Review: Justice League Vol. 5- Legacy

Quick Summary

Pros: The concept behind this storyline is interesting. There a quite a few emotional and humorous moments within the characters’ interactions.

Cons: Flaws in logic and a deus ex machina style conclusion hamper the volume’s main story. The volume provides a poor conclusion to the storyline that has been built up throughout this series.

Overall: This is a volume that is average at best and disappointing at worse. It tells a decently entertaining story right from the start; it has a unique premise, plenty of emotions, and only a few small flaws. However, the way in which this volume concludes a much larger storyline does not live up to its own potential and is a big letdown. All of this makes for a passable standalone Justice League story but a disappointing end to this era of the comic series.

Story

Justice League Vol. 5: Legacy is a decent volume on its own but a disappointing conclusion to a larger storyline. This volume starts with an interesting concept, including time-travel and potential futures, and makes it pretty entertaining. There are a few problems here and there, but the story, at its core, is passable. However, this volume also concludes a larger story that has been built up for the past four volumes. This conclusion does not come close to living up to its own hype and makes the book feel more hollow for this reason. These two factors combine to make this a collection that treads the line between good and bad, depending on readers’ history with the series.

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At the core of Legacy is a story about the Justice League meeting children from a potential version of their own future. This, in and of itself, is quite an entertaining concept. It allows readers a chance to see the members of the Justice League in more parental roles than ever before. This is particularly satisfying in the case of Jessica Cruz and Superman, both of whom really shine in their new roles. It also creates a number of situations that work out well in developing either emotion or humor.

However, this story also has a number of small flaws that permeate through it. A few logical problems, like Jessica Cruz’s children inheriting her non-biological connection to the emotional spectrum, exist and disconnect the volume from the established reality of this universe. Plus, the narrative concludes with a significant deus ex machina, which definitely takes away from the quality of the book. These flaws do not completely ruin the volume but do manage to take it from good to average.

The big factor, in potentially taking this book from average to bad, will be how readers feel about the end of the series’ larger narrative. For the past four volumes (five if you include Justice League of America: Power and Glory (Review)), the Justice League has been moving closer and closer to a threat of universe ending proportions. Numerous storylines and characters warned the League about this threat and the showdown seemed as if it would be monumental. In this volume, this threat is finally revealed and then dealt with rather easily.

The rushed nature of the ending and the nonchalant way in which it is handled does not line up well with the copious amount of setup. For readers who have read all of this setup, this could be a big deal and make this volume far worse than it is on its own. However, readers who have little history with this series will find the conclusion adequate when compared to the story told within Legacy.

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Art

The artwork in Legacy ends up matching the story’s quality level: average. Fernando Pasarin’s pencils have a solid amount of detail and are structured well. This leads to pages that easily convey information and accurately depict what exactly is happening at every moment. However, strangely drawn faces make characters look odd and dilute the impact of some of the book’s more emotional scenes. The overall result is a book that looks good in passing but only looks average upon a more thorough reading.

Continuity

Justice League Vol. 5: Legacy continues the story from Justice League Vol. 4: Endless (Review).

The story here continues in Justice League Vol. 6: The People vs. The Justice League (Review).

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

• Jon Kent and Damian Wayne’s “Super Sons Club” is mentioned. This is likely a reference to the time they spend together starting in Super Sons Vol. 1: When I Grow Up (Review).
• Aquaman’s absence is explained by the events of Aquaman Vol. 3: Crown of Atlantis.
• Wonder Woman mentions that she has uncovered a number of lies in her own life. The story behind this starts in Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Lies.