Review: Justice League of America Vol. 3- Panic in the Microverse

Quick Summary

Pros: The main storyline is fun and interesting. The blend of high stakes action and intimate adventure works out well. This volume gives a solid conclusion to the search for Ray Palmer. The art looks beautiful and is very creative.

Cons: The team aspect of the book is undervalued, which undervalues Black Canary, the Ray, and Vixen.

Overall: This is a solid entry in the Justice League of America comic, one that breathes new life into the series. It features an exciting cosmic adventure through a world where science fiction blooms in awesome ways. This unique world is wonderfully creative, making it just as much fun to read as it is to look at. The only problem is that the story focuses on a few characters, rather than the whole team. However, if readers can overcome this hurdle, they will find a solid adventure within this collection.

Story

Justice League of America Vol. 3: Panic in the Microverse is fun, exciting, and easily the best volume in this series so far. Here, writer Steve Orlando finally peels back the mystery on the original Atom’s disappearance and does so in a way that thoroughly lives up to the expectation. This takes the Justice League of America on an adventure that blends cosmic odyssey with creative science fiction. Plus, high stakes and fun moments from individual characters make this adventure even better. Overall, this collection is a gem in a series that has, thus far, just been treading water.

(spoilers start here)

The main storyline in Panic in the Microverse follows the Atom, Batman, Lobo, and Killer Frost as they journey into the Microverse in order to find Ray Palmer. This storyline has been teased for a long time, since before this series even began, so it started with quite a bit of anticipation. Luckily, this volume proceeds to do a great job in living up to the hype.

Part of this comes from the way in which high stakes-storytelling is brought to the center of the volume. This is accomplished by immediately identifying the effect that the Microverse has on the greater universe, mainly by demonstrating that the destruction of the Microverse will lead to the destruction of the Multiverse. This gives the story a sense of urgency and importance throughout.

These high stakes are then combined with a relatively intimate adventure through the Microverse. The cast here is small and focused, making their mission feel more personal and less ambiguous. It highlights the power of the individual, which fits in perfectly with the book’s theme of size being a matter of perspective. Plus, well-written science fiction and exciting action keep things fun the entire way. All of this creates a unique combination that makes the volume feel like a classic Fantastic Four adventure, which is very high praise.

The only problem here is that the story focuses almost entirely on a small portion of the JLA and reduces Black Canary, the Ray, and Vixen to minor roles. This makes the book feel less like the team book that it is and more like an Atom solo book that just happens to feature other characters. This does not affect the overall quality of the collection but might cause it to disappoint fans looking for a team story.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The positives found throughout Panic in the Microverse are further enhanced by some beautiful looking artwork. Ivan Reis returns to the series and does so with great success. His work here is full of detail and makes every character look fantastic. This helps the characters convey emotion and better depict what is happening throughout the story.

However, the best part about the visuals is how wonderfully imaginative they are. The Microverse ends up being a diverse landscape populated by unique creatures and inorganic wonders. Since the setting here is so crucial to the story, making it look good makes the story better. Consequently, this makes the entire book even more worthwhile.

Continuity

Justice League of America Vol. 3: Panic in the Microverse continues the story from Justice League of America Vol. 2: Curse of the Kingbutcher (Review).

The story here continues in Justice League of America Vol. 4: Surgical Strike (Review).

This volume also references stories from other comic books, detailed below.

• Ray Palmer’s quest was teased back in DC Universe: Rebirth (Review).
• Batman mentions an energy he discovered in a button. This mystery is explored in Batman/The Flash: The Button.
• Afterthought and another character mention having recent encounters with Midnighter. Afterthought fought Midnighter in Midnighter Vol. 2: Hard (Review) and the other character fought Midnighter in Midnighter Vol. 1: Out (Review).