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.