Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 stars"Most of them are a danger to themselves. But that doesn't mean they're not a danger to others..."
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 10, 2013
Based on its supernaturally-fueled concept and offbeat characters, JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK was my early dark horse going into DC's New 52. I'm still not sold on DC's whole reshuffling gimmick, but I can't deny that there are some outstanding new titles out there. JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK Vol. 1: IN THE DARK collects the series' first six issues. Peter Milligan writes these six issues and then two more before amscraying. Artist Mikel Janin exhibits greater lasting power. This new series threatens to be the most interesting Justice League iteration since the bwah-ha-ha League. It's certainly the edgiest.
Blame long-lived clairvoyant Madame Xanadu, and then, I guess, pat her on the head (but do that at your own risk). Madame Xanadu's meddling has deprived the Enchantress of her human half, June Moone, and without June's stabilizing presence, the Enchantress has gone bat-guano crazy. Not even the Justice League can stand up to her homicidal rage. I knew I was in good hands when I got to that incredible splash panel in which Superman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg can do nothing but cower under the assault of a swarm of witches' teeth. It dawns on Madame Xanadu that something different is called for, something less cape and tights. She sets out to gather a different kind of team. She may as well have recruited from a trashy daytime talk show. She ends up with the most messed-up sort of meta-people. On the other hand, the Doom Patrol's tagline of "The World's Strangest Heroes" just lost some credibility.
"Most of them are a danger to themselves. But that doesn't mean they're not a danger to others," remarks Madame Xanadu, and that's not exactly the strongest vote of confidence. The tarot-reading psychic ransacks the old Vertigo stable, enlisting to her unofficial team the groady John Constantine, the headstrong, backwards-enchanting Zatanna, the oxygen-challenged ex-acrobat Deadman, the unstable Shade the Changing Man burdened with a sentient, reality-altering Meta Vest, and one other nvtcase. Honestly, I haven't seen thrown-together personalites this disparate and dangerous since Ostrander's Suicide Squad. It makes for fascinating group dynamics, given the distaste everyone has for everyone else. But that's later on. For the first few issues, Peter Milligan teases the reader by featuring his cast mostly in their own individual arcs.
4 out of 5 stars for this one. I will say that issue #6 is a bit of a letdown in that the ongoing motivation for these hostile loners to stick together comes off as forced and contrived. Disappointingly, issue #6 also serves as a mere transitional device that points the reader towards Justice League Dark's crossover arc with its companion horror title, I, VAMPIRE (which sadly just got canceled, by the way).
Hopefully, you know better than to anticipate traditional superheroics in this title. JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK, steeped in occult sensibility, reads more like SWAMP THING or NIGHT FORCE (and where's the NIGHT FORCE collected trade they'd been promising, anyway?). Mikel Janin's brooding photo-realistic art is invaluable, whether in depicting gorgeous, enigmatic women or in establishing a dark, ominous tone. The art really pops. Janin is brilliant at drawing grotesque creatures. He visualizes Xanadu's peeks into a bleak future with such foreboding clarity that you see why she's so frantic to recruit this bunch of oddballs. When everyone is finally in the same room, I love the abrasive, no-holds-barred character interplay. The promise of such combustibility and the crisp artwork are the two things that drew me in. The ensuing eldritch mayhem is just a bonus. I'm forever down with any narrative in which the characters battle inner AND outer demons.
