Justice League International Vol. 1: The Signal Masters (The New 52) [Anglais] [Broché]

Coming off of the huge success of Justice League: Generation Lost, part of the New 52 is a new volume of JLI. The unfortunate thing about this new series is that it takes away all the elements that made Generation Lost such a great series. Gone is Judd Winick, who did the best writing of his career on Gen Lost. Gone is the Blue Beetle, doomed to be rebooted again. The only good part that remains is Aaron Lopresti's art. Dan Jurgens just doesn't have a good voice for this group. He tries to rely too heavily on comedic banter between Rocket Red and August General in Iron. The only good thing about this collection is the art. I wanted to like this, but I can't. Everything that made this group great in their first series and Generation Lost is missing. And DC is cancelling this series as well, so obviously readers agree that this title just isn't what they're looking for in a JLI title. I hope they can somehow bring the team back in a way that capture their glory days. A fool's wish, I know.

The premise is good, the execution awful. The UN assembles their own super-team with international heroes.

After that, it starts to fall apart; only the presence of Batman keeps fanboy readers happy, since the rest added up barely make half of Robin's worth while they ineptly fight mysteriously unexplained giant robots operated by a cosmic scrapyard dealer - and managed to win - how unexpected! Meanwhile, irate tea-party terrorists bomb the team's headquarters - Obviously, Lex Luthor should hire them as underlings since they got the job done.

I gave it a try with the comics (please note: this is a collection of the first few issues of the series, not new material) and dropped it after the end of the god-awful storyline encompassed in the trade paperback - yes, I read it, hoping that it could possibly get better - but it just didn't. Save a tree, don't buy this!

I'm familiar with the late 80s version of this title and I can understand the love. The title was an often funny, fresh, and well-done lighter superhero book in a late 80s comic book world clogged with grim and gritty books trying to be "relevant" like The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen (it was kind of like Justice League Light with the tone of the ABC TV show Castle or CBS show NCIS). Fans wanting a reboot or rehash of that title should not look here, and I consider that a good thing. However, at the same time, don't come looking for anything particularly new or fresh. What Justice League International offers is a fun, easy, well-drawn B-team superhero read.

Reflecting the real-life modern loss of faith in world governments, the UN has assembled a team of B and even C-level DC superheroes to create Justice League International - a team using the name of the successful Justice League but easily controlled by the member nations to protect their interests. Booster Gold, the football player from the future who has traveled to the modern world as a "commercial" superhero (using his name and image to make money through product endorsements), is tapped to be team leader because he is perceived as easiest to maniupulate. The other team members, a diverse cast which includes Fire, Ice, Rocket Red, Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Vixen August General In Iron, and Godiva, are downright skeptical of Booster's leadership. When the team is dispatched to investigate the disappearance of a UN research team in Peru they quickly find themselves over their heads.

Writer Dan Jurgens is an old favorite of mine; he was one of the principle creative forces behind Superman when I first started reading comics, and I have always loved both his style of storytelling (old school superheroics but with a modern sensibility) and art style (a more dynamic and bolder Curt Swan); his Teen Titans reboot from the late 90s is still a favorite. When I read he was involved with this title, I was excited. Aaron Lopresti similarly caught my eye during the 90s with his work on an assortment of titles, most especially the great but short-lived Takion, so I was greatly looking to see his clean style at work here.

Unfortunately Jurgens does not present anything new or fresh here; his assmebly of the team is mostly paint-by-numbers, and while the way that they have to initially retreat from the threat they face is refreshingly humbling, there is not a lot here that longtime comic book readers will find surprising. Even the banter is minimal and nothing more special than your typical CBS proceedural, and characterizations are more based on type. Booster is nicely portrayed in two dimensions - he realizes he must rise above his previous vanity and does so with some grace. Batman also has some nice moments, playing the team's (obvious) voice of reason, and Godiva has a nice moment or two with August General In Iron in the epilogue issue (number 6) that is far too short. Also, Jurgens all but ignores the political scene he sets up, rendering it more as a distraction than a real consideration. It's nothing boring, but it's more like a two hour cable TV action movie than a blockbuster superhero epic.

The art is really the selling point here; the costume redesigns of all the characters are logical and appealing (even Booster, whose change from dark blue to teal has grown on me) and Lopresti excels at both talking heads and action scenes (which are well-executed and result in some nice splash pages). The only point of distraction is the ruined Hall Of Justice (bombed in an early issue) which serves as a backdrop through the series - it is presented as a concrete a metal building, yet seems to have strangely burned completely after a conventional bombing). The art on issue six (by a fill-in) is well done also.

I was harsh in my review (and opinion) of the flagship Justice League title, but I still enjoyed it, even though it was imperfect and a bit paint-by-numbers. I should be similiarly harsh here, except that this is not a flagship DC title, so "fair to good" is more acceptable a rating here. I did enjoy the read, as said before, on the same level I enjoy a good low budget SyFy flick that looks better than expected, despite its low budget. It's worth a read, and I have high hopes that the second arc (which is jump started by a cliffhanger at the end) will give Jurgens more of a platform to do some greater characterization and less conventional storytelling. I'd give it a C+