By: Alex Ross Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: DC Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 160 Publication Date: October 10, 2007 Release Date: October 10, 2007
Product Description: Eisner Award-winning painter Alex Ross has stunned fans timeand again with his artwork in books including KINGDOM COME and THE WORLD'SGREATEST SUPER-HEROES.Now one of comics' greatest artists turns hisattention to the greatest heroes of the DC Universe: the Justice League ofAmerica!In this final volume of the series, the Justice League must storm thestronghold of their greatest foes in order to free the world from theirgrasp.
more joker really enjoyed this series, especially the art. i know it's kind of a take-off on super friends, but like blue oyster cult and the cowbell, it needed more joker
Concluding Chapter To One Of DC's Best Epics Reprinting Nos. 9-12 of the semi-Elseworlds (i.e. non-continuity) epic "Justice", Volume 3 of the saga is a conclusion that lives up to everything promised by events in the first two collections. It's pretty much impossible to discuss this without going into the previous events, so I'm just going to assume that people reading this will be familiar with Volumes 1 and 2.
Which in a way makes a review or endorsement superfluous; it's hard to imagine that anyone who read both previous collections (or all 8 previous issues, whichever the case may be) won't want to be around for the finale. If one is hesitant that the series won't be able to satisfactorily resolve itself, there's nothing to worry about here - the quality established before doesn't drop off one bit. It's seemed apparant from the beginning that there was going to have to be a mammoth battle between the superheroes and their legion of A-List adversaries, and although there are more angles in the final chapters than just that titanic confrontation, the battle itself does come. And pays off in spades, delivering one of the greatest head-on clashes in comics history. Meanwhile, revelations as to true objectives, clashes between former allies, and shifting loyalties as certain of the bad guys aren't sure they want to go all the way with this once certain facts come out, provide other facets of the climax to co-exist with the big showdown.
The first two volumes posed some big questions. On the question of why, in a world with Superman-level beings, the world still has the problems it does, isn't definitively answered (and I suspect that the point may be that a definitive answer for something like that is pretty elusive in any world) but it certainly comes off seeming a lot more complicated than when Luthor first posed the question, seeming to argue that if the Justice League really wanted to, they could wipe out the world's ills overnight. I don't want to say too much about the resolution, and it's easy to talk around it because a lot of things are left open to interpretation, but in places it seems like the answer might in part be, in fact, Luthor and those like him. Back in writing about Volume 1 I said that I'd always assumed the supervillains and other mega-threats provide such a counter-balance to the JLA and their peers that it gets in the way of solving the bigger problems: every time Superman delivers an emergency aid shipment or overnight carves out irrigation tunnels for some drought-stricken part of the world, an Imperiex probe (or some similar threat) crashes down somewhere else and creates the same problem over again, so the net change isn't as great as it could otherwise have been. One is left to wonder: did any of the 'villains' actually believe the lines Lex had them delivering in Volume 1, and what would their inner reaction be to the idea that the superheroes might actually be able to pull off so much more for the world if it wasn't for exactly the kind of scheme they're hatching here, always taking up so much of the herores's and the world's combined efforts?
Some non-spoiler thoughts on the whole series, now that I'm doing a writeup for the finale. One thing that's immediately noticeable in "Justice", although I think I forgot to mention it before, is that with the bad guys - many of whom have been through a number of incarnations during their existance - this book really went for the intimidating and scary look on many of them: just check out Grodd, Bizarro and especially Solomon Grundy (awesome depiction). Even Toyman's contraptions are disturbing: nightmarish corruptions of children's puppets. Second, it's great to see less obvious picks like the Metal Men and Elongated Man really shing alongside the JLA heavyweights in here. Also, what's been done with this version of Lex Luthor is simply brilliant. There are such glaring differences between the way he presents his case early on and what he truly feels. See the scene in Volume 1 where Luthor and some of his allies appear as giant holographic projections and address the Earth's general public; then compare that to when the cornered but still defiant Luthor is making a very different case to Batman, apparantly speaking his mind this time about his motivations. Any normal person would be taken aback by Lex's ruthlessness, but Lex himself believes it makes him noble, that he's actually the biggest humanitarian in all of this. By the same token, you can take the disturbing attitude Luthor displays toward those ordinary humans who went and placed their trust in him after Volume 1's speech, and compare it with the more flattering sentiments toward Lex and his allies, being expressed (in # 10, in this volume) by the Indian girl in her letter, who sees things in a much more benevolent light, and seems to feel that her and others' trust in the 'former' supervillains has payed off and that they've proven the new image of themselves to be sincere. Luthor has schemed to gain the respect and confidence of the world's people, but sees it as a weakness on their part when they give it to him. And sees no contradiction between this and his view of himself as humanity's benefactor.
Although Lex hardly comes off smelling like a rose, there is that balance there where, to him, his reasons make perfect sense; and that balance has been applied to a lot of the villains. On one hand, one of the book's themes serves as a counter-arguement that society brings its misfortunes on itself and that the actual perpetrators aren't the bad guys (a view that seems eerily close to Luthor's own logic, and is vehemently opposed by Superman and Batman in both the tale itself and in the back-of-the-books profiles they've contributed outlining various characters); on the other hand it nuances the villains; one of Luthor's allies in one especially entertaining scence appears decidely less than impressed with Lex's true thoughts and goals making themselves known, for example. It would take pages more to go into all the subtext indepth, but the bottom line is that all the characters in here - from champs like Superman and Wonder Woman to the most dastardly of the baddies - are handled in their portrayals with detail, insight and respect from writers and artists who obviously care as much about the DC Universe as we, its fans, do.
There were other points I was going to make but I'm running out of space, and I could never make them as eloquently as the characters and tale itself - and Krueger, Ross, Braithwaite and the rest of the guys who put it on paper for us - do. Bottom line - "Justice" is one of DC's alltime standouts. Highest possible recommendation for all three volumes.
Finally... Well it took a while but the third part of the story is finally available. I'm blown away by the quality of the artwork and the story is top notch too!
Fun, But Not Without Faults Let me first accentuate the positive by saying that all three volumes of Justice have absolutely brilliant art and are plain and simply fun to read. Seeing all of our favorite heroes and villains together in mostly their "Silver Age" glory with a modern twist is a fun trip for an old guy like me.
That being said, all three volumes of Justice have some glaring weaknesses as well. First of all, the overall plot is poorly conveyed and, at times, muddled beyond clear comprehension. I'm not going to say the plot was poorly conceived because I don't know the exact intended storyline, so I say "conveyed" because I'm basing it upon what I read. Secondly, the narration sometimes tends to shift from character to character without an apparent signal. This shift fails in come cases because the "voice" of the narrator alone is not strong enough to help the reader figure out which character's perspective we're getting. I noticed this to be particularly the case in Volume III when the colors of the narration boxes were not enough to convey the viewpoint.
Finally, Volume III in particular got a bit heavy-handed with the heroes donning armor in order to face their foes. This felt a bit like a promotional toy move than anything, and furthermore it was difficult to figure out who was who beneath the armor in some cases.
All in all, I think Volume II was the strongest in terms of story, narration, and dialogue, but all three volumes had astronomical art with very cool interpretations of character's designs. If you're a fan of Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, Doug Braithwaite, the Silver Age, or the old Super Friends cartoon, you'll probably enjoy this work. Just be ready for a convoluted storyline and (at times) confusing narration.
~Scott William Foley, author of Dr. Nekros: Phantasms and Chicanery (Volume I, Episode II)
Justice For All! Do you remember Saturday Morning Cartoons? If you're a child of the 80's this is a great series of books for you. A great new spin on some classic characters, Alex Ross's art is fantastic as always too. Lots of charachters lots of action.
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