Justice #1-6

Justice #1-6

Originally released in 2005

Written by Alex Ross and Jim Krueger

Art by Alex Ross and Doug Braithwaite

To be honest, I picked this so I'd have the chance to show off Alex Ross's artwork.  He's done a few covers for series that I've covered, like All New All Different Avengers, but this is a case where the entire book is done in his style of art, and it's gorgeous - it looks like something that could be hung in a museum.

The comic feels like a more serious version of the Superfriends cartoon, complete with the Legion of Doom being involved. All thirteen of the classic Legion members from the Superfriends cartoon are here - Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Grodd, Captain Cold, Cheetah, Toyman, Bizarro, Solomon Grundy, Sinestro, Black Manta, Giganta, the Scarecrow, and the Riddler - along with a few others like Poison Ivy. (much like in the Superfriends cartoon, the Joker is left out, to his extreme annoyance - he effortlessly breaks out of Arkham upon finding out that he's been snubbed and seems intent on messing with their plans)

Many supervillains seem to have turned over a new leaf - Toyman is building artificial limbs for people, Poison Ivy and Captain Cold are creating oases in desert areas, Scarecrow is helping to cure blindness...  It's all part of a larger plan to make the Justice League seem ineffectual and useless before targeting the major members of the League.

The Legion of Doom believe that they're preparing to save the world at a time when the Justice League won't be able to, after they all have a shared dream about the League failing and the world ending.  They're unaware that this is part of a larger scheme - Lex Luthor, Gorilla Grodd, and Brainiac are working together, with Grodd psychically transmitting the dream to whoever they want to join the Legion.

Brainiac seems to be the one in charge, though the alliance is a tenuous one - Lex is fully aware that Brainiac is going to betray him at some point, and seems to be taking steps to prepare for that.  Alex Ross's design for Brainiac is unsettling (something about his skin just looks off), as is the visions of the doomed future that he portrays in the dreams of the villains.

Meanwhile, with many of the Justice League's heavy hitters out of commission, it's up to characters who are deemed "second stringers" to counter the plans of Brainiac and Luthor.  The Atom (the Ray Palmer version) and Captain Marvel have gotten focus so far, and it seems like John Stewart and Zatanna are being built up to have roles in the future as well.

When it comes to the writing, it seems like Alex Ross does the best job with capturing Captain Marvel and the Superman characters - particularly Superman, Lex, and Brainiac, though Lois has her moments.  The backgrounds are consistently gorgeous as well, with a stand-out being when Superman and Captain Marvel arrive at the Batcave.

I'm curious to see what Luthor's and Brainiac's endgames are, and how the Justice League is going to overcome the Legion's plans.  I'm definitely going to finish this up on Monday; while the issues were slightly longer than normal (about 27 pages), a lot of them just flew by.

The first half of this series has been a delight, and so far, I have no doubt that the second half will stay at that level of quality.