Review: Justice League International Vol. 1- The Signal Masters
Quick Summary
Pros: The main storyline has a few fun moments of action. Booster Gold’s story is alright in some places.
Cons: Most of the book feels incredibly generic and ends up being uninteresting. The characters are all underdeveloped and fail to distinguish themselves. The book’s subplot feels unnecessary and complicates an already struggling narrative.
Overall: The new Justice League International is off to a bit of a rocky start. The first volume’s main storyline isn’t that bad; it also isn’t that good either. The book is filled with a host of characters that fail to truly generate much interest, either as individuals or as a team. The end result is a lackluster adventure starring a poor cast of heroes. This volume might appeal to those looking for a passable Booster Gold story but is unlikely to resonate with others.
Story
Justice League International Vol. 1: The Signal Masters, by Dan Jurgens, is a lackluster volume whose characters and concepts fail to stir up significant levels of interest. The entire book is centered around the Justice League International’s debut mission, which ends up being a woefully generic affair. Further complications are introduced through the characters themselves, as their personal stories are uninteresting and their interactions are boring. The very end of the volume starts to show a bit more potential, but it does not make up for the generally poor quality seen throughout the rest of the book. Hopefully this series will improve but, as of this moment, things do not look good for the Justice League International.
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The Signal Masters mostly follows a relatively straightforward plotline about a potential doomsday scenario that the Justice League International is forced to prevent. This allows for some brief moments of action and a few exciting scenes. However, the entire ordeal passes by without doing anything truly memorable and fails to arouse much interest. Instead, it passes by as a mostly generic affair, not doing much in terms of positives or negatives.
Instead, The Signal Masters‘s most significant problem comes from the characters themselves. None of the Justice League International members feel sufficiently developed, and none of them generate any interest on their own. The character who raises the most individual interest is Booster Gold, but even his character ends up being a generic leader instead of anything more memorable. I finished this book with little interest in seeing more from these characters, which does not bode well for the series’ longevity.
In addition to being poor as individuals, the characters here also function poorly as a group. Their interactions are boring and provide little to the story. This is mostly because their conversations primarily revolve around small talk or playing off cultural stereotypes. They are also occasionally contradictory, as Vixen reproaches Batman for his attitude despite the fact that Batman was the most encouraging member of the team thus far. The final chapter of this volume shows some genuine potential, as it has characters participate in meaningful discussions, but it is not enough to save the volume as a whole.
Outside of the main plotline, the book also sees the JLI deal with a small group of terrorists attacking the Hall of Justice. Right off the bat, this does not makes sense since, in this continuity, the Justice League never used a Hall of Justice. The issue is then complicated by poor motivation from the terrorists themselves, leaving them as poor villains and making their inclusion in the story feel unnecessary. In the end, the time spent on these terrorists feels as if it could have been better spent developing the members of the JLI.
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Art
The artwork in The Signal Masters ends up being average and does not do much to push the quality in either a positive or negative direction. The book primarily features pencils by Aaron Lopresti, whose character depictions look alright and serve well in telling the story. Lopresti’s best work is seen near the end of the League’s battle with the Signal Masters, which has some great depictions of how the Signal Masters are affecting the Earth as a whole. However, there are only a few moments here that truly stand out. Instead, the majority of the book ends up being rather average, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Continuity
Justice League International Vol. 1: The Signal Masters starts the Justice League International New 52 series. This series features a new version of the Justice League International and does not reference previous versions of the team, which were wiped from existence in this new continuity.
The story started here continues in Justice League International Vol. 2: Breakdowns.
This volume also references stories from other comic books, detailed below:
- The establishment of the main Justice League is mentioned a number of times. This Justice League’s origin is detailed in Justice League Vol. 1: Origin (Review).
- The main Justice League’s modern adventures are detailed in Justice League Vol. 2: The Villain’s Journey (Review).