Justice League Dark Annual #1 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Mikel Janin (art), Ulises Arreola (colors)

The Story: You got swords—three of them!—and you got sorcery.  That’s some legit fantasy.

The Review: I’d never have thought this series could get an annual of its own.  Generally, you associate annuals with already established bestsellers that the publisher can try to exploit even more sales out of.  But as I noted in Action Comics Annual #1, DC has taken a different route with these kinds of issues post-relaunch.  Now that they have more importance and purpose, the annual can be an invaluable tool to close big storylines in a splashy way.

Ultimately, I’m not quite as enthused about the way this arc ended as I thought I’d be, but there’s no denying that Lemire delivers a fairly spectacular conclusion to the search for the Books of Magic.  On paper, it’s everything you want it to be: a big group of DC’s most prominent occult figures, facing off against fire trolls and wood spirits and evil sorcerers, in the most sacred land of the DCU, all to retrieve the very sources of mystic power.  What’s not to like?

Justice League Dark #13 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Mikel Janin (pencils), Victor Drujiniu (inks), Ulises Arreola (colors)

The Story: Anyone know of good insurance for a magical house located in outer space-time?

The Review: Besides the sheer lameness of a name like “Justice League Dark,” I mostly dislike the title because I feel the Justice League operates in such vastly different world than its Dark counterpart that sharing a brand doesn’t make sense—particularly if no one recognizes it.  Still, the title does give you the idea that where magical threats are concerned, we’re dealing with some League-scale villains, which requires League-class heroes.

Certainly the potential for a major showdown between the mystic forces of good and evil is there.  The introduction of big ideas (the Houses of Mystery and Secrets, the Black Room, the Books of Magic) and big names in DC’s occult universe (Felix Faust, Dr. Mist, Timothy Hunter, and Dr. Occult) is evidence that Lemire wants to write that epic.  At the moment, though, he hasn’t quite put all these elements to the best work possible.

Justice League Dark #12 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Mikel Janin (art), Ulises Arreola (colors)

The Story: John Constantine mulls on the difficulties of having a magical love life.

The Review: When DC first announced the relaunch, the folks in charge promised it didn’t mean a complete reset of the universe or, to put it more clearly, it didn’t mean every piece of continuity and tradition of the last 70+ years would be abandoned.  Some things would be preserved as needed.  And granted, a few creators have kept up that promise, albeit mostly with things that already sell.  No need to rock the boat or fix what ain’t broken and all that.

Thus far, only a couple writers have gone out of his way to preserve the lesser-known, obscure bits of DC canon, and none more so than Lemire.  He has done more than his part to save all the great supernatural and occult stories for a new generation, but he doesn’t do so intrusively.  At no point does he indulge in excesses of nostalgia or force readers to dig through back issues to figure out what he’s talking about.  He makes every bit of new info clear and accessible.

Justice League Dark #11 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Mikel Janín (art), Ulises Arreola (colors)

The Story: Everyone knows the best part of a magical quest is the loot.

The Review: It’s been a while since my last lecture on magic in fiction, but now that this title has started to get its mystic cred again with Lemire on board, the time seems ripe to talk about it once more.  To start, let’s discuss Harry Potter.  A major part of that series’ appeal is its finite, highly constructed, almost scientific approach to its magic.  Spells must be done in a certain way, have limited effects, and bear enough resemblance to real world physics for us to understand.

But J.K. Rowling had the luxury of establishing all the magical laws of her story-world herself.  The sprawling universe of a major comic book publisher is a whole different deal, with each writer and artist having their own ideas for how things should and shouldn’t work.  But DC has a grand opportunity here, with its relaunch, to set some clear stakes for future writers to work with, even if those stakes are only tenuously propped up and stretch far and wide.

Justice League Dark #10 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Mikel Janín (art), Ulises Arreola (colors)

The Story: Dear Lord—you never leave John Constantine alone with an unopened box!

The Review: It seems a tad unfair to harp on the deficiencies of Peter Milligan’s writing on this title, which feels not unlike beating a dead horse, but reading this issue made me realize just how monotonously, well, dark his run was.  It started out on a low note, and each month things only got progressively grimmer until you felt mired in it.  After a certain point, too, it just got to be dull; indifference kicked in as a coping mechanism and all that darkness slid off your back.

Lemire brings an entirely different tone to his JLD.  Though largely contentious and pessimistic, the team doesn’t wallow in negativity, and their unusual lifestyles offer grounds for some oddball humor.  Case in point: N’aall, the House of Mystery’s demon caretaker, who, “due to a rather embarrassing set of circumstances I don’t care to relive,” must serve Constantine in a butler’s outfit, including old-timey eyeglasses and vest.  You can almost hear the British accent he had to affect per his master’s whims.

Justice League Dark #9 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Mikel Janín (art), Ulises Arreola (colors)

The Story: Once again, we learn that only horrible things happen in the jungle.

The Review: Considering the excitement I had when this series first launched, it felt almost painful when I ultimately decided to drop it.  Not to rehash old grievances, but the series at the time lacked focus, plain and simple.  Most of the cast had little to nothing to do, and the plot often wandered erratically.  Peter Milligan seemed so focused on fulfilling some abstract conception of “darkness” that he neglected character work and story development entirely.

While Lemire has been slightly overshadowed by his brother-in-arms at DC, Scott Snyder, no one can deny he is just as responsible for the new creative life coursing through the publisher’s veins at the moment.  From both Animal Man and Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E., we know he never lets tone or theme dictate the substance of his stories.  He builds his characters and plot first, and eventually, overarching motifs reveal themselves, giving the series unity.