Review: Justice League United Vol. 1: Justice League Canada
Quick Summary
Pros: The story here is interesting and provides a nice setup for the future. Every character in the story is written well and the cast does a excellent job of interacting in an organic and enjoyable way.
Cons: One of the story’s subplots is not that great.
Overall: In the Justice League United’s debut adventure, readers are treated to an entertaining story featuring an even more entertaining cast of characters. This new League is fun and charismatic in a way that makes them feel more like a family and less like acquaintance that just happen to save the world. It makes for a great book that anyone who enjoys character driven stories will enjoy.
Story
The Justice League of America is in the past and the Justice League United is the future. However, despite a shakeup in both the League’s roster and creative team, writer Jeff Lemire manages to produce a book that maintains the character driven style from Justice League of America while also pushing the book to do something new and better. This new League is no longer encumbered by Trinity War (Review) and Forever Evil (Review) tie-ins and is able to tell and individualized story that is entertaining by its own right. Even the less enjoyable portions of the book provide the launchpad to a second arc that is already showing promise. All in all, this is a great continuation of the Justice League of America‘s story and an equally great start to the Justice League United‘s story.
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The beginning of this story rapidly creates and introduces the new Justice League through a confrontation against the alien villain Lord Byth. Byth has created a super-powered being that he plans on using to control the universe. The new League forms in order to oppose him in this endeavor and team up with the people of Rann in order to do so. Eventually, they are able to succeed and even manage to rescue the weaponized being while doing so.
This is a pretty standard Justice League origin story, with a somewhat similar structure to the formation of many major comic book teams. A villainous threat builds in the background, a team of heroes comes together, and the two opposing forces eventually clash in a climactic finale. This particular story is made unique through the being that Byth creates, who’s childlike innocence and future potential provide a point of intrigue. However, for the most part, this origin story mostly ranges from average to slightly above average.
What really sets this book apart, and makes it so fun to read, is its focus on character development and teambuilding. Interactions between members of the League are organic and authentic in a way that helps create a realistic team dynamic. Animal Man and Green Arrow instantly develop a friendly rivalry, Martian Manhunter takes the reigns as team leader, and Star Girl enters a duel role as the team’s younger sister and potential powerhouse. Seeing these characters pal around like friends, or even family, is surprisingly entertaining and is what really makes this book as fun as it is.
The only portion of the story which manages to disappoint is the story of newcomer Miiyabin Marten. Though Miiyabin has the potential to be an interesting and unique character in the future, the story introducing her just seems unnecessary. It is lackluster and doesn’t contribute anything to the book’s overall plot. If Miiyabin proves herself as a character in the next volume then her inclusion in this book would be worth it, but if not then this is just a small distraction in an otherwise enjoyable book.
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Art
The majority of Justice League United Vol. 1: Justice League Canada looks great. Mike McKone provides some wonderful looking pencils and inks that are smooth and detailed throughout. Then, colorist Marcelo Maiolo comes in and bathes the work in a pallet that sets the mood and enhances the story. Maiolo also makes a unique stylistic choice by depicting intense or shocking moments exclusively in shades of red and green. I was a big fan of this choice and ending up really appreciating every time this happened.
However, the art takes a major dip in quality near the end, where Timothy Green II takes over pencils and Jeromy Cox takes over colors. The quality drop is instantly recognizable as both characters and scenery loose a large level of detail. On top of this, everyone looks as if they are in a wind tunnel, hair seems to defy the laws of gravity and pop of everyone’s heads in a truly bizarre fashion. It is unfortunate that this otherwise good looking book is marred by this final issue, which luckily doesn’t last too long.
Continuity
Justice League United Vol. 1: Justice League Canada is the first volume in a brand new series. Despite this, it has its origins in the Justice League of America series, which it almost directly continues. The relevant information from Justice League of America is mostly found in Justice League of America Vol. 1: World’s Most Dangerous (Review), since the second volume only involves two members of the team.
The story here is continued in Justice League United Vol. 2: The Infinitus Saga.
This volume also references and continues the stories from other comic books, all of which are detailed below:
- Stargirl makes references to things happening in a “big dream” and a psychic connection between her and Martian Manhunter. Both of these are explained by the events in Justice League of America Vol. 2: Survivors of Evil (Review).
- The “villain uprising” is mentioned a number of times, this happened in Forever Evil (Review).
- Hawkman’s mysterious connection to Nth metal is somewhat explained at the start of The Savage Hawkman Vol. 1: Darkness Rising.
- Green Arrow’s statement that Seattle has “ninjas and assassins” is a reference to the events of Green Arrow Vol. 4: The Kill Machine.
- Though Green Arrow states that the Justice League of America faced off against Byth before, this does not seem to be a reference to any specific story.
- Supergirl’s hatred for Lobo and her past with the Red Lanterns is explained in Supergirl Vol. 5: Red Daughter of Krypton.
- Green Arrow references something happening to Animal Man’s son. This happened in Animal Man Vol. 3: Rotworld: The Red Kingdom.
- The Justice League of America’s showdown with the Justice League is mentioned a few times. This happened in Trinity War (Review).