reviewed by Jonathan Little
Are you bored yet? Don't be. I realise Tornado's always been a second string character. But this review probably isn't doing the writing justice. After reading the first two issues, you may get a sense that the story is heavy on exposition and light on action. I couldn't agree more. But rarely have I had so much fun reading a comic book with that combination. One of the highlights is watching Superman, Batman, and Wonderwoman sitting around a table with photos of past leaguers, arguing over who should be in the newest version of the league. The petty bickering between the three is almost reminiscent of little kids trading baseball cards, with Batman often getting the best lines.
Another highlight has been the artist's use of a more primitive style of illustration in the scenes that are meant to depict the early years of the Justice League. I've always thought that this would be an interesting way for a comic to show the transition between the past and the present, and here it is used perfectly.
To be fair, I should mention the negative too. There's not much here to dislike, but I do feel that Meltzer will eventually have to get going with a little more steam as far as where he wants to take the story. True, his dialogue-heavy plotting has been fun so far, but eventually fans are going to want some kind of narrative pay off for their $2.99-a-month investment.
Alright. I've gone on for several paragraphs about why I like this comic, so I'll try to just "bottom-line it" here. This may not be the most action-intense comic you'll ever read. But it may very well be the most fun. I guess that's what I like the most about this title. It seemed that in the mid-90's when Image Comics was at the height of it's popularity, both DC and Marvel felt it a priority to make their staple characters more "dark and gritty" in an effort to change with the times. I feel that now things are starting to swing back the other way a bit. And I think that's a positive change. In a Batman solo book, "sure, make it gritty." But most of these characters came out of the Golden and Silver age. They were never meant to be dark. And to me, that's largely what DC comics is. You want dark? Buy a Vertigo comic.
