Justice League 40 Featured Reviews 

“Justice League” #40

By | February 6th, 2020
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Remember the Justice League movie? You know, the one with a bunch of iffy CGI and a bootleg Thanos for the villain. It wasn’t great…my brother was on his phone for the last twenty minutes and I can’t say I blame him. I wanted to like it so badly too. When I was a kid, I had the first three episodes of the Justice League cartoon on VHS and it was my favorite thing in the world. DCEU might have messed up but the DCAU got it just right. The sequel series, Justice League Unlimited, actually premiered on my birthday. I definitely have a soft spot for the League and always hope that creative teams do a good job with them. “Justice League” #40 marks a new start for the title with a new creative team. We have to ask, does this new team do the League (pun very much intended here) justice?

Cover by Bryan Hitch & Jeremiah Skipper

Written by Robert Venditti
Illustrated by Doug Mahnke
Lettered by Tom Napolitano
Colored by David Baron

The next chapter for comics’ premier superteam begins! An unexpected arrival from the stars brings a dire warning to the Justice League: A new breed of conquerors is on the march. Led by Superman’s nemesis Eradicator, a genetically engineered, super-powered strike team has come to subjugate Earth. To aid the Justice League, Batman makes the unprecedented decision of enlisting an ancient, unrivaled power, which calls into question who, exactly, is in charge. With the League on unsure footing, will they be ready to save the world?

The previous issue, “Justice League” #39, wrapped up Scott Snyder’s epic run. In this issue, writer Robert Venditti and artist Doug Mahnke kick off an all-new arc. It’s worth noting that #40 is a solid jumping-on point. You really don’t have to know anything that went down under Snyder’s pen. Even though this is #40, in essence, it could be Justice League #1.

This comic opens with the League investigating a crash landing. It turns out to be an alien that crashed, Sodam Yat, a former Green Lantern and Daxamite (think dime-store Kryptonians). Yat warns the team that the Eradicator, an evil robot from Krypton, has engineered a super-Daxamite army. Since they were engineered without the weakness to Kryptonite, the League’s next best bet is using magic to defeat them.

The first thing that I noticed about this comic is the tonal shift from Scott Snyder’s run. The previous writer was going for big and epic. Snyder’s Justice League was basically an army. They converted the Hall of Justice into a flying warship. They fought for the very concept of ‘justice’ against the Legion of Doom fighting for the concept of…well, doom. Here, the team has been scaled all the way back to just five members. DC’s trinity, Flash and John Stewart, Green Lantern. That’s it.

Even the plot feels more like standard, straightforward superhero fare. The comic hits very familiar beats, you know? The execution is solid but still. There’s the initial misunderstanding/fight in a lot of team-up books and an invading army. The familiarity isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. It felt a bit like a movie sometimes. It also made me nostalgic for the Justice League trade paperbacks from the library that I used to devour. Comics like “JLA Classified” or when the League was going through that weird period with members like Major Disaster or Manitou Raven.

The scaled down cast here means there’s a strong focus on the characters and this particular roster’s dynamic. Flash, for example, shows some hesitation on the battlefield. Wonder Woman, ever the nurturer, quietly confronts him but he’s quick to denial. Superman expresses concern for Batman, who is quietly grieving over Alfred’s death and is being even more controlling of the unit than usual.

The strongest character this time around though is Green Lantern. John really takes charge and is leader just as much as Batman is. He’s the one that stops the initial fight/misunderstanding with Sodam Yat from spiraling out of control. When Superman expresses guilt over the threat that the Kryptonian Eradicator poses, John is the one to comfort him. He gives the Man of Steel himself a pep talk and when the team is staring down a Daxamite army, John is the one that announces they will hold the line. I really love the character and feel he doesn’t always get his due when compared to Hal but this a really good showcase for him, as well as the others.

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The book isn’t completely without issues though they fortunately aren’t that prevalent. I would have liked the magic bit with Madame Xanadu to be explored a bit more but again, this is our ‘first’ issue. I’m sure it will be expanded on in the issues to come. I also would like to see the villains expanded upon. Eradicator is seen on page twice and only speaks once. As for the Daxamite army, they’re clearly a serious threat but are still a faceless army. It’s not ‘Chitauri from Avengers‘ bad but it’s not great either.

The highlight of the book, in my opinion, is Doug Mahnke’s artwork. It brings it all together and is a perfect fit for a title like “Justice League”. The League’s all about larger than life superheroes and Mahnke draws his superheroes in a very larger than life way, with rippling muscles, strong jaws and cheekbones. The spread where the League finds Yat is a great moment and both John and Superman look epic when flying directly towards ‘camera’. His work also fits because he’s done a lot of epic DC work before. He drew some of “Multiversity”, a lot of “Green Lantern” and even several issues of “Justice League”…he drew some issues of those library paperbacks I loved. With him on art and Venditti writing, this new arc is off to a good start.

Final Verdict: 7.0 – Our heroes stand ready to eradicate the Eradicator in a solid “Justice League”.


Michael Govan

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