Christ, what a barren week. With the exception of Amazing Spider-Man and Ex Machina (both of which have been covered too recently on here for me to do again so soon), there was nothing out that I actually follow on even a semi-regular basis. I decided, then, to check out a few different DC titles to see if there was anything worth reviewing. Aside from a handful of books that happily roll along with their own stories - Batman, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle - I haven’t really been keeping up with the DCU over the last year, as it’s felt desperately like the entire line is simply treading water until Final Crisis comes along. The various “big” storylines – The Sinestro Corps, Salvation Run and so on – have been staggeringly uninteresting, and every time I’ve tried to dip into Countdown it’s been utterly impossible to comprehend.

This lack of accessibility for casual readers was borne out by the various books I decided to have a look at this week – Batman and the Outsiders, The Brave and the Bold and Justice League of America. All team (or, in the case of TBATB, “team-up”) books, all mid-storyline. None particularly accessible to new readers, nor indeed anything like enthralling enough to consider worth getting over the hurdle of unfamiliarity. Still, though, I’ve had to at least pick one to look at in something resembling detail, so let’s go for Justice League of America. It’s a tie-in to the aforementioned Salvation Run miniseries, in which the Earth’s major supervillains, including Lex Luthor and the Joker, have been “deported” to a distant planet and basically left to fend for themselves. Er, yeah. Maybe the series itself is brilliant, I don’t know (although I’d be worried by the fact that writer Bill Willingham left after a few issues – I mean, how often do writers leave miniseries?), but it certainly doesn’t sound like it.

Anyway, the JLA are on their way into space, in what I think is an attempt to rescue the Martian Manhunter, who’s been secretly scouting the planet on Batman’s behalf (blah blah secrets, blah blah mistrust, and didn’t we take care of all of this with Infinite Crisis? Isn’t he meant to be FriendlyBatman now? And while we’re at it, why has he formed a new Outsiders, when the Outsiders were originally the team he formed while not a JL member?) And… oh, it’s just rubbish, really. Not offensively bad in an Ultimates 3 or All-Star Batman way, just… flat and bland. There’s no sense of team dynamics, no real characterisation at all beyond the broadest of strokes. The dialogue throughout is lame, with John Stewart and Wonder Woman even falling victim to “Describe… what’s… happening… to… me!” syndrome – and why J’onn J’onnz’s team-mates keep impersonally referring to him as “the Martian”, I’m not sure. Do they call Superman “the Kryptonian” behind his back?

I mean, look, this is the Justice League. This is a title that features Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. This should be flagship. It should be about the world’s greatest heroes banding together to tackle threats too huge to handle alone. It should have an A-list writer and artist team (Ed Benes may be technically proficient, but his work is somewhat soulless, and far too rooted in the Michael Turner School of Breasts and Thighs). It should, to put it bluntly, be a lot better than this. Launched on a wave of hype courtesy of the overrated Brad Meltzer, it’s only taken a year and a half for the series to become an entirely forgettable irrelevance, which has to be some kind of record even when set against the Justice League Detroit shambles of the mid-80s. Will it survive when James Robinson’s new title begins later in the year? On this evidence, there’s no compelling reason whatsoever in its favour.

Tags: Alan Burnett, Ed Benes, Justice League
Publisher: DC