Justice League #7: Review

While most reviews of last week’s Justice League #7, the kickoff of a guest-artist arc and prelude to the upcoming “Villain’s Journey” story, have focused on fill-in artist Gene Ha, it was in fact writer Geoff Johns who seemed a bit off his game this month.While Ha’s style is markedly different from regular series artist Jim Lee, a fact that leaves the issue feeling maybe a bit jarring, his work was fluid and his page structures were dynamic and exciting. Years ago, my first experience with Ha was when he guest-penciled an issue of Gerard Jones’ much-reviled Green Lantern series, featuring Hal Jordan facing off against Dr. Light. Again, his work was nothing like then-regular Green Lantern artist Mark “M.D.” Bright and again he managed to leave his unique stamp on the issue without distracting from the script.Admittedly, Johns’ script is generally stronger than Jones’ was back in the day, but it has its issues. The heavy hand of the narrator’s voice occasionally nudges its way over the line from “show” to tell” as it is guiding the story from point A to B. That said, he narrator in question appears to be the titular “villain” of the upcoming “Villain’s Journey,” and it’s implied that, somehow, it’s also the man whose book on the Justice League helped to catapult them to global fame and almost universal acceptance, as seen at the end of the last arc. This is quite a clever device on Johns’ part, as those final pages of #6 were rather confusing. Why, I thought at the time, introduce a new and seemingly-important character in the final few pages of the story arc?As has been pointed out everywhere else on the Internet, Batman inexplicably rants about the “embarrassment” known as the Justice League International, demanding the team be shut down. For those keeping score at home, Batman is not only a member of the JLI but its biggest cheerleader, keeping characters like Booster Gold and Guy Gardner from shuttering the clubhouse and going back to their day jobs when things look bleak. It’s a minor plot point but a major inconsistency for the character, and one I hope will be addressed in a future story. His comments, for example, are made to the Justice League’s United Nations liaison (the issue’s main character, onetime Wonder Woman beau Steve Trevor). Maybe the endgame is obscuring his own relationship with the JLI, which per their UN charter cannot have heroes with secret identities? Just an idea.