It's been quite a while since this title had a stable creative team. Since Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke's lengthy run on the book, we've seen such creators as Denny O'Neil, Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Chuck Austen and Tan Eng Huat bring the Justice League's adventures to life, but without a regular creative team, the title seemed to lack direction. Now we've got one of the strongest super-hero writers in the industry, Kurt Busiek, at the helm, and that brought with it a lot of promise. Unfortunately, this opening chapter in his first story arc felt more than a little padded and disconnected from what the title promises to be the main storyline. But more than anything else, this issue is hindered by inconsistent, sketchy artwork.
As the rest of the Justice League investigates energy activity within the cosmic egg in which Krona was trapped at the end of JLA/Avengers, the Martian Manhunter and the Flash are tasked with the routine maintenance of the JLA Watchtower. There's a myriad of tedious little chores to be carried, much to the Flash's frustration, but there are important ones as well, not the least of which is the dissolution of the Construct's reforming electronic consciousness. The Manhunter is concerned about the issue, since the Construct is reforming more quickly every time, and it seems as though he could pose a real threat this time around.
Can someone tell me whatever happened to Ron Garney? Not the artist who pencilled this issue, but the guy who blew us all away on his first run on Captain America back in the mid to late 1990s. Obviously, they're the same guy, but the strength I saw in his work back then isn't to be found here. Busiek carries on the torch lit by Grant Morrison, writing the JLA as super-hero science-fiction, but that calls for art with a sleeker, more polished look than what Garney offers up here. His depiction of the Flash early on in the book reminded me a great deal of Don Heck's work on The Flash and Justice League of America in the 1980s.
Busiek goes out of his way to incorporate a plot element from JLA/Avengers without directly referring to the events of that series. It's easy to understand why, given another publisher's involvement, but then, why bother to incorporate that storyline at all? It makes for a frustrating segment in the script, and will no doubt make for some confusion for those who didn't bother to read the crossover. Other minor plot elements go unexplained as well, such as the significance of the identity of the warden of the metahuman prison in Antarctica.
The pairing of the Flash and the Martian Manhunter is a good one, as the former, a more grounded character with more colloquial dialogue, helps to balance the stoic, alien and larger-than-life qualities of the latter. Busiek goes to a lot of trouble to deal with the Construct here, so I assume this plot thread will play a part of the larger Crims Syndicate storyline later on. Busiek's descriptions of the sci-fi stuff are entertaining, but the issue's actually low on action and actual plot. It relies completely on the dialogue to fill the reader in on what's going on, and Busiek provides only the most superficial visions of these characters. There's promise in any super-hero comic Busiek is involved with, and hopefully, it will materialize in future issues. 5/10
