DC Comics reviews 10/23/19 – Action Comics #1016, Detective Comics #1016

Justice League Dark #16

Justice League Dark might be the most depressing, addictive superhero title on the stands these days. The heroes rarely catch a break and winning? That’s only the mild interruption before the next seemingly unstoppable opponent. So why is the book so enticing month after month? Simple. James Tynion IV knows how to write heroic heroes who battle against overwhelming odds and never flinch. For a book with magic at the forefront it makes them even more heroic.

This issue finds Khalid and Detective Chimp dealing with a mutated Man-Bat while Wonder Woman confronts a powered up Circe. Tynion makes the JLD always fight from underneath, but this isn’t a book where the heroes overpower their enemies that it’s hardly a challenge. Fortunately, Tynion doesn’t throw in some deus ex machine to save the day at every turn to rob the suspense. The character work remains impressive with Bobo stealing the show this issue.

Regular artist Alvaro Martinez Bueno teams with Fernando Blanco this issue. Blanco handles most of the Wonder Woman sequences while Bueno takes care of the rest. Bueno is such a great artist and he excels at handling the massive monsters and sprawling action sequences. Blanco’s work is fine, but he’d be better served drawing an entire issue than being compared unfavorably with Bueno’s pages.

I was a little thrown off with the Justice/Doom tie-in as Tynion is writing Justice League where Diana is off in the future while the green light in the sky appears. This should be a book that really plays into the Justice/Doom storyline so it’ll be interesting to see where Tynion goes with it.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10