Review: Justice League of America Vol. 1- World’s Most Dangerous
Quick Summary
Pros: The characters are fun and work well together. The explanation and justification for this team is well done. The plotline is mysterious in a way that will keep readers interested.
Cons: There are some very minor moments in the art that feel off.
Overall: The Justice League of America is a fresh, humorous, and entertaining take on the Justice League that promises to be a pleasure to read. It takes a diverse group of heroes and villains, throws them together, and pits them against a compelling and enigmatic group of evildoers. For their first adventure, these characters are off to a great start. Read this if you like Geoff Johns’ work on the Justice League but would like to see it be more fun and grounded.
Review Notes
The “Trinity War” storyline is an intense crossover between the Justice League, Justice League of America, and Justice League Dark comic series. Because of this, reading the issues involved with this crossover of one series on its own will make almost no sense without the others. For more information see our Trinity War reading order here.
Therefore, we will be reviewing the entirety of the “Trinity War” storyline in our review of Trinity War (found here) instead of within this review. This review will cover the portions of Justice League of America Vol. 1: World’s Most Dangerous which are not part of the “Trinity War” storyline. Therefore, this review will cover issues #1-5 of Justice League of America.
Story
Justice League of America Vol. 1: World’s Most Dangerous serves mostly as an origin for a new and unique version of the Justice League and as a prelude to Trinity War (Review) In both of these ways, it is a huge success. The new team is great and is full of vibrant chemistry just waiting to come to the surface. Plus, the mystery of the Secret Society is thrilling and well developed. There is a lot to love in this initial volume that fans are sure to appreciate.
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The book starts out by explaining and justifying the reason behind this iteration of the Justice League. The US Government isn’t okay with a host of superpowered beings wielding ultimate power over the fate of the world and wants a team of their own in place. This new team is both specifically designed to counteract the real Justice League and be able to serve on missions of their own. From a conceptual standpoint this is already really interesting and ripe for plenty of cool storylines.
Once this new League is assembled, readers get a peek at the best part of the book, the team dynamic. This isn’t the Justice League, where personalities and actions are kept on a mostly professional level and tomfoolery is kept to a minimum. Here we see Catwoman purposely antagonize her cohorts while Hawkman unknowingly does his best to terrify them: Vibe’s horror at seeing a blood covered Hawkman may be one of my favorite moments from any Justice League comic in a long time. There is time for humor and frivolity among this new League and it plays out great for the reader.
With introductions and team chemistry out of the way, the actual plot to the book begins. There is a new and dangerous group of villains going by the moniker of the “Secret Society” who’s actions threaten the world’s future. The new League goes in to investigate but is quickly ambushed by a group of robots masquerading as the real Justice League. After dispatching these mechanical fiends, they decide a more covert approach is necessary.
This approach involves Catwoman feigning capture in order to infiltrate the criminal underworld and uncover more details as to how this Secret Society operates. In typical Catwoman fashion, she alters this plan and decides to give her fellow League members a more convincing chase by actively running away from them. This is a fun scene which also leads to a great moment where Green Arrow joins the team, by essentially blackmailing them.
All of this cumulates in a full on assault on the Society’s headquarters. Catwoman works them from within while the rest of the League fights more robots in order to gain entrance. The crowning moment in this portion of the story is when “Catwoman” dies only for it to be revealed that this “Catwoman” was actually Martian Manhunter, who is unharmed. It is a nice twist that is briefly foreshadowed, so it doesn’t exactly come out of nowhere, and is also further explained by the backup issues. The story then ends on a cliffhanger, leaving the audience in prime position for the crossover event that is yet to come.
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Art
The first half of this story is mostly done by David Finch with Sonia Oback on colors. This leads to a very realistic looking book as Finch’s work is always steeped in detail and Oback’s colors present a more muted and true to life palette. This type of art works well with this portion of the story as, so far, everything here is ground based and not too supernatural yet. It makes the first half of the book look great and helps get things off to a good start.
The second half of the story is done by Brett Booth with Andrew Dalhouse on colors. These two present a more “superheroic” and fantastic version of the team. This aesthetic fits well with this portion of the book as this is where the plotline starts to become more supernatural, and weird science plays a bigger part in the narrative. I had a few problems with how Booth drew certain facial reactions to events, some characters overreact to seemingly minor reveals, but overall this part of the book still looks great.
Continuity
Justice League of America Vol. 1: World’s Most Dangerous is the start of a brand new series in the world of DC Comics. Despite this though, it has its start in the Justice League series, where recruitment can be seen as early as Justice League Vol. 2: The Villain’s Journey (Review).
The story here continues in Trinity War (Review) or Justice League of America Vol. 2: Survivors of Evil (Review).
This volume also references stories from other comic books, all of which are detailed below.
- Amanda Waller brings up a number of Steve Trevor’s exploits with the Justice League.
- The battle with Starro was never shown but is depicted on David Graves’s book at the end of Justice League Vol. 1: Origin (Review).
- The first battle with Despero was also never shown but is referenced in Despero’s second attack in Justice League Vol. 4: The Grid (Review).
- His confrontation with Graves happens in Justice League Vol. 2: The Villain’s Journey (Review).
- His departure from the team happened in Justice League Vol. 2: The Villain’s Journey (Review).
- Amanda Waller mentions the Justice League International’s vacated headquarters and Booster Gold’s disappearance. Both of these are due to events at the end of Justice League International Vol. 2: Breakdown.
- Superman and Wonder Woman’s kiss happened in Justice League Vol. 2: The Villain’s Journey (Review).
- Darkseid’s invasion of Earth happened in Justice League Vol. 1: Origin (Review).
- Martian Manhunter’s fallout with the Justice League is mentioned. This has never been shown but was referenced in Justice League Vol. 2: The Villain’s Journey (Review).
- The fact that the “new Green Lantern” was arrested is brought up. This happened in Green Lantern Vol. 3: The End.
- Amanda Waller mentions that Steve Trevor knows Green Arrow. This is due to Justice League Vol. 2: The Villain’s Journey (Review).
- “Atlantis’s assault” is brought up. This happened in Justice League Vol. 3: Throne of Atlantis (Review).
- Steve Trevor talks about the fact that the Justice League Dark’s headquarters can move. He is talking about the House of Mystery, introduced in Justice League Dark Vol. 2: The Books of Magic (Review).
- Green Arrow finding a coin communicator is a reference to events in Justice League Vol. 3: Throne of Atlantis (Review).
- Simon Baz mentions fighting a “rainbow man.” This happened in Green Lantern Vol. 3: The End.