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Justice League Dark #1
Publisher: DC
Story: James Tynion IV
Pencils: Alvaro Martinez Bueno
Inks: Raul Fernandez
Colors: Brad Anderson
Letters: Rob Leigh

One of two new Justice League books springing out of the “No Justice” event (the other being Justice League Odyssey, delayed until late September), Justice League Dark sees a new team forming, reluctantly, to deal with the negative and unpredictable effects to magic being caused by the breaking of the Source Wall and the mystery of the Tree of Wonder.

Tynion takes the interesting tactic of using a mainstay Justice League character, Wonder Woman in this case, to act as team leader, and the majority of this issue focuses on her attempts to recruit magical-based heroes to her cause, starting with Zatanna. Wonder Woman is an interesting, unconventional choice for building a team like this, but when she explains her reasons as well as her background (including having ridden a griffin since she was old enough to walk, and being born on the mystical, magical island of Themyscira), the reason for her inclusion becomes clearer. Out of all the main Justice League characters, Wonder Woman makes the most sense to include on this team.

Zatanna is a natural choice, and here Tynion returns her to her stage magician roots, complete with top hat and magical illusions to entertain a crowd. Her characterization is much closer to her depiction in Tynion’s Detective Comics arc and to her historical pre-New 52 representation as opposed to her New 52 Justice League Dark portrayal. While Wonder Woman is the “team leader” in a sense, Zatanna is the main point-of-view character in this issue, accompanied by an abundance of text explaining Zatanna’s history with magic and why she makes the choices she does.

From a plot standpoint, the best scenes in the issue involve Wonder Woman in the Oblivion Bar, where she has a long conversation with Detective Chimp that helps catch the reader up with what has transpired before this issue, and also the scenes with Diana, Detective Chimp, and Kirk Langstrom, the Man-Bat, who has taken a specialized formula to create a hybrid of his Man-Bat and human personalities. Part of the strength of these scenes are the characterizations of Detective Chimp, a mainstay from DC’s Silver Age who was missing throughout the entirety of the New 52, and Man-Bat, whose hybrid form has taken on an odd, nearly sanity-breaking personality that provides a sense of humor that is a nice contrast to the dark themes of the story.

In addition to these three and Zatanna, Tynion also introduces Swamp Thing in a prescient scene, and he ends up becoming the fifth member of the new team. Swamp Thing’s inclusion on a team whose mission is to find out why magic is broken is, like many of the other characters, an odd choice at first glance, but details in the story provide a strong case for him being part of the team.

Lest anyone question why certain other magic-oriented characters from the DC Universe aren’t part of the team, Tynion deals with that, also, by showing a meeting of most of the major magic heavy-hitters (both “heroes” and “villains”) as well as everyone’s favorite magical ne’er-do-well, John Constantine, in a short cameo to explain his reaction to the situation. Traci-13 also makes a small cameo in the Oblivion Bar scenes, and Tynion leaves the door open for her to return in future issues.

The artistic team of Bueno, Fernandez, and Anderson do some fantastic work with the visuals, right from the opening scenes during Zatanna’s stage show gone wrong. It’s immediately clear that Justice League Dark isn’t going to deal with the standard type of heroic struggles, but with creepy, unsettling issues from the darkest reaches of the universe. This is made even more clear during a particularly disturbing scene in a morgue where Diana and Detective Chimp meet with Man-Bat, who is conducting autopsies on a group of bodies who were killed by the chaotic effects of magic. Bueno’s detailed designs reveal bodies that do not resemble mere undead, but rather evoke a sense of something Cthulhu-like, reminiscent of the creature designs from 1982’s “The Thing.”  Anderson’s colors complete the macabre scenes, cleverly making use of dark shadows and green-tinted overhead lights to add a sense of unease.

Justice League Dark is mainly a set-up to define the parameters of a new team, introduce the characters, and hint at the mission that awaits them. On this level, it succeeds based on its strong characterization and fantastically supernatural visuals. While at times Tynion’s script can be a bit overly wordy, especially in providing background, the dynamic visuals help to keep the story on track, and the careful, strategic use of humor, mainly in the form of Man-Bat’s quirky personality traits, keep the story from being too bogged down in a disturbing realm of darkness.

Martin Thomas
martin@comicattack.net