Review: Wonder Woman & The Justice League Dark- The Witching Hour

Quick Summary

Pros: The main storyline is tense, exciting, and includes some highly interesting lore that develops magic within the DC Universe. The volume brings up a positive point about creativity in the real-world. The book’s conclusion leaves the readers wanting more. The artwork is positive throughout the collection.

Cons: The story’s conclusion feels rushed.

Overall: This is an enjoyable read and a fitting piece of the Justice League Dark’s mythology. The concepts are interesting, the storyline is compelling, and the artwork looks good. The entire volume also develops some of the mysteries surrounding the Justice League Dark’s formation and Wonder Woman’s involvement in it. Overall, this crossover will appeal more to Justice League Dark fans than Wonder Woman fans but should still be a solid read for either one.

Story

Wonder Woman & The Justice League Dark: The Witching Hour, by James Tynion IV, is a solid crossover event that provides a great continuation of the storyline in the Justice League Dark series. It immediately jumps into a supercharged battle with control of the universe’s entire magic supply up for grabs. The conflict is both thrilling and exciting, even if the conclusion is a touch disappointing. The volume also provides a compelling dive into the lore behind DC’s version of magic, which works as a fitting analogy for creativity in the real-world. Even as it closes, the book leaves fans wanting more, with a conclusion that teases future development in the Justice League Dark series. Together, these elements make for an enjoyable crossover event.

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The Witching Hour is a massive clash between the newly formed Justice League Dark and Hecate, the mother of all magic. The conflict is a wonderful dive into DC’s magical world, where characters are jumping through dimensions, unlocking hidden powers, performing exorcisms, and everything else one would expect from a book deeply rooted in the arcane. The conflict is also exciting as it forces the heroes to ally themselves with a villain, has Wonder Woman turn against the group for some time, and features the destruction or near-destruction of several important pieces of the magical world.

My only real disappointment here was that the volume’s conclusion felt a bit rushed. Just as things get interesting and readers learn about Hecate’s struggle and the deeper aspects of her personality, the story ends. Though some elements of this story will likely be revisited at some point in the future, I felt like expanding them further here would have given the book’s conclusion more weight.

I also really enjoyed all of the lore behind this event and its connection to the book’s major themes. The backstory surrounding Hecate explains magic’s place as a creative lifeforce that was corrupted by humanity. Magic was once free but humanity’s desire for control imposed strict rules on the expression of magic and even caged its creator. The concept of creative energy being forced into well-defined structures mirrors real-world forms of creative expression, like what often happens in movies, television, and even comics. The book suggests that new ideas should be allowed into the mix, as they will bring a positive change to the current system. The message here is solid and it is told through a compelling history.

Upon its conclusion, The Witching Hour also opens up several great concepts for exploration in the future. The threat of the Upside-Down Man is still present and magic has apparently undergone a change, the impacts of which are completely unknown. Plus, Circe gained a tremendous amount of power in a fantastic final twist. I’m thoroughly excited to see how all of this plays out in the Justice League Dark’s future.

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Art

The artwork in The Witching Hour is positive throughout the collection. Jesús Merino and Álvaro Martínez provide some good-looking and wonderfully creative work. Their contributions are detailed, mystic, and creepy in a way that suits the fantasy/horror mix that this event seems to be going for. Emanuela Lupacchino’s work is just as beautiful and creative but ends up looking a little more lighthearted and, thus, fits the tone a little less. Nevertheless, all of the artwork throughout the collection has a high level of quality and is laid out well, with a few particularly noteworthy splash pages. Overall, this creates a book that is just as pleasing to look at as it is to read.

Continuity

Wonder Woman & The Justice League Dark: The Witching Hour is a crossover between the Wonder Woman and the Justice League Dark series. Despite this, the story here is almost entirely derived from the events of Justice League Dark #1-3, collected in Justice League Dark Vol. 1: The Last Age of Magic (Review), and have little to do with what is taking place in the Wonder Woman series.

The fallout from this crossover is mostly felt in issues of Justice League Dark, starting with issue #5, collected in Justice League Dark Vol. 1: The Last Age of Magic (Review).

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• The new Justice League (Reading Order) lineup and the League’s new headquarters are introduced across Justice League Vol. 1: The Totality (Review). It is also mentioned that the Justice League recently destroyed the moon, this happened in Justice League #1, also collected in Justice League Vol. 1: The Totality (Review).
• The old Justice League Dark (Reading Order) formed back in Justice League Dark Vol. 1: Into the Dark (Review) and their last adventure together was detailed in Justice League Dark Vol. 6: Lost in Forever (Review).
• Constantine gave the devil “the finger” and had his cancer cured back in Hellblazer Vol. 1 #45, collected in Hellblazer Vol. 5: Dangerous Habits.