JLA #66
"The Destroyers, Part 1"
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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DC Comics
Writer: Joe Kelly
Pencils: Doug Mahnke
Inks: Tom Nguyen
Colors: David Baron
Letters: Ken Lopez
Editor: Dan Raspler
Price: $2.25 US/$3.75 CAN |
Joe Kelly has managed to live up to the standard set on this title by the previous two regular writers, Grant Morrison and Mark Waid. He's presenting larger-than-life, "widescreen" stories worthy of a team dubbed "the world's greatest super-heroes." Kelly also manages to balance those big ideas with small moments of humanity. Ultimately, though, he's got so many ideas, so much information to convey, that not all of the pertinent details come through.
Daytona Beach is bombarded with... some of the larger varities of sea life? As the Flash and Green Lantern help to clean up the whales, squids and the like, they discover something else among the wreckage, something that doesn't belong there. The Justice League scrambles to deal with the strange object after it attacks the two younger members, and they soon discover its link to myth, the abduction of several children... and to the realm of nightmares.
Mahnke seems quite at home when dealing with the otherworldly action that's an integral part of this series. There's a maturity and darkness to the visuals that sets it apart from standard super-hero fare as well; that image of the plague of crows at the end of the book is disturbing in its detail. Kelly seems to have taken a more supernatural tone with JLA overall, and the penciller's dark but detailed style works well with it. I'm pleased to find that's the case, as his previous assignment -- Superman: The Man of Steel -- was much more of a sci-fi book.
Kelly initially built his career in mainstream comics on his sense of humor in Deadpool, and it's good to see his wit creep into this book as well. The opening scene, featuring Green Lantern's dream of a night with his JLA "pals," was a lot of fun, and it starts the book off on a grounded, if a bit silly, foot. The intensity of later scenes -- such as the Flash and Green Lantern's trauma, and the onslaught of crows -- dominate the book, though, making for chilling and exciting read.
Unfortunately, in the name of action and atmosphere, the plot isn't quite as clear. The characters tell us of the danger they're facing here, but those details seem glossed over in the script. I don't really follow how the team is taken off guard in the issue's climax, and how all of the elements -- from mythology to dream -- seem to tie together is unclear. The heroes seem to get it, but I feel as though I've been left out of the loop.
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