So, the ongoing Spectre series is coming to an end next month. Guess it didn't bring in the numbers needed to keep it going. So why do the folks at DC think a prestige-format team-up with the Justice League -- penned by the Spectre writer -- is going to somehow strike a stronger chord? Perhaps the thought is that the JLA will prove to be a bigger draw, but I don't think the property has the same pull of popularity it once did when Grant Morrison rejuvenated it in the mid 1990s. In any case, a confused script, generic cosmic threat and uninteresting new designs make for an unpleasant read.
An inner-dimensional threat called the Trans wants to feed off of the negative emotions of our world, and by channelling through a small group of psychics, its invasion has begun. The various members of the Justice League try to oppose monstrous manifestations on their own, but it's only through the Spectre's intervention that they're able to delay disaster. An even more dangerous, stronger Trans entity is on its way, and the JLAers realize they must pool their energies and merge with the Spectre in order to fight it.
There are a couple of strong artists handling the linework on this book, but this does not represent the best efforts of Darryl Banks and Paul Neary. Banks doesn't handle the large cast of characters very well, as those pages featuring the whole JLA team often looked rushed or cramped. The designs for the Spectre amalgams are awkward and ugly, and those of the various Trans monsters are uninteresting. Feeny's colors reinforce the supernatural, cosmic quality of the Spectre nicely, though.
The impression I got from this first of two chapters was that the story was just designed to present us with the various Spectre-amalgams, but the concepts really aren't that interesting. The Spectre with heat vision? The Batman with the Spectre's power? The ideas just don't grab my imagination or sense of wonder at all. The conceptual presentation falls as flat as the visual one.
The most irksome aspect of this book, though, is the awkward shifts in the dialogue from an emphasis on science-fiction to one of more mystical overtones. It adds up to some incredibly stilted dialogue that's a chore to read rather than something to be enjoyed. The writer spends so much time and energy in trying to explain what the antagonist is or isn't that the perception is that even he doesn't really know the answer.
