Justice League #3

Credits:

Geoff Johns Writer
Jim Lee Penciller
Scott Williams Inker
Alex Sinclair with Hi-Fi and Gabe Eltaeb Colorists
Patrick Brosseau Letterer
Darren Shan Assistant Editor
Brian Cunningham Editor

I found it interesting that Alex Sinclair needed help coloring this issue. Maybe he realized that big mistake he made on shadowing Barry Allen's face in Issue #2 was a result of him being overworked. Sadly, I can pretty easily tell which pages Sinclair did not color — his are brighter, bolder, and just better than the other ones, which is a shame that we had that inconsistency here. Also for some reason, we got two new editors on this issue. I could probably tell a very slight difference in how they edited, but's that's just because I'm an editor myself and I pick up on minute details. But the overall feel and look of the story has not changed drastically, which is the most important thing.

This cover is a good one. It was done by Jim Lee, Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair. This issue is all about Wonder Woman and she rightly takes a prominent place front and center. We also get to see all the other heroes pretty good, fighting the endless supply of aliens. This is also a scene straight from the inside of the book, which is always a good thing. Maybe the expression on Wonder Woman's face is a bit odd, but that's a minor quibble.

This black-and-white cover has the same problem as the last one. There's just too many messy details for me to fully appreciate it. What's supposed to be rubble? What's supposed to be an alien? I like the idea of the black-and-white covers, but I wish they would've let Scott Williams ink them as well. Just a little bit more contrast would have gone a long way.

The variant cover was done by Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion and FCO Plascencia. I find this cover almost comically awful. Superman and Flash look fine, but everyone else is just weird. Wonder Woman looks like she's 16, Cyborg looks like he's 42, Aquaman is just off, Batman feels completely out of place and why is Green Lantern a million miles away? I also don't like these obviously posed shots. Come on, give them something to do!

Our story starts in Washington, D.C., where Captain Steve Trevor is looking for Wonder Woman. Apparently she had been watching TV, saw a winged monster out on the streets and decided to break out of the Pentagon to fight it.

Everybody's too afraid to talk to Wonder Woman except for a little girl with ice cream, which Wonder Woman thinks is amazing. Trevor finds her, but before he take her back inside, a big BOOM goes off and hundreds of aliens come out of a portal, and Wonder Woman is only too excited to fight them.

In a quick cut to Detroit, Dr. Silas Stone resolves to save his son, Victor, who is very badly burned, even as the aliens are scooping up tons of people and flying away with them.

Back to Metropolis, our heroes are fighting more aliens and the Flash tells them he's been listening to the radio through his earpiece and he found out that these aliens are appearing all over the world and most people are blaming the superheroes. As they fight, Flash is surprised to learn Batman doesn't have any powers — he had assumed he was a vampire or something.

Meanwhile, Dr. Stone and two other doctors take Victor down into a top secret lab and lay him on an operating table.

In Metropolis, Batman realizes the aliens aren't killing anybody, just taking them away. Our heroes are then joined by Wonder Woman, who had followed the aliens to them from Washington, D.C. Everyone is impressed with her strength and Green Lantern calls dibs.

Dr. Stone starts to fix his son's body with robotic parts and experimental, controversial, possibly alien technology.

The aliens start to leave the fight from our heroes and Green Lantern thinks they scared them off, but Flash points out that they're circling over the water.

Victor's new computer systems go online and he sees a giant alien standing on a volcano world, surrounded by hundreds of the winged aliens. It almost seems like the giant, imposing alien can see Victor watching him.

A big explosion erupts from the ocean by Metropolis and a large, alien tower emerges from the deep. Flash asks, "What is that?" Someone answers, "I was hoping one of you could tell me." They turn around and see an alien approaching, but it falls down dead with a trident in its back. It's Aquaman.

The backup story is the first few pages of a book called The Secret History of Atlantis by David Graves. This is a reprinted edition to coincide with the release of Graves' best-seller, The Justice League: Gods Among Us, published in 2006.

The Good:

The art. As usual, Jim Lee gave us a lot of great detail and big, splashy fight scenes. Yes, there were a few little coloring issues, but those didn't detract enough from the greatness of this artwork.

The Bad:

There really wasn't anything bad in this issue, there just wasn't that much good stuff ... for the Flash, that is. This was a Wonder Woman and Cyborg-heavy story, and that's fine. It's just this is a Flash blog, and he only had a couple of lines about listening to the radio and Batman being a vampire (which was funny, but not enough to add a point to the score).

Final score: 6

Next: Aquaman Rising