Friday, January 25, 2013

Justice League #16

The challenge with a team as powerful as the Justice League is finding an opponent that can stand against powerhouses like Superman and Wonder Woman.

This issue has that and then some.

It continues the "Throne of Atlantis" event, and it's heating up nicely. The story suffers a little "Marvel-itis" as Aquaman fights against his teammates in an odd attempt to stop the invasion of Atlantis' army.

But it's all to good effect, as we see just how overwhelming the menace is, and the League is forced to go to "Plan B" - which is a nice setup for yet another Justice League comic.

Geoff Johns turns in a strong story here, with an interesting take on Atlantis - but the real star is Ivan Reis' art. Several splash panels are particularly good, but my favorite depicts something we see all too rarely: Superman taking command.

I haven't talked much about the Shazam backup feature in this title, mostly because we're just getting slivers of the story with each issue - but things certainly kick up a notch this time around as Black Adam returns (for the first time) to battle a shocked Shazam. The art by Gary Franks is something special.

There have been a few stumbles along the way, but this series continues to be one of the best of the "New 52."

Grade: A-

----------------



No comments: