'Justice League' #19 Review: A Change in Status Quo That Establishes an Unlikely Villain as a Massive Threat

The new arc of Justice League opens with a reminder about just how dangerous Mr. Mxyzptlk is.

There's a page of this week's Justice League where Mxyzptlk, the mischievous 5th Dimensional Imp who periodically vexes Superman, maniacally laughs as he morphs John Stewart's body into an explosion of colored dots. He looks practically deranged, his eyes pointing in different directions, before his teeth twist into points as he gleefully bends John Stewart's flesh for his whims. It's a gentle reminder that, in the right hands, Mxyzptlk can be a frightening force.

Mxyzptlk jumps into Scott Snyder/Jorge Jimenez Justice League storyline as the team struggles to fix the Multiverse after the destruction of the Source Wall. The team recently discovered a map on Hawkgirl's wings, and they believe it leads to the Fifth Dimension, which is home to Mxyzptlk and thus may have ties to the Justice League's recent struggles with the Legion of Doom and the strange new dark energies that the Legion now harnesses. That leads to the revelation that there's a Sixth Dimension, a control room to the Multiverse that can potentially be used to fix everything... but one that only Superman can access.

I enjoy how Jimenez depicts Mxyzptlk, an amorphous, fluid being fueled by imagination. He subtly changes in every panel, and it adds to his unpredictability and the sense of danger that surrounds him. Too often is Mxyzptlk treated like a lighthearted character whose pranks go awry than a truly dangerous force. Justice League really sells fans that Mxyzptlk is a threat that could take the entire Justice League to stop.

I suspect that most readers' opinions of Justice League will be predicated on how invested they are in the ongoing Justice League storyline, which dates back all the way to the Dark Nights: Metal event in 2017. Scott Snyder has revealed a "secret history" of sorts that ties into Perpetua, the creator of the first universe and the mother of the Monitors, Anti-Monitors, and World Forgers. If you enjoy celestial threats and universe-altering secrets, you'll probably like this comic, but if you dislike re-writing DC's already complicated continuity, this comic probably isn't for you.

The comic ends with a reveal spoiled by the cover of a future issue; namely, it spoils a meeting between the Justice League of the present and a Justice League from the near future after they "saved everything" using the Sixth. I'm intrigued by the teases of a new relationship that this "Future League" brings, but it'll be fascinating to see how they explain the absences of Starman and Mera and how Mxyzptlk ties into everything.

This is an interesting Justice League issue, one that teases the future and provides more questions than answers. As this event leads into a Justice vs. Doom storyline in the fall, I'm expecting some big action and shocks in the months to come.

Published by DC Comics

On March 6, 2019

Written by Scott Snyder

Art by Jorge Jimenez

Colors by Alejandro Sanchez

Letters by Tom Napolitano