Review: Justice League Dark Vol. 1- In the Dark

Quick Summary

Pros: The characters here are all interesting and interact in entertaining ways. The theme of the book in general is unique in the mainstream comic landscape. The entire book looks beautiful.

Cons: Some parts of the story are only average at best. There are a few subplots that are more distracting than anything else.

Overall: This volume starts the adventures of a unique group of superheroes based in the mystic side of DC Comics. The story in this volume mostly serves as an introduction, but manages to be entertaining while doing so. There are a few problems here and there but, for an introduction, the book does exactly what it needs to do. Check this one out if you’re a fan of magic or just want to see a different kind of Justice League.

Story

Justice League Vol. 1: In the Dark is Peter Milligan’s introductory volume to a team with a lot of potential. On its own, the story and drama here are pretty average, but the book does manage to succeed in it its goals of bringing together the Justice League Dark and explaining why they need to exist. Besides this, seeing the characters interact is entertaining and builds up a lot of interest for seeing them in the future. While not the best book of all time, this is a solid start to a series that could be great.

(spoilers start here)

The main conflict in this volume revolves around June Moon becoming separated from the Enchantress and the Enchantress causing magical mayhem across the globe in order to get her back. In response to this and future threats, Madame Xanadu sets out on a mission to recruit various members of the magical community to serve as peacekeepers.

Through this recruitment process, we get to see every member of this new League acting in a private way and in a heroic way. I really liked this approach to teambuilding as it shows these new heroes are just normal people to begin with. They are not perfect beings who only falter when confronted with powerful villains, most of them have enough trouble just keeping a simple relationship approach. Milligan describes these heroes as “broken”, which may be the quality that makes everyone so interesting.

The only member who’s introduction isn’t worthwhile is Mindwarp. Mindwarp is given a brief and rushed introduction that barely explains who he is as a character. He also has almost no relevance to the plot and ends up being a distracting side story rather than an interesting character.

The book’s conclusion returns to this theme of “broken” heroes by having a bittersweet ending. Instead of saving June Moon from the Enchantress, the Justice League Dark is forced to confine the Enchantress within June’s body. They justify the cost of this one life with the lives of everyone saved from the Enchantress’s wrath. This type of ending works well with these characters and is a nice changeup from the “happily ever after” style endings that can be found in most superhero comics out there.

The major story element preventing this from being a great book is how loose the narrative structure is. For example, Constantine and Zatanna meet three times; on the third time, Zatanna mentions their first encounter as if had just happened, rather than being further in the past. Plus, the Justice League’s failure to stop Enchantress happens days before the Justice League Dark stops her, which would mean the real Justice League just ignored this problem for a while. It isn’t hard to look past these small errors, but it is annoying that they are there.

In addition to this, the book has a rather off-putting obsession with sex. Every single member of the new Justice League Dark, excluding Madame Xanadu, is involved in some sort of sexual situation in this book. While there is nothing wrong with making sexuality part of the story, the way it is focused on here pushes the limits of literary sensibility in favor of cheap sex appeal.

(spoilers end here)

Art

Mikel Janín provides the art throughout this volume and does a fantastic job in doing so. Janín’s depictions of people and places are so beautiful that it feels like they belong on someone’s wall rather than a comic book. There are a few moments where background characters look a little static, but these bad moments are far overshadowed by the plethora of beautiful ones.

Nice looking people are only half of this book though, as the other half involves the magic from which the title draws its name. Janín excels in this as well and depicts the strange and weird world of the Justice League Dark with a heaping helping of imagination. Colorist Ulises Arreola helps in this as well and brings a surprising amount of color to a book based in darkness. Overall, this book looks just as one would imagine it would, allowing for an even more enjoyable reading experience.

Continuity

Justice League Dark Vol. 1: In the Dark starts the Justice League Dark New 52 series. This means that this is the first volume in a brand new continuity, so there are not many references to previous books or specific character histories. This makes it a great starting point for new fans.

The story here continues in Justice League Dark Vol. 2: The Books of Magic (Review).

This volume also makes references to another comic books, detailed below:

• Despite taking place in a new timeline, Boston Brand and Dawn Granger’s relationship from Brightest Day seems to have carried over.
• At one point in time, various DC Comics characters are shown reacting to magical events around the world. This does not have any impact on this story or the individual character’s stories
• Madame Xanadu’s vision at the end of this volume refers to events at the end of I, Vampire Vol. 1: Tainted Love (Review).