Justice League, Vol. 1: Origin (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
This was actually much better than I was expecting. I was seriously disappointed with the JLA: War animated movie so I honestly only read this because I love Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. The artwork was absolutely as gorgeous as I was expecting/hoping so I have no complaints about that. And honestly, the story was fascinating. Having the superheroes/vigilantes team up for the first time is just a fun concept. The basic premise is that strange creatures have been abducting people and have been seen planting strange devices that look like bombs in all of the major cities (Coast City, Gotham, Metropolis, Washington DC, etc) and a group of heroes/vigilantes end up teaming up to figure out what's going on. Which means we get Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Cyborg together for the first time. They have to fight not only the forces of Darkseid but also the humans who aren't real pleased with the amount of property damage/disregard for the law that the heroes/vigilantes have been dishing out prior to this huge battle. Seeing them struggle to get along and work together was funny and entertaining and since I knew next to nothing about Cyborg's origin, it was really cool to see that.What makes me rate this four stars instead of five (and I honestly was tempted to give it three), are the characters. I'm used to GL being cocky but he was downright stupid in his determination to do everything himself. You know when Batman looks like the most reasonable and level-headed one that something is weird. Don't get me wrong, Bats is hands down my favorite superhero ever but...he's kind of an asshole and as much as I loved seeing him be badass, it was weird to see him being the one to calm everyone down. Although I have to admit that the humor between him and GL made me laugh out loud a few times. And then we get to the worst one of all: Wonder Woman. I'm pretty sure they gave her a lobotomy before she was introduced. There's naive and then there's simple. These two things should not be confused and unfortunately, Wonder Woman comes across like a five year old instead of a badass Amazonian warrior. When she's being confronted with a bunch of normal people being angry about the damage caused by the activities of the superheroes, she should not be going on to everyone she meets about how awesome ice cream is. The animated movie was way worse about this (and about the instalove between her and Superman) so I'm happier than I expected to be. Regardless of my annoyance with some of the characters, I'd still recommend this to fans of JLA and superheroes in general as it's otherwise a very fun read. Although I have already read the full version of this graphic novel on Comixology, I couldn't resist getting this special edition because it was free on iBooks. Since I have already made a review of this story, I would concentrate this time on the different reading experience I got by using the iBooks reader.The iBooks reader has some nice touches. It allows you to read the ebook two pages at a time and gives a "flipping page" animation when the reader swipes to a new page. The drawback to this one is that one can't read the book this way because the print is too small. My iPad is best suited for viewing a page at a time. This is where Comixology wins; its Guided View makes reading an easy and convenient experience as it zooms in on the balloons and panels that are harder to read on an iBook without zooming in manually.SO I have to pick the best digital reading experience, it would have to Comixology hands down.
What do You think about Justice League, Vol. 1: Origin (2012)?
I enjoyed the new origin story for the Justice League. The story arc looks like it has promise.
—dkp1269
I liked it a lot. Funnier than I was expecting and a good general introduction to the team
—hgaddict
Easy to read, but in typical New 52 fashion, nothing really all that special.
—Barrie
