Jeff Parker and Travel Foreman along with colorist Jeromy Cox and letterer Steve Wands creatively usher the JLU into the post-Convergence, DC Comics landscape with the help of a few unconventional allies.
What's Fun About This Book
This is the perfect creative team for this book. I'm saying this off the bat for issue #11 because I enjoyed it so much. The book felt like all the books I've enjoyed during the first couple of years of the New 52. Imagine "Animal Man," "Swamp Thing," "Justice League Dark" and "Aquaman" rolled into the same book; and you've got this first story arc. Kudos! In my opinion, JLU #11 should satisfy a number of new readers as a good jumping on point. It should also gain readers from the aforementioned, pre-Convergence series. Of this I'm willing to pitch.
Accordingly, Jeff Parker's tale is weird as all get out. It feels like a Swamp Thing/Animal Man crossover, which I personally have wanted to see again since the Lemire/Snyder run on "Rot-World." Yet, Parker's story combined with Travel Foreman's art resonates with the new ordeal he provides for this cast of characters. They include Poison Ivy, Mera, Jason Blood (Etrigan) and Swamp Thing himself as guest stars. They join Stargirl, Alanna Strange, a corporeal, psychedelic and God-like Adam Strange (who is stuck in some sort of zeta beam realm), Animal Man and relative newcomer (Jeff Lemire creation) Equinox, a Cree elemental. I really enjoyed the style in which the additional members were assembled, especially Jeromy Cox's use of color throughout. Reds, greens, blues, grays all coincide with each story of how each temporary member joined this rag-tag team of cosmic defenders. And this was the original premise of JLU from the outset: unite a group of heroes (that is NOT the Seven) who possess specific powers and capabilities for challenging unknown or cosmic threats to Earth and beyond. This new creative team seems ready to deliver on this promise.
What's Not So Fun
Some readers may think that Jeff Parker is mining tropes already explored by Scott Snyder and Charles Soule in "Swamp Thing" and Jeff Lemire in "Animal Man." Parker himself explored similar "terra incognito" (rather mysterious waters) in his "Aquaman" run. However, readers should give it a chance. I don't believe we can fathom what the direction this story will turn given what happens near the final pages. I thought that Stargirl's disappearance from the book altogether after enlisting Swamp Thing was strange. I didn't miss her, but I did notice. Of course it's explained why Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Supergirl and Green Arow are M.I.A. I'm interested to find out why Supergirl "bolted."
The Punch Line
JLU #11 was good. I really enjoyed the story and the art. Can't wait to see where the story leads and how they solve a rather peculiar predicament with Swamp Thing.
Special Note: This is the first comic book review that I've written since the month in which my dad passed. He died Sunday, September 7, 2014 from complications due to lung and liver cancer. I loved my dad a lot, and he always supported my love for comics since I was a kid. I've manage to read through my pull-lists week-to-week and post comments here and there in the Twitter-verse on all things comics-related. However, this review marks my return to getting serious about writing with the time I have. Dad would've wanted it that way.
