Plot by Keith Giffen
Dialogue by J.M. DeMatteis
Art by Howard Porter
Published by DC Comics
I’ve been patiently waiting for months for this book to release. When it was first announced I was so intrigued by what I thought it was going to be that I immediately went to my LCS and asked them to order it for me. While we’re not given a ton to go on plot-wise, what I CAN gather is that we have an android version (or clone?) of the Justice League from our present time, created by The Wonder Twins to battle a group only know as The Five, and restore balance to the universe. Not unlike our current Justice League at the start of the New 52, these guys don’t get along AT ALL. Somewhere in the regeneration process they lost the important pieces of their pasts that made them the heroes we know them to be.
As excited as I was for this series, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed with the first issue. Not to say that it was bad, because it wasn’t. It was just really confusing and even after reading an entire issue; I’m not totally sure what’s going on still. Giffen and DeMatteis definitely have their work cut out for them in explaining what’s really going on in the year 3000, but I have total faith in them to do so. I will say though, I love that they’re bringing in elements from the old Justice League cartoon like Cadmus, an organization built to develop weapons to help fight against heroes should they ever go rogue against us. It will be really interesting to see how the writers of the book plan to deal with such important pieces of each hero’s past missing though. It’s stated in the book that permanent damage could be done to the heroes should The Wonder Twins try to fix it themselves.
The art, as with most DC books, is adequate. I don’t think this issue gave the art team many chances in the action department to really show off what they can do with our ‘new’ batch of heroes so I’ll reserve my final judgment for a few issues. For this issue though, the art comes off as the run-of-the-mill DC book. They use the ‘house style’ that most DC books have, but I didn’t feel like there was much of a personal flare to it that set it apart from the other books DC is publishing.
After issue #1 I still want to see where this series is going and what it’s going to be. I also think that it will read a lot better in one big chunk; either by collecting each issue or just buying the trade when it comes out. I just feel like we’re thrown in the middle of a story that’s already happening, but we’re not being given many answers to what’s going on. I felt slightly less lost towards the end, but still lost nonetheless. I’m going to stick with it in good faith that J.M. DeMatteis will guide this series into the upper echelon of the great titles DC is putting out. For that, I give this issue:
3 out of 5 nerds
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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