Review: Justice League Dark Vol. 5- Paradise Lost

Quick Summary

Pros: Both main storylines are fun and interesting. A number of the Justice League Dark’s members get their chance to shine here.

Cons: Nightmare Nurse’s character is characterized somewhat chaotically.

Overall: Fans of the Justice League Dark are in luck, as this volume sees the series’ return to quality writing and entertaining storylines. With intrusive crossovers in the past, this volume can be seen as a reintroduction to the team. It immediately focuses on telling several short, but surprisingly captivating, stories that highlight the League members’ unique skills and relationships. If you enjoyed earlier Justice League Dark books, now is the time to return to the series.

Story

After the bloated and messy Forever Evil: Blight (Review) event, Justice League Dark Vol. 5: Paradise Lost, by J.M. DeMatteis, is a wonderfully refreshing return to form. It tells a few straightforward stories about the Justice League Dark that embrace magic while also just having a little fun. These are stories that grab your interest from the start and maintain them all the way through. A few minor flaws here and there prevent it from being something truly great, but do not prevent it from being the slightly above average collection that it is. This volume doesn’t quite reach the level of Lemire’s sweeping epics or Milligan’s beautifully unique introduction, but it does tell a solid story about magic that renews my faith in the Justice League Dark series.

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The book starts out very strong with a Zatanna centric story. This story sees Zatanna struggling to find her place as the new leader of the Justice League Dark. It also features a betrayal from Nightmare Nurse, who is revealed to be a spirit who takes over people’s bodies in order to live. They have a quick battle against her which cumulates in the entire House of Mystery being thrown into another dimension. In order to escape, Nightmare Nurse sacrifices herself and allows the League to return to Earth. However, it is then revealed that Zatanna was able to save the Nurse and allows her to remain on the team.

This is a pretty straightforward and fun dive into magic, which is the perfect way to start this volume. It is entertaining, not too deep, and allows a few different members of the League to have their time in the spotlight. The only place it really makes a misstep is in the characterization of Nightmare Nurse, who goes from good to bad to good again so quickly that it loses a bit of its impact. In the grand scheme of things though, this is only a small piece of the story and does not detract much from the otherwise solid tale of adventure.

The book’s second arc features a similar level of quality and writing. This one is a Deadman story, focused on a villain exploiting Deadman’s unique connection to the mystical land of Nanda Parbat. Though not as thrilling as the first arc, this one allows each member of the League to stand out more than before and creates a story that is even more imaginative. This makes it a nice compliment to the first story and a wonderful second installment for this volume.

Finally, the book concludes with a Future’s End tie-in issue. This is a truly unique story showing a dark, yet intriguing, possible future for the League. I found myself oddly invested in the story, despite it only spanning one issue, and finished it ready to learn more about the strange future world that this issue showed. DeMatteis does a great job telling such a short but captivating story here; it is something that longtime fans of this series will be able to easily appreciate.

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Art

Unfortunately, this volume marks the first volume without superstar artist Mikel Janín. However, penciler Andres Guinaldo is no slouch when it comes to picking up the slack. Guinaldo starts this collection by drawing several beautiful rooms in the House of Mystery and keeps the level of quality going from this point on. His work is detailed and his depictions of both characters and locations are all on point. Plus, vibrant colors from Brad Anderson really help the process along and make this a book with a strange level of beauty to be found on nearly every page. Though not as breathtaking as some of the previous collections, this is still a good looking book that few will be able to find a serious problem with.

Continuity

Justice League Dark Vol. 5: Paradise Lost continues the story from Justice League Dark Vol. 4: The Rebirth of Evil (Review).

The story here continues in Justice League Dark Vol. 6: Lost in Forever (Review).

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

• A number of references are made to the Forever Evil: Blight (Review) (Reading Order) event, which the League participated in directly before this.
• Deadman’s origin story in Secret Origins #6 is referenced a few times. This issue is collected in Secret Origins Vol. 2.
• The final issue here is a Futures End (Review) (Reading Order) tie-in issue. This tie-in simply explains what the Justice League Dark was doing during the alternate future of the Futures End event.
• The Future’s End issue features an appearance by the villain Non, who was a major player in the second half of Trinity of Sin: The Phantom Stranger Vol. 3: The Crack in Creation (Review).