Next up in Ricky Church’s Countdown to Justice League is Alex Ross, Jim Krueger and Doug Braithwaite’s Justice…
Though the Justice League is known for primarily seven members, it actually grows much larger as time goes on with many heroes of the DC Universe becoming members of the League. Other heroes involved are Green Arrow, Black Canary, Shazam (formerly known as Captain Marvel), Zatanna and many others. The Alex Ross, Jim Krueger and Doug Braithwaite maxi-series Justice features nearly all of the Justice League fighting against their evil counterpart, the Legion of Doom, in a story that has some incredible artwork and is more than worthy of fans’ collections.
The series is a battle between good and evil, but it also delves into a philosophical battle between the League and the Legion, asking the question: is the League actually holding humanity back? Lex Luthor and Brainiac get many of DC’s biggest villains together after they each share a vision of the world coming to an end with a worldwide nuclear attack and witness the Justice League powerless to save it. They then launch an unprecedented attack on the League while asking the world why they only combat crime and not use their abilities to solve homelessness, hunger and diseases, accusing the League of settling for the status quo so they can simply remain all-powerful.
It’s an interesting philosophical question they ask, one that opens some of the villains up to a new point of view while others (ie most of them) simply take advantage of the opportunity to take down the League. Luthor is written brilliantly throughout the series, showing a combination of ambition that makes him want to help the human race while also serving himself more than anyone else. Brainiac, however, is portrayed fairly terrifying here, showing a casual indifference to the genocide he’s planning or slicing open someone’s head. The two play off well against each other.
Of course, though the real stars of the show are the members of the Justice League. What’s great about this story is that it opens the doors for so many of DC’s lesser known heroes, or “emergency members”, to step forward. There’s a real sense of history to this as characters from all over the DCU pop up either in quick cameos or supporting roles. Even the Doom Patrol and the Metal Men show up while Joker only has a handful of appearances, yet still manages to screw everything up for everyone.
Justice is also heavily inspired by the Silver Age of DC comics, which was much more the Super Friends than the Justice League, yet Ross, Krueger and Braithwaite updated them to a modern-day setting and characterization. This really works well, especially for the tone of the story, but it also honours the long history of the characters and what they mean to readers.
I mentioned it before, but Alex Ross’ artwork is absolutely the best thing about Justice. His sketches and paintings are incredibly detailed and realistic. Superman for one always looks great in Ross’ hands, but there’s a lot of imagery with the Man of Steel in this story that is quite memorable. Brainiac is as scary as he is because of Ross’ ability to convey the coldness of the villain. It also helps that there are several cool splash pages in the story and even in the big action scenes, most especially the climax, there are so many nuanced and subtle elements going on in the background of the panels that its worth it to re-read just to take a closer look at the artwork.
While Justice features a much larger roster than the upcoming Justice League, it is a celebration of everything the League and its heroes stand for while delivering a great, serious story that asks some intriguing questions on the nature of heroism. Newcomers can pick this book up fairly easily and don’t need to have that much knowledge of DC’s universe and other heroes (though that certainly helps too) while longtime fans will enjoy the various Easter eggs and seeing characters who are often pushed to the sidelines have very big roles. Justice is definitely a must read.
Ricky Church
