragged underground by…

Whatever these are! After a bit of a dust up, the JLI send the big rock candy monsters packing and soon find themselves face to face wth a Signal Man, which appears to be some sort of large subterranean robot.

Now there’s two plot points I’ve yet to really get into, the first of which is a facet of the team dynamic. Rocket Red (Gavril, not Dimitri), a walking grab bag of various Russian stereotypes, confides in Booster that he can’t work with General August In Iron because Russians are “taught never to trust china” and only relents because Booster tells him that in the future, China and Russia will be great allies.

Great allies… like they were in 2011 when the book came out? China and Russia have been pretty solid for a long time and only strengthened their allyship in the 2010’s. Maybe in the DC Universe they’re sworn enemies? But from a historical standpoint, this is a bizarre statement.

The other subplot running through the book is that Jackson King Andre Briggs has commandeered The Hall of Justice for the JLI’s new headquarters, and this so enrages the general public that protests are launched, and two guys, one of whom is a veteran evidently, plant a bomb at the Hall and blow it up.

The protestors argue that the Hall is public property, that it’s a “symbol of the people”, but at no point does anyone stop to explain why or how or what the Hall even is. Is this the real-world Cincinnati Union Terminal and museum they’ve taken over? What is the in-universe significance of this building to the general public? We’re never given a single inkling in these pages, just that people are MAD that various foreign and domestic superheroes have set up shop there. I’d only hope this is elaborated on further, because as it is, it’s a meandering, strawman conflict that doesn’t add much but confusion.

All in all not a bad setup, but it doesn’t quite have the fast paced readability of Justice League # 1 and it’s pretty lacking in immediately compelling characters. It definitely feels like a book that would build well over time though. Unfortunately it only got 12 issues and an annual.

6/10. Would I read this series further? Probably not, if only because the team’s first mission just isn’t very compelling.

Some recent pages from THE ZAT: THE VALLEY OF HELLICOPRION, the most recent Zat issue

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“It really is the ultimate book.” - Jim Lee

On free comic book day way back in like 2010 I was given a little preview catalogue for all the New 52 titles that were dropping the following year. As I was new to comics and pretty unfamiliar with the pre-52 DC Universe, I thought they looked pretty cool, but I didn’t end up reading most (or any) of them, instead going back to the past and reading mostly pre-2010’s DC, which I’ve become pretty familiar with.

Now, I know the New 52’s reputation, and much of it’s probably deserved, but curiosity is a cruel thing, so I thought maybe it would be fun to crack open that catalogue and read each Number One as if it’s fresh, many of which I’d be doing so for the first time anyways. Without the stigma towards the reboot, largely ignoring what I know about The Before Times, let’s see what these No 1’s have to offer (and let’s see how long I stick with this premise). I’ll be going in the order the catalogue presents them, which is broken up by themed sections:

JUSTICE LEAGUE, SUPERMAN, BATMAN, GREEN LANTERN, THE DARK, THE EDGE and YOUNG JUSTICE. Notice how none of these are WONDER WOMAN or anything truly female-centric. More on that later.

So let’s start with the flagship, JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 by Geoff Johns, Jim Lee, and Scott Williams, which Debuted on August 31st, 2011.

Also I’ll be drawing the covers of each of these for fun.

The premise of this issue is simple; before any plot is expanded upon, we gotta build the team. Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Cyborg will make up the final crew, and how many of those characters are we introduced to? Four. Batman, who heads up the story, GL, Pre-Cyborged Cyborg, and Superman. I think, right off the bat (no pun intended), this issue’s biggest problem is it’s absolutely anemic pacing, but we’ll get to that.

The initial plot itself is nothing to really write home about. Batman is chasing what appears to be one of Darkseid’s Parademons across the Gotham rooftops while a SWAT team chases him in helicopters.

Green Lantern intercepts him, (and just kind of casually crashes this helicopters into populated areas? This is never remarked upon again) and the two begin to investigate this mysterious, monstrous visitor, determining that it’s alien in origins and do a lot of unfunny bickering along the way. The dialogue here feels very Whedon-esque and I say that derisively. Which is ironic seeing as Joss would go on to bungle his way through some abysmal re-shoots for a movie based on this specific story arc. There’s also this bit where Batman just casually swipes Hal’s ring. Five years in and Bat-god is already in full effect. It feels conceptually a little insulting to all ten Green Lantern fans out there, and raises questions about the stability of a weaponized ring that only stays on a finger via “concentration”, but it is pretty funny.

Batman also spends a noticeable amount of time just insulting Hals’ intelligence for no real reason. Again, very Whedon-esque to just bicker and insult each other after meeting. Everyone is twelve.

A transformer? Like Optimus Prime Transformer? New 52 Hal Jordan would love the Michael Bay movies tbh.

Somehow, I guess cause Hal’s kind of a racist, (typical Bayformer fan trait) they decide to go confer with Superman, not because he’s any particular expert on aliens, but because he himself *is* an alien, and they could be connected. I guess.

It’s worth noting this is the first time any of these characters are encountering each other. Public super-heroics have only been reported on for the past five years, and apparently in that time none of those superheroes have thought to hang out or get lunch. Batman, until this point, seems to have been in full urban legend mode, with Lantern not even realizing that Batman is a real guy. Time moves fast when you’re punching space bugs or killer clowns. This was one of the big criticisms of the relaunch, but on paper I don’t mind it. The problem is going to be when I get into the larger universe and it begins to dawn just how impossibly dense in events the last five years have been.

Hal and Bruce, on their way to Metropolis, pass over a football game where Vic Stone, soon to be Cyborg, is a star player suffering from twee “my dad never comes to my games because he’s doing Science” syndrome. At least Vic’s in this issue. It’s a strange change moving him from The Titans, where he’s traditionally a member, to the JL, but as someone with little Titans familiarity, I don’t mind it too much. Adding a tech-based black character to an otherwise white, “traditionally” powered team does a lot to balance it out.

That said, if I hadn’t actually read this issue, I’d have never known he was on the team if I were to just go off the catalogue alone, cause Vic got Mike Wazowski’d:

Catalogue image to the left, final cover to the right. Besides the obvious coloring/background gradient changes (plus Wonder Woman has PANTS!), Cyborg gets entirely obscured by the completely unnecessary addition of a double-page spread of Batman swan-diving that’s so small you can’t even see Lee’s insane pencil work. There’s also not a single named female character with a speaking role in this entire book. Discrimination Comics strikes again.

Anyways, Bruce and Hal make it to Metropolis where Superman proceeds to just beat up Green lantern. I know scrappy, upstart Superman was a staple of the New 52 era, and I’m going to reserve judgement on this incarnation until I get to his starring books. For now though, in a vacuum, it just feels very out of character.

And that’s it! That’s the whole issue!

Also this Superman fit is DIRE.

I can barely determine if this is a good read or a bad read, because it barely feels like a read. The In Media Res opening leaves a lot of questions, and the writing and characterization are so light You hardly get a sense of anything aside from seeing just how badly someone can ink Lee’s pencils.

The biggest failing of this first issue: The economy of pages wasted. This is a 24 page book, where we’re introduced to four of the seven main cast and are given no clue as to what the stakes or enemies are aside from being alien. I can’t help but think of Claremont’s X-Men, and how deftly he can weave a complete single story, character pathos, subplots, and a cliffhanger ending that actually pays off in only 17 pages. As it stands, Justice League #1 feels like its wasting its own space, too dedicated to delivering singular moments than anything actually compelling or using its characters to build. I genuinely think you could have introduced the entire League in this issue and not ruined the pacing, it just takes a defter, more controlled hand than Geoff’s.

Truly written for the trade. 6/10.

Would I read more of this series? I might read the completed arc, but I know I wouldn’t be satisfied by it, and I wouldn’t read beyond that.

Next up: JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL!

Leaping Laelaps (Dryptosaurus)

From Abysm of Ages

The Zat has had many enemies over the years, but none so tenacious, so adversarial, or so zealous as THE TAZ!

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Megalosaurus lurks

Megalosaurus strikes!

Megalosaurus confronted