Review: Justice League Vol. 6- The People vs. The Justice League

Quick Summary

Pros: The second half of the volume is interesting and presents a neat premise. The writing is filled with detail and great real-world trivia.

Cons: The first half of the volume is very generic and rather uninteresting. The tone of the artwork clashes with the tone of the story.

Overall: The quality level of this book is divided into two parts, half being good and the other half being bad. The bad dominates the book’s beginning and only shifts into something worthwhile about halfway through the read. Though this improvement helps, it ends up only counteracting the volume’s negatives. The end result is something that feels curiously average and, all in all, not that memorable. This volume is recommended for readers looking for a Justice League story that feels akin to themes in Marvel’s Civil War.

Story

Justice League Vol. 6: The People vs. The Justice League combines a subpar beginning with a decent ending to create a volume that feels mediocre overall. The opening chapters are where the majority of the problems are contained. These issues detail a rather unoriginal story about worldwide distrust in superheroes and, in general, fail to truly light a spark of interest. Things start to improve as the volume reaches the midway mark but even these improvements feel like too little, too late. Hopefully the next volume will continue aspects from this volume’s second half and will prove to be better overall.

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The People vs. The Justice League starts out with a woefully generic premise. A tragic accident has occurred and has brought superheroes under the lens of public opinion. This calls into question issues regarding civil rights, foreign sovereignty, and criminal jurisdiction in a world where masked crimefighters exist. While an exploration of these issues isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it has been done far too often in the world of comic books. Nothing here significantly stands out as being unique or particularly interesting by itself.

In fact, this particular examination into the rights of superheroes is less entertaining than some others because of the volume’s unclear focus. Small and inconsequential subplots distract from the book’s main theme and unnecessarily clutter this read. This dilutes the book’s message and also makes the overall reading experience worse.

Luckily, the book’s second half shifts focus and significantly improves the quality of this work. It details the violent actions of a vigilante who grew up admiring the Justice League. This renegade “fan” crosses boundaries that the League wouldn’t dare cross but still believes himself to be protecting the League’s interests. This provides a far more interesting and unique look at the inherent potential for autocracy that the League’s presence invites onto itself. The fan’s exploits are also more exciting as well, since he ends up being a formidable opponent for the heroes to face off against.

The other major positive present throughout The People vs. The Justice League is Christopher Priest’s awesome writing style. Each and every situation shown here is depicted with an incredible level of detail and dedication. Priest brings in real-world trivia and realistic dialogue to make the Justice League’s missions look and sound as professional as one would expect them to be. This level of polish is nice to see, especially from a team with such importance to the overall DC Universe.

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Art

The People vs. The Justice League ends up looking good but not great. The majority of the artwork here is from Pete Woods, who provides a stylized take on the League and their adventures. On their own, these visuals look nice and give the members of the League a solid level of detail.

The problems come from the way in which the artwork clashes with the story. The entire volume covers a serious series of adventures that involve distrust, internal politics, and even death. The stylized artwork and bright colors significantly distract from this tone and almost give the book a light and cheerful attitude. The artwork’s sunny disposition does not work well with the story and, as a result, makes the reading experience less enjoyable.

Continuity

Justice League Vol. 6: The People vs. The Justice League continues the story from Justice League Vol. 5: Legacy (Review).

The story here continues in Justice League Vol. 7: Justice Lost (Review).

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

• Martian Manhunter’s history with the Justice League is referenced. This history has not be touched upon since Justice League Vol. 2: The Villain’s Journey (Review).
• Batman, Nightwing, and Robin’s leadership roles are mentioned. Nightwing has a leadership role on the Titans, which began back in Titans Vol. 1: The Return of Wally West (Review), and Robin has a leadership role on the Teen Titans, which began back in Teen Titans Vol. 1: Damian Knows Best (Review).
• Batman’s “other team” is brought up. This team was formed in the aftermath of Justice League vs. Suicide Squad (Review) (Reading Order) and began their adventures in Justice League of America Vol. 1: The Extremists (Review).