Review: Justice League of America- Road to Rebirth

Quick Summary

Pros: Most character’s origins are very well done and allow readers to connect with the character while also providing a story of their own.

Cons: The art and story in the Ray’s origin are both not that great.

Overall: In this collection, readers receive thrilling and interesting introductions to a brand new cast of characters in a brand new Justice League. Nearly every story here is fun to read and contributes to the team’s overall narrative. Plus, small mysteries are thrown in throughout the new origins, providing loads of potential for this new series. If the start of Justice League of America is as good as this story makes it seem than fans are in for a wild ride.

Story

Justice League of America: Road to Rebirth, by Steve Orlando and Jody Houser, is something I would like to see more of in comic books. Here are four separate, and mostly high quality, origin stories which stand on their own while simultaneously building up to a larger work. The decompressed stories allow readers to connect with the characters on a more personal level than usual but still contain enough action to keep things fresh and entertaining. Not every story knocks it out of the park, but on the whole this is a great introduction to a promising series.

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The majority of the origin stories in this book are very well done. They present the character, show how they got their powers, briefly describe their motivations, and explain how they got in their current position. It is an effective way to introduce a host of new characters without ever boring the reader. In particular, I thought that the Atom and Vixen issues were the best of the bunch and could have been the start of solo series all on their own.

The only origin which didn’t feel as well written was the Ray’s. The entire story seemed so generic that it bordered on uninteresting. It really only picked up once the Ray discovered his powers, however this was so close to the story’s end that it became hard to properly appreciate.

It wasn’t just characters that were introduced in this story though, a plethora of potential avenues for storytelling were opened throughout the cast’s introduction. The current location of Ray Palmer, Vixen’s past and family, the origin and whereabouts of the Ray’s dad, and whether Killer Frost has truly reformed are all questions that this book asks. The crazy thing is that any one of these stories would be a pleasure to see, so the possibility of seeing all of them throughout this series is huge. This series clearly has a lot going for it right out the gate, hopefully it lives up to this promise.

After the one-shots, the introductory issue to the actual Justice League of America series is done. It follows different members of the new League as they go out and recruit their future coworkers. This structure works well because it allows readers to see how the actual recruitment process happens and how these different people interact together for the first time. Dynamics are already starting to form and it instantly becomes clear that Black Cannary and Lobo are going to clash while distrust behind Killer Frost flourishes. This seems like a fun, new Justice League and an equally fun new series.

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Art

Since this volume features a collection of five different artists’ work, it is hard to judge the artistic quality of the piece as a whole. However, it can easily be said that the majority of this book ranges from good to very good. The Atom and Killer Frost issues fall directly in the middle, while the Ray issue ends up taking last place.

The true gems here are the Vixen and Justice League Rebirth issues. In the Vixen issue, artist Jamal Campbell paints pretty picture all around but excels when showing how Vixen uses her powers. The spirt of the animal envelops her, conveying its power while not obscuring her own. It looks great and is a nice way to show this character’s unique strength. Meanwhile, the Justice League Rebirth issue looks fantastic simply because superstar artist Ivan Reis is the one doing it. His attention to detail and beautiful character designs are always fantastic to see.

Continuity

About half of the stories in Justice League of America: Road to Rebirth flow directly out of the Justice League vs. Suicide Squad (Review) event. The other half are completely independent and can be read without any background knowledge of the characters.

This collection also serves as a prelude to the Justice League of America series, which begins with Justice League of America Vol. 1: The Extremists (Review).

• Parts of the Atom’s story were previously seen in DC Universe: Rebirth (Review).
• The citizens of Earth 36 are shown on a comic book at the Ray’s home. These characters were introduced in Multiversity.