Justice League #8
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Carlos D’Anda, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Gabe Eltaeb, and Alex Sinclair
The short of it:
Green Arrow REALLY wants to join the Justice League, but they really just don’t care. They’ve got their own group and it’s big enough. Plus, he has a bow and arrows, and they already have Batman to cover people without powers. Who needs Green Arrow? Well, he thinks the League does! And he’s willing to show up over and over and over again in attempts at showing the team that he’s good enough! In the end he’s approached by Steve Trevor with a different offer in exchange for leaving the League alone, and we find out what happened to the only other person to ever join the League.
Meanwhile, in SHAZAM!, Billy Batson meets his foster family! Mary, Freddy, ….three other people! And they aren’t honest! Freddy steals wallets despite his crutches! Really, it’s just more depth given to Billy and a little tease at the end to remind us that lightning will strike sooner than later.
What I liked:
- Ollie’s origin now featuring Aquaman works for me. Ollie was stranded on an island and Aquaman seems to have gotten him off of it. It makes sense, and it ties Ollie to a Leaguer not named Hal for a change.
- I absolutely love the occasional side effect of Cyborg’s teleporter. I can’t wait for an issue detailing one of those mis-ports.
- TEAM 7!
- Ivan Reis and Joe Prado show up for a double page spread made out of awesome.
- Steve Trevor actually has some sort of purpose from the looks of it, which makes the fact that his character is one of the more interesting ones in the book something worth noting. I haven’t seen him in Wonder Woman yet, which tells me that despite the Wonder Woman ties, he’s a Justice League cast member.
- Nice usage of the Night of Owls, there’s a definite distinct tie in, but it’s also only a few pages. It puts over how big the Batman storyline is, while also placing this story firmly in line with it. Same with the JLDark tie in a few panels later.
What I didn’t like:
- Green Arrow pretty much begging to get into the League. I don’t care which version of Ollie we’re dealing with, he’s not begging anyone to let him into their special club.
- The League has only ever allowed one other member into their ranks in five years. That bugs me for some reason.
- Cyborg spends more time looking like a mid-shift Transformer than looking like Cyborg.
- I spent most of the issue assuming it was a flashback, and then I saw the Night of Owls tie in, and then I got a bit upset. It’s the no new members thing, I figured that Ollie tried to join when the League was new.
Final Thoughts:
Man, I feel screwed, I want to see the League take on Amazo!
Half of the team is made up of dicks. We’ve got Bat-Dick, Green Dick, and Aqua-Dick. Seriously, they were all total d-bags.
Remember a few years ago when Wonder Woman killing someone was supposed to be a big deal? The point in time where everyone sort of realized that she was a warrior that was toning it down to deal with the League? In this issue she finds out the bad guys are already dead and announces that she’s drawing the sword. I get a feeling that this League is either way more relaxed on Diana hacking things to bits, or they just spend a lot of time fighting things for her to hack into bits. I did see her stabbing and slashing up a storm just a few issues ago.
I want to see the lost adventures of Green Arrow and Aquaman. I would buy that in mini form, even despite my current feelings of giving up on Green Arrow.
Are we back on track next month? I want to see a story about the League being the League, and not the people close to them.
Overall: 7/10
