Broken Frontier

The Injustice League strikes against our heroes as the series gets a new writer from the world of animation. Dwayne McDuffie comes to the DCU!

It’s my opinion (and I don’t think I’m alone in this) that the Justice League Unlimited animated series was one of the best takes on the superhero genre in the last decade. Well-crafted, action-packed adventures full of humor, romance, clever interaction, and often surprisingly layered and mature themes, JLU was everything a fan could want from the Justice League. It’s a no-brainer then for DC to recruit one of the show’s lead writers, Dwayne McDuffie, to guide the comics version of the team after Brad Meltzer’s well-intentioned but laboriously paced efforts. That said, how does McDuffie fare?

Continuing from his first official outing in the JLA Wedding Special, this second chapter pits the League against the latest grouping of their worst foes (because, you know, it worked so well all those other times the villains teamed up). With half the group already captured, the remaining heroes split into smaller teams in classic Silver Age style to combat the threat.

McDuffie’s scripting on this issue is solid though not inspired just yet. There doesn’t seem to be a compelling reason for the villains to be united once again (maybe Luthor wants a shot at running his own Secret Society now that his Infinite Crisis doppelganger is out of the picture?) and their goals are so far fairly straightforward. Beyond a few quick hero/villain scuffles, there isn’t much meat to the story, though it’s early in the arc yet. Where McDuffie’s strengths lie is, as always, in the characterization of the team members. Though only just added to this lineup, Green Lantern John Stewart shows capable leadership skills with his new allies, taking point on the mission as he so often did on the cartoon. Superman shows intuitive concern for Vixen and the two share a somewhat touching moment. Black Lightning displays both humorously playful banter and bad-ass tough guy bravado, giving off almost a Samuel L. Jackson vibe.

About the only character beats that feel off are the hints of interest between GL and Hawkgirl. This is a little too consciously aping the animated series, I feel, particularly when one considers that this is a different Hawkgirl with no particular reason to be drawn to the Lantern. The shared experience and complementing personality traits that made this match-up work in animation are not as pronounced in Kendra Saunders and the result runs the risk of seeming forced.

The art for this caper is provided by Joe Benitez and the results are equally mixed. Benitez’s touches of stylization allow him to deliver very distinctive takes on many of the characters. His Grodd is monstrously inhuman yet smoldering with sinister intellect. It’s a great design but one on which the size is exaggerated a bit beyond reason (one foot is larger than Cheetah’s entire torso?!). Benitez seems to delight in drawing beautiful women and the flowing manes of hair and stylized costumes he gives to Killer Frost and Poison Ivy are unique. Many of the women are a bit too obviously in pinup poses however, which is slightly distracting.

Can McDuffie capture lightning in a bottle for the Justice League once more? There are both good and bad points to his approach thus far but I’d say that fans have reason to be optimistic.