Judge not, lest ye be judged #12 March 16, 2021 – Posted in: Books

By Spyros Andrianou

When I remember I read then in the solicitations that the Scott Snyder takes over Justice League it is true that I was concerned... Not of course because o Snyder he is not a very good writer. But mostly because he is a very good writer in his dark stories whether it is his legendary run on Batman (Court of Owls now remains in the top ten definitive Batman stories) or for his amazing horror masterpieces such as Wytches and American Vampire (not to forget also his passage from its pages Swamp Thing).

Could o Snyder to take on a team title and indeed with the biggest heroes-icons of the company and give us a real good run?? The answer is given in the first volume of Justice League - The Whole which is released by OXY publications and includes the First 7 issues of the series.

Of course it was not his first engagement with the team as it had preceded the Justice League: No Justice as well as the Dark Knights Metal in which the Snyder it had the ability to work with many characters, but in my humble opinion it got lost somewhere along the way... Would the same happen with this new series??

The first samples in these 7 issues as they make up the first volume of the series entitled "The Totality" show that the Snyder he knows what characters he is dealing with, he respects their size and history, and most importantly they are all protagonists and no one covers for the other. O Superman it does not overshadow one John Stewart, or the Wonder Woman her Hawkgirl. They all have their own dynamic and important role in the story which for me is a love letter to the old animated cartoons (JL -TAS) and has a lot of Morrison elements in terms of our heroes' epic showdown with the Legion of Doom (Legion of Doom) made up of Lex Luthor, Joker, Chetah and all the most important and diabolical villains of the DC universe. And the forces our heroes will be up against are literally of cosmic proportions!! With a major threat to the world headed straight for Earth. Being the only person who can understand the high danger of this concentrated essence of the secret source of all things called "Wholeness", Martian Manhunter tries to understand what options are left for our heroes, to save the universe from extinction… THE Snyder on the one hand, it sticks to the personality of each individual character, be it hero or villain, without becoming melodramatic or depriving anything of the frantic action that follows the impressive battle scenes.

In the script, he also helps in some moments of the story James Tynion IV who has been in great writing and creative form lately for either DC superheroes or his indie creations (see Something is Killing the Children for BOOM). Nevertheless, I wouldn't call it such a friendly reading for those who would like to start reading the Legion of Justice from here, because it also contains elements that someone should know having read his previous works Snyder As the Dark Knights Metal and No Justice which I alluded to earlier… Third person narration that gives readers further information about the unfolding events is not a style of comic book storytelling that is easy to appreciate or adapt to… So it might feel a little lost with so many elements and situations that will read already from the first pages of the volume, but this does not mean that the story is not well written and that it does not lay the foundations for the even greater ones that will follow. And of course where everyone will be compensated is in illustration. Both the Jorge Jimenez (Earth 2, Super Sons), Jim Cheung (Young Avengers,Guardians of the Galaxy,Axis) and Doug Mahnke (Final Crisis, Green Lantern) really do their best to capture on paper in all its glory a story of such epic proportions that only in a large team like the Justice League One could read.

The very admirable and careful edition of the OXY publications, includes all the variant covers of the series, with wonderful colors on luxury paper, excellent binding (even though there are many pages, the volume does not crumple on the spine, nor do pages fall off) and a very good translation of the densely written (it is the truth) texts of Snyder/Tynion, by Savvas Argyrou who really makes another titanic effort to render it as well as possible. The OXY publications they never fail to disappoint us with their choices.

Just before the Snyder Director's Cut Version of the film comes out, this volume is the best chance to read a dynamic and action-packed story of the biggest superhero team in Justice League: The Whole which is available at a very good price. Worth your attention!!