Justice League Dark #5 – Review

By: Peter Milligan (writer), Mikel Janin (artist), Ulises Arreola (colorist)

The Story: Obviously, no one told Enchantress the importance of flossing.

The Review: If you’re going to gather a team of heroes, it seems fairly sensible to give them all something to do in whatever grand conflict you’ve concocted.  I mean, if all it takes is a couple people to solve the problem, why bother with a team at all?  This applies even more when writers use the fictional device of “fate” to bring the group together; if destiny has a part in leading each character to the table, doesn’t it follow that they must have some important role in the matter?

You may find yourself asking these questions a lot as you read through this issue.  I know I did.  Out of the six characters who show up to snap Enchantress out of her funk, only about two of them actually do anything particularly useful—and one of them is Mindwarp, who until this point you had no idea was even part of the team.  It’s baffling why Milligan spent so little time developing Jay Young, yet gives him an active part in the mission while the others dawdle.

What’s the rest of the team doing?  Shade, Zatanna, and Xanadu are too busy working through their personal visions, induced by Enchantress’ uncontrolled magic.  In the end, they never even get close to the witch, so their presence proves absolutely useless.  Deadman is hardly better.  His entire contribution is a failed attempt to possess John Constantine, actually hindering the only person doing anything productive to save the day.

Ultimately, Constantine solves the whole problem pretty much by himself, with zero help from the rest of the “league” (unless you charitably interpret their service as distractions).  This might have worked out fine, but we really don’t get much sense out of how Constantine figures out what’s wrong with June and Enchantress, nor how he sets them to rights again.  Milligan simply lets magic be the answer, which is always arbitrary and never satisfying.

Justice League Dark #4 – Review

By: Peter Milligan (writer), Mikel Janin (artist), Ulises Arreola (colorist)

The Story: Now, now, June, there’s nothing to lose your head about.

The Review: As a reviewer, I try to keep my biases under control when I do these things, or at least make them obvious when I can’t keep them inside anymore.  So I’ll admit it: I really looked forward to this series back when all the new 52 were announced.  It featured a bunch of my favorite characters within one of my favorite genres, and it had a fairly qualified writer and artist on deck to boot.  But now I must confess this series has been a disappointment on a lot of levels.

For while Milligan has been a competent storyteller for this series, dedicated to selling the “dark” part of the title, he has made the plot and tone dull through repetition.  He needs to understand that we get it—Enchantress has gone loco and so is her counterpart, June Moone, and so is just about everyone gathering to confront her.  In fact, I’d give good money simply to never hear the words “crazy,” “insane,” “mad,” or any synonym thereof ever again.  Milligan sprinkles them throughout every issue, and they’ve lost meaning as a result: “Enchantress has gone crazy.”  “A magic that’s stronger and crazier than [Zatanna’s].”  “Oh God, I’ve landed in a madhouse.”

Milligan just needs to learn the wisdom behind “Less is more,” or at least the value of timing.  He’s so eager to convince you of how twisted this story is, he doesn’t seem to realize that subjecting you to so much grimness can only build your resistance to it.  We’ve already seen decayed golem girlfriends come back to life, women getting themselves killed en masse in the street, and a guy who needs a seizure to activate his powers.  Homicidal children feel pretty commonplace after all that.

Justice League Dark #3 – Review

By: Peter Milligan (writer), Mikel Janin (artist), Ulises Arreola (colorist)

The Story: Tantric magic in a cheap hotel?  Have you no self respect?

The Review: It’s disappointing to find Milligan falling into the same problem that hampers a lot of writers in the supernatural genre: failing to establish the mechanics of his world.  Even though magic by its very nature has no limitation, that same quality can make it deadly to fiction.  If a writer doesn’t take care to create some ground rules or explain the whys and wherefores of magical workings, they’ll just seem like they work in any way convenient to the story.

Here’s an example: Zatanna’s backwards magic, which has never been clearly or consistently explained.  You’d think it takes more to work the magic than just picking up a few words by listening to her sleep-talking, but Constantine does just that here.  Not only does this simplify Zee’s powers radically and make it feel less specialized, it also makes little sense.  Why would he need to use her magic to wake her up when he clearly has power of his own?

Milligan misses a few other opportunities to give some much needed explanation.  After two issues of seeing June Moone’s traumatized behavior, you already know very well her bonding to Enchantress was not a mutually beneficial experience.  So it seems a waste of time to have scene after scene of June in hysterics over the idea of going back.  It would’ve been more profitable to give some background on how she got tied up with Enchantress in the first place.

At least then we could avoid the awkward romance springing up between June and Deadman.  Considering the guy basically bozoed his way out of his relationship with Dove, his hitting it off with June in what is apparently Dove’s apartment, moments after she left (and is still M.I.A. since last issue, by the way), seems pretty contemptible.  While he comes across slimy (to June’s kiss, he remarks, “I can feel it.  And it’s beautiful.”), his new flame is just macabre; in the event Enchantress might recapture her, she wants him to kill her so “We’d both be dead…together.”

Flashpoint: Secret Seven #3 – Review

By: Peter Milligan (writer), Fernando Blanco (penciller), Scott Koblish (inker), Brian Buccellato (colorist)

The Story: This wouldn’t be an inappropriate time to bust into Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” right?

The Review: The key to a really great ensemble cast is a broad diversity of characters.  The more far apart in personality and background they are, the richer their interaction becomes.  In superhero comics, you also have to consider their power sets.  Too many redundant abilities, and the range of obstacles they can face drastically narrow.  Most of all, you need a writer who can give each member life and motivations of their own, so they don’t just disappear into the group.

Secret Seven has a great ensemble.  Whereas previous issues dragged from Shade’s ceaseless moans over his questionable sanity, the back-and-forth among the team once Zatanna, Raven, and Mindwarp show up has great pop and crackle.  Interestingly, despite their animosity and suspicion towards Shade (even after he admits he may be responsible for some of their deaths) they demonstrate a kind of sympathy, even loyalty, to him, trying to gauge how far he’s gone.

But once the kid gloves come off, none have any qualms about getting their hands dirty, a sequence made all the more entertaining by their specific range of powers, a mixture of the occult and psyche very much in tune with the spirit of this title.  Zee’s incantations, though put to some dark uses here (“Raet reh trapa!”), seem restrained in contrast to Enchantress’ wild magic, while Raven, Mindwarp, and Shade’s psychic manipulations prove capable of some grim effects.

It’s particularly good to see Shade in action, as we finally get a sense of just what his vest can do: “The M-Vest has used the psychic energy of their anger…to turn their souls into amorphous solids.”  We also see how unsettling his abilities can truly be; his attempt to reanimate the broken Amethyst’s corpse strikes a perfect chord of creepiness (“Hello, Shade.  Hello, June.  I’m twelve years…  I’m twelve years…”), showing why Shade’s grip on reality may have so degraded.

Flashpoint: Secret Seven #2 – Review

By: Peter Milligan (writer), Fernando Blanco (penciller), Scott Koblish (inker), Brian Buccellato (colorist)

The Story: Don’t mess with this guy—he’s cuh-raaazy!

The Review: In fiction, as in real life, you really have to get to know someone before you start caring about them, one way or another.  Either their personality has to be distinctive enough to really stick to you, or you have to learn enough about their lives to appreciate what happens to them.  Anything less, and no matter how interesting their story turns out to be, you lose the emotional weight that really gives it impact.

That’s sort of the problem we run into with Shade and his Secret Seven.  Honestly, there’s a bunch of interesting bits going on here, particularly in watching the rest of the Seven (grown-up Amethyst, thieving Mindwarp, stage magician Abra Kadabra, punk Zatanna, and demonic Raven) get seriously cranked out on Shade’s influence.  Unsurprisingly, none of them are too happy Seven membership includes temporary bursts of psychotic behavior, leading to some fairly serious reorganization choices in the issue.

Plain and simple, we just don’t know enough about what’s going on to be sympathetic to much of it.  Shade’s growing suspicions of his own breakdown should be more affecting, but from the beginning we’re led to believe he’s always been a bit screwy.  Mostly we’re left wondering why no one did anything about it before, especially since the last set of Seven all (minus Shade) killed themselves in the most questionable circumstances.

It’d be helpful if we had a better understanding of how the M-Vest works, exactly.  All this dancing around whether the “M” stands for “meta” or “madness” serves only to irritate, as neither definition does much to inform you on the vest’s powers.  We know from the previous issue that Shade’s vest has evolved beyond its original capacities (whatever they are), but whether that has anything to do with its increasingly disorienting effects remains up in the air.