DC Comics reviews 6/4/25 – Absolute Superman 8, JSA 8

Justice League vs Godzilla vs Kong 2 #1

Justice League vs Godzilla Kong 2 #1 adds some fun new wrinkles to maintain the high quality of one of the more unexpected hit series of 2023.
It certainly helps that the incumbent creative team of writer Brian Buccellato, artist Christian Duce, colorist Luis Guerrero and letterer Comicraft’s Tyler Smith return for another ride.

Amanda Waller is still fuming over the incursion of the titans Godzilla, King Kong and others. She’s assembled Task Force X — now including Legion of Doom members Black Manta, Captain Cold and Lex Luthor — to devise a means to stop them. Task Force X will work in conjunction with the Human Defense Corps led by Col. Shaw for a plan that seems particularly risk — ‘titanizing’ Killer Shark.

This makes for a wild confrontation of a titan-sized Killer Shark battling Godzilla.

Meanwhile, the Justice League has its own new partnership brewing with the marriage of Barry Allen and Iris West. Buccellato again shows an impressive grasp of the core personalities of the DC icons. This is a non-continuity title, but Buccellato shows he could easily handle a large ensemble with his true to the characters take on the Justice League.

Unaware of Luthor’s abduction into the Suicide Squad, the League searches for clues of his whereabouts and tracks him down to Skull Island. Bad news for them though — King Kong doesn’t remember them. And a lightning storm seems to have done something weird to Superman and Supergirl’s powers.

Duce’s artwork is so clean. His characters look appropriately heroic with different body types, posture and expressions. While the League doesn’t use their powers that much this issue, Duce makes them look formidable. And he excels at the big, Earth-shattering clash of titans. The Godzilla/Killer Shark clash is another epic one that matches some of the previous chapter’s main event brawls.

Guerrerro’s color work is smooth with bold, striking colors. This is a series that’s all about larger-than-life monsters colliding and the world’s greatest heroes fighting them. Shrouding any of the action with dark, murky colors wouldn’t make for that aesthetically pleasing a comic.

There’s a twist on the final page that would normally prove annoying, but in this series, it felt like a fresh approach as opposed to telling the same old Suicide Squad story. The sequel gets off to a fantastic start suggesting that this is going to be another memorable clash of the titans with the Justice League and Suicide Squad caught in the middle.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Catch up on the previous volume with the Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. King Kong hardcover collection on Amazon.

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