Justice League vol. 1: The Totality

I was at the Comic-Con panel where writer Scott Snyder enthusiastically hyped up (and spoiled parts of) his upcoming run on this series.  It was hard not to get a little excited about it given how he was telling us how this would be the biggest, baddest, and maddest superhero spectacle he had cooked up yet.  Snyder’s “hype mode” went a long way towards getting me to check out this series, particularly in light of his recent track record at DC. While he and Greg Capullo are responsible for one of the all-time great “Batman” runs, his follow-up “All-Star Batman” was fun but not in the same league, “Metal” wasn’t as good as its hype and reviews had led me to believe, and whatever he contributed to “Justice League:  No Justice” was drowned out in noisy spectacle. That said, I’m glad to report that this first volume of “Justice League” is a bit of a return to form for the writer, so long as you can get past its more annoying qualities.

The volume wastes no time getting into high gear as we first encounter the League split across the globe fighting tribes of Neoanderthals raised from beneath the Earth by Vandal Savage.  It’s all another day on the job for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Cyborg, and Hawkgirl, even when the moon turns into a cyclotron to pull the Earth’s crust into space.  Moments after they’ve dispatched this threat, the League gets word of an even bigger one heading right towards their home planet.

This “Totality” has emerged from the cracked Source Wall at the edge of the known universe and is heading to Earth for an unknown purpose.  It might contain the answers and power needed to stop the slow decay of the multiverse, or it just might destroy them. Faced with such a quandry, the League decides to let it come to Earth so they can investigate.  Which suits Lex Luthor just fine. He knows that the Totality is and wants its power for himself. Though he’s willing to share enough of it to get his friends in the Legion of Doom onboard with his plan.

So what annoyed me about this volume?  Well, much like the recent first volume of Jason Aaron’s “Avengers,” this is one of those starting arcs that likes to set the stakes as high as it possibly can.  It’s a “fate of the world” storyline thrown at us right out of the gate with the added bonus of a MacGuffin that promises limitless power and knowledge to whoever gets their hands on it.  I get that the industry is in a state where going big or going home is the only way to get attention and sales, except that it gets exhausting when an ongoing series does it to the reader its first time at bat.

I’m also not a fan of the way in which Snyder throws a couple of big concepts at the reader and fails to develop them properly.  Particularly with the invisible emotional spectrum that’s shown off here and essentially winds up being a way for Sinestro to mind-control everyone on the planet.  While there’s nothing wrong with adding more to the emotional spectrum that’s part of the “Green Lantern” mythos, it’s shown off here in a way that turns this development into more of a plot device than anything else.  The same goes for the still force, though that has the added distinction of being something that’s really hard to visualize as well.

The good news is that, in the wake of the mess that was “No Justice,” “The Totality” has a lot more room to breathe thanks to its six-issues-plus-one length.  Working solo, Snyder is able to pace things much better and give the reader a clearer sense of the stakes and an overall escalation of chaos. Though this isn’t a character-driven series by any means, the writer does have a good handle on his cast and gives them their individual moments to shine as well.

You can also say the same for the opposite side of the cast as well.  Luthor gets plenty of fun moments of grandstanding and it’s fun to see him work for the power offered by the Totality rather than have it handed to him for plot reasons.  I hesitate to call any of the scenes involving the Joker here “fun” as well, but there’s that memorably creepy visual spotlighted on the inside cover involving him and Hawkgirl that seems like it was ripped straight from someone’s nightmares.  Of the rest, Grodd gets the most memorable bits with his taunting of the Flash while he has a baby strapped to his front.

I also liked how Snyder backed away from the worst aspects of how he managed the conflict between both sides in “Metal.”  In the case of that series the best efforts of the good guys would be met with failure every time until the story reached the final issue and the tables had to be turned so they could win.  Here, it’s not so much that the League’s plans are thwarted at each step so much that the bad guys are working together to pull off a coordinated plan. It was also nice to see the good guys finally wrap their heads around what was going on in the penultimate issue and set the stage for the inevitable but still satisfying big win.

Then there’s the fact that every issue of this volume looks FANTASTIC.  “Justice League” marks the DC Universe debut of former Marvel stalwart Jim Cheung who illustrates the first and last issues of this collection.  He’s known for the incredible level of detail he brings to his art as well as the dynamic look of his compositions and Cheung gets plenty of chances to show these off in his issues.  Whether it’s the League fighting off those Neoanderthals across the globe or taking on each individual member of the Legion of Doom, all of the artist’s work makes an impression.

The majority of this volume is illustrated by Jorge Jimenez and that’s definitely not a bad thing.  His style isn’t really consistent with Cheung’s, but it’s so full of energy that you won’t mind. Jimenez clearly thrives on the craziness that Snyder asks him to draw, such as alien landscapes and creatures inside the Totality or the challenges facing Batman and Hawkgirl inside the bodies of Superman and Martian Manhunter, respectively.  It’s exciting work that’s a joy to look at.

Pitching in during the middle of the story is Doug Mahnke who illustrates a James Tynion IV-written story showing how Luthor rounded up the members of his Legion of Doom.  Though I miss the artist’s chunkier, grittier work of years past his efforts here still impress. Mahnke is an artist who can make Luthor having a conversation with Sinestro in the depths of space or with Grodd on the floor of a ruined U.N. seem like the most natural thing in a superhero universe.  Same goes for Lexor City, probably the nuttiest aspect of Tynion’s story. Though the writer has frustrated me in the past with his adherence to superhero convention, this is one of his better efforts. He’s good a good handle on how Luthor is driven by his need to be right and better than those around him, as well as the other personalities of the villains he interacts with.  The story left me thinking that Tynion should write more villain-centric comics after this.

There’s one other thing that I liked about this first volume of “Justice League,” and that’s the fact that Snyder looks to have a story he wants to tell for his run.  The Totality itself is only part of it, but the League is also going to have to deal with the potential collapse of the multiverse, and the ongoing threat of the Legion of Doom — along with the last-page reveal of their newest partner-in-crime.  Even with its flaws, this first volume does enough right and lays out an interesting direction for the series to convince me to come back for the next volume. Which will involve a war between Atlantean gods, so it doesn’t look like the action or drama will be dialed back at all.