DC Comics reviews for week of 10/5/16 – Superman #8, Batman #8

Justice League #6

It’s getting to the point where it’s becoming clear that this take on Justice League isn’t working.

The issue kicks off mid-battle with the League fighting a fear-imbuing entity. After the confusion with The Purge and The Kindred, having the team fight yet another vaguely defined villain isn’t the best way to kick off the new story arc. One abrupt resolution later and the team is off on their separate ways.

Writer Bryan Hitch still hasn’t mastered the art of a team book. Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg and Simon Baz get ignored so Hitch can focus on The Flash and Jessica Cruz’s first date. Initially, Hitch finds a decent stride showing Jessica and Barry over prepare and stress out. These are the kind of nice, behind the costume glimpses Hitch needs to do more of to make his characters more than pieces for his big set battles.

Hitch seems to tire of character development and moves on to the secret adversary. Barry starts acting impatient and flirtatious. Meanwhile, Superman is increasingly becoming more obsessed with Batman. The main problem is Hitch hasn’t spend any time developing the team’s personalities or their interaction with one another. What should stand out to readers that something is clearly wrong with the characters reads more like Hitch simply doesn’t know how they should sound.

Matthew Clark and Tom Derenick handle the art chores this issue. Their art is decent and complimentary enough that it’s hard to tell which artist did which page. It’s a little disappointing the title has little art consistency from issue to issue.

DC really needs the Justice League of America title to connect as this Justice League continues to flounder. There’s just nothing truly compelling to encourage readers to stick with the title at this point. Justice League is never actively terrible, but to some extent, it’s worse because it’s fails to warrant much emotion at all.

Rating: 5 out of 10