The naming conventions that DC Comics has almost requires a masters in mathematics to understand or make sense of. While I don’t read every book that comes across my desk, I do my best to keep up-to-date with what I can and DC is the one publisher that drives me crazy with its amount of title confusion. Justice League United #2, or Justice League Canada Part 3 of 5 (or Young Justice season 3, come on DC make it happen) picks up with our heroes mysteriously teleported to a foreign world.
Once again we get some excellent writing from Jeff Lemire building upon the good-natured ribbing between characters. Green Arrow and Animal Man have the bulk of the back and forth and Lemire manages to capture each characters mannerism. The more I read Justice League United, the more I wouldn’t mind seeing Animal Man and Green Arrow team up as a duo. These two characters take so many jabs at each other in the most humorous of ways that reading the book is a pure joy.
The art works well with the colors of Mike McKone being the real stand-out this issue. While I enjoy the way this book is done, I do have a few grips that I just can’t seem to let go. This is only book two and we again see some panels repeat art, not over the course of a few pages, but three panels in a row of the exact same artwork. When you are pushing justice League title, even if it’s not the big one, you shouldn’t be having to resort to copy/pasting panels.
Our story does a good job of flowing and introduces us to a few new plot points that will no count play a larger role in the upcoming story. We find out that the team has been transported to the planet Rann, with Adam Strange now in full gear, and we also see Supergirl mysteriously show up as well. It would seem that the DC Universe is much smaller than one would expect. Along with this we again are seeing the side-story involving Hawkman and Lobo. The less of this new Lobo I see the better.
They also manage to explain away how Hawkman fixed the arm that he had severed in the last issue. One would figure that an injury like that would sideline someone for at least a day, maybe two, but he seems to be just fine thanks to the magical Nth metal. I’m no Hawkman expert, but if it can regrow limbs in seconds then I want some of that metal.
Justice League United #2 moves along the plot in a way that satisfies the reader, but don’t expect to see a whole lot of action. What we get is more an in-between issue that serves to set up something grander. Hawkman and Lobo get the least amount of pages, but offer the most action if that’s what you’re interested in. New readers are going to be all sorts of confused with this one, but if you’ve invested in the series so far you are going to be pleased.
About Author
