DC Comics reviews 7/20-21 – Nightwing #82, The Flash #772

Justice League #65

Brian Michael Bendis uses this issue of Justice League to drum up some potential interest in his Checkmate and Event Leviathan stories.

Naturally to accomplish that Bendis introduces Lois Lane’s brother. Maybe he was hanging out with Jakob Torreto?

Meanwhile, Bendis is still trying to make Synmar happen suddenly overpowering him to the point he just no-sells attacks from the League’s heaviest hitters.

I guess Bendis is operating on the assumption that Aquaman needs water to power up?

It’s no fun reading Bendis stories when all he does is revisit poorly received characters from titles he is no longer writing.

At least Steve Pugh’s art is worth enduring the script. Pugh’s line work and sense of scope for the action scenes is very solid.

Most of the Justice League Dark secondary story focused on Batman and Elnara. Writer Ram V has to use his page count wisely to advance the story. He was Ok on that front, but it didn’t feel like the story advanced far enough before the end of the issue. Sumit Kumar’s art continues to prove a terrific choice for JLD thanks to his sweeping and lavish details.

As usual, Bendis keeps tripping over his past ‘glories’ at the Justice League’s expense while Ram V and Kumar accomplish twice as much storyline progression in half the space.

Rating: 3.5 out of 10