Justice #7-12

Justice #7-12

Originally released in 2006

Written by Alex Ross and Jim Krueger

Art by Alex Ross and Doug Braithwaite

If the first six issues of Justice were about the villains tearing down the Justice League in the eyes of the public, the last six issues are about building them back up.  As the full extent of Brainiac's plan is revealed, he uses information stolen from Batman's computer to learn the identities of the Justice League members so he can kidnap their loved ones and allies, brainwashing any of them that have superpowers or training.

As the Justice League recovers from the effects of Brainiac's plot, they have to track him down and stop his plans. With the exception of a handful of supervillain-run cities, Brainiac intends to destroy the world, making it clear that the visions that were transmitted to the members of the Legion of Doom were a preview for his plans.

While I was reading this, I started to hope that Alex Ross drew a Captain Marvel (or Shazam) series at some point, because I love the amount of detail that he puts into these characters - Captain Marvel himself, Mary Marvel, Freddy Freeman, Black Adam, and even Doctor Sivana (in a minor role) all shine here, and I'd love to see Ross work on a series that focuses specifically on this part of the universe rather than them being a smaller part of this huge ensemble cast.

You can really tell that Alex Ross is passionate about DC, as he seems to try to include as many characters as he possibly can - the Doom Patrol, Doctor Will Magnus and the Metal Men (who I'm only familiar with because of the series "52"), the Legion of Superheroes, and the Phantom Stranger (some kind of cosmic/mystical/heavenly being that's supposedly on par with the Spectre) make appearances here.  The big crowd shots are a highlight, and as the finale nears, they become more and more common as large-scale battle sequences take place.

The art is a highlight, though that's a given when Alex Ross is involved, but the story is solid as well.  Brainiac's plot is ultimately a straightforward one, but it gives a wide variety of Justice League members an opportunity to get focus.  Throughout the climax, Superman, Zatanna, and the Red Tornado (an android) are chasing down Brainiac as he hops from body to body, with Brainiac trying to appeal to the Red Tornado that he shouldn't be serving humanity when he could be ruling them.

I'm glad I read this series; the art helps to give it this mythological, larger than life quality that I haven't gotten from many other comics.  There were some plot points that seemed weird to me (Black Manta kidnapped Aquaman's baby because Brainiac wanted to convert the baby into a cyborg and raise the baby as his own son), but I had a good time when reading it.  While it's a big love letter to DC's history (and, as a result, likely requires some prior knowledge before jumping into it), I found it more accessible than I found Crisis On Infinite Earths.