JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE DARKSEID WAR PART 1 (review)

Review by Clay N Ferno

In this week leading up to the biggest DC movie event ever, the debut of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (still a mouthful), we’ve got a hardcover release of volume 7 of Justice League from Geoff Johns with art by Jason Fabok.  

Volume 7: Darkseid War Part 1 pits the New 52 Justice League against a reimagined Fourth World and introduces some new and interesting characters for the modern age.

These are definitely comics more skewed toward the longstanding DC Comics fan than the casual reader, but if someone were to wander off of the streets and grab this hardcover in preparation for the movie (a scenario often prescribed by comics journalists like myself, but rarely do the masses imbibe) they may be entertained but will certainly leave with a lot of questions.

Johns, recently announcing yet another ‘Crisis’ aka Rebirth, lays the groundwork for the theory of the DC multiverse in Darkseid War.  Besides the usual cast on the side of the righteous, we see Darkseid pitted against the powerful Anti-Monitor and a view of how these worlds came to be.

I’ll admit that since reading the first volume of the flagship New 52 title Justice League I have stepped away from the main team book, focusing more on Bat-family books, The Flash and Superman titles, getting my team-ups in books like Superman/Wonder Woman and Batman/Superman. But all that…was a long time ago, right? 2011 is when Jim Lee redesigned the look of the DCU, we were all so hopeful and I even had a short lived Grifter series to enjoy.

Fast forward to today, and we are at yet another precipice, continuity is shifting back to the way it once was at DC, plus we have many cool DC television shows and a new Batman on the silver screen.

Why did I decide to take a look at Darkseid War after a long absence? The answer is simple. I’m always skeptical of event books and tie-ins on release, and like to binge-read these in collected editions so that I don’t loose the thread of what is happening. Recently, I caught up with Marvel’s Secret Wars — I had the patience to wait for its conclusion — and now I thought I would be fair and balanced and read this new take on classic Kirby characters I love.

Granted, Darkseid, Mother Boxes and Parademons have been with the New 52 Justice League from issue #1, but now we have years of stories to flesh out the team and individuals standing up to this unstoppable force.

I’ll be just another comic reviewer that says the same thing about Geoff Johns — he gets to the core of what makes these characters and stories great, and as Chief Creative Officer at DC and consultant on all television and movie properties is able to steer the ship in a direction that honors history but allows for new and fresh ideas to be highlighted. Marvel doesn’t exactly have the same sort of guy, more like a team of people that do what Geoff does across the lot.

Not to throw shade a Marvel, the structure and characters are different there than Warner/DC. Jeph Loeb and Kevin Feige have similar but different jobs to what Geoff has on his plate. The Marvel ‘architect’ position hasn’t really blossomed out one major star, Bendis and Aaron do a lot of heavy lifting and Hollywood production consulting but are really just seen playing loose in the post Secret Wars Marvel comics continuity.

Johns is in a unique position of being able to take 75 year old characters, histories and multiple universe-collapsing ‘Crisis’ moments and spin them onto the page, the tv set and in the movies. His deep passion for what makes these classic stories great fodder for modern storytelling, and if there is any question, go back and read Blackest Night or Green Lantern: Rebirth.

I say this in stark contrast to great DC writer Grant Morrison, one who I also enjoy seeing play with old DC ideas and reintroducing them to modern books. I simply don’t see Morrison capable of setting the tone at DC as a whole, but I’d pay to see him pitch a Batman of Zur-en-arrh as a kids cartoon show to the powers that be at Warner!

What’s great about this book, specifically? The Fourth World is reimagined. The meddling Metron and his Mobius chair are revealed. Metron is like DC’s version of The Watcher, but in our story is less neutral, placing the sons of Darkseid and the High Father in charge of each other’s sons Orion and Scott Free (respectfully) to quell the battle between Apokolips and New Genesis.

On our Earth, Paradise Island, another offspring is revealed to be born on the same day as Wonder Woman, and her name is Grail, daughter of Darkseid. Years later she will seek revenge on her father after being trained to do so. This dark mirror version of Wonder Woman is a very cool addition to the mythos.

Lots of great moments here as Superman and Lex Luthor team up and Superman gets some rogue powers that make him (more of) a dick. Batman takes over the all-knowing throne of Metron, the Mobius Chair and is given all of the answers. He confirms this by asking who killed his parents and the chair answers “Joe Chill”. The reader isn’t privy to Batman asking who the Joker is, but Batman now knows. The chair turns Batman into (more of) a dick.

We are given a New 52 version of the origin of the Anti-Life Equation and the Anti-Monitor Darkseid battles him for power. Fourth World harbinger of death Black Racer makes an appearance, and you guessed it, someone dies.

The book travels on Earth and beyond to many different locales like Paradise Island, New Genesis, The Rock of Eternity to Lexcorp. Lots of adventure and space travel in this book, plenty to grab on to.

As I’ve been praising Johns, a real star on this book and another reason for recommending is the art of Jason Fabok who will be wrapping up on Justice League in the coming months, and a great talent at DC since the relaunch. Great action, line work and cartooning and I look forward to whatever book he takes on next.

There may not be exactly a straight line from this hardcover to Batman v Superman but I am putting this book on the bedside table next to another inspiration for the upcoming film, Dark Knight Returns as good ‘research’ before movie night.

I look forward to what DC does with the Rebirth event, simply because Geoff Johns will be a major player in maintaining what DC does best which is leaning on a deep history of characters and pitting them against huge larger than life threats.