CREDIT: DC Comics
Rating: 4.5/5 – Hitch Proves he can Draw and Write!
By ComicSpectrum senior reviewer Shawn Hoklas.
In Justice League of America number one, we get almost fifty pages of exciting and of course detailed Bryan Hitch art that showcases DC’s big seven. Although one could argue that Martian Manhunter is missing from the team, it’s no surprise that Cyborg makes the cut in his place. Coming out of the New 52, Justice League of America is the second title starring DC’s most popular characters and stands alongside Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok’s current Justice League book in terms of art and, surprisingly, story. In addition to drawing all forty-eight pages, Bryan Hitch tells a dense story that’s wonderfully paced and balances the large roster of characters.
The last big story that Hitch drew was Image’s ‘America’s Got Powers’. Although the art in that series was action packed using wide angled panels and plenty of splash pages, the connection to those newly introduced characters was missing for me. Here, Hitch is back working on an iconic team that puts Superman in the starring role. Although at first the book is heavy on Superman, it actually turns out to be a smart choice that allows the reader to ease in to the story and not jump around to character after character. Superman is invited to a mysterious event by an organization that shares it’s name with an important team from DC’s past, and it’s here he that he finds a young scientists is pulling recently killed Supermen from all across different times and dimensions into our reality, attempting to find out why they’re dying, and what’s causing an extinction level event to ripple across the universe.
Seeing multiple dead Supermen is a powerful image that grabbed my attention early on, and from that moment I was hooked. Hitch then starts to introduce the remaining Justice League team members as they fight one of Superman’s more underrated villains, the Parasite. This is where Hitch lets loose with his art as it takes the whole team to attempt to bring him down. Hitch is able to make each team member stand out, with his Flash standing out amongst the rest due in large part to the gorgeous colors by Alex Sinclair and Jeremy Cox. Green Lantern’s light is both bright and subtle when it needs to be, while Flash’s red costume stands out against the purple tones of the Parasite and Hitch gives Flash a great sense of speed without having to rely on a heavy use of speed lines. This book is beautiful to look at and it’s exciting that we’re about to see a whole lot more.
With a Justice League book that has Hitch supplying the pencils you know you’re in for a visual treat, but what I wasn’t expecting was to enjoy his writing as much as I did. Although he’s given the extra room in this oversized first issue, Hitch is able to balance the cast of characters while telling a story that has Superman in the starring role. Justice League of America should have stories that look and feel big, and so far Hitch is proving that he’s able to accomplish both of these things.
Reviewed by: Shawn Hoklas
(shawn@comicspectrum.com)
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