Justice League, Vol. 4: The Grid (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
This book is not for the casual comic books fan. It introduces new characters on almost every-page and that brief one page intro may be all you see of them. I didn't know Zatanna before this but she seemed to be interesting. A superhero with the ability to do magic with fishnets and a top hat. Well forget about her because after her one page intro and a brief group scene she disappears until the end when she barely makes an impact. The same can be said about most of the characters introduced in this book - Blue Devil, Vixen, Goldrush - don't bother remembering their names because they'll be gone before you know them. They also all suffer from that most horrible of super hero maladies - the short fuse syndrome. No sooner are they all invited up to the Watchtower for a meet and greet/mixer than one of them loses it and - for some reason - the second tier heroes are up off the couch ready to crack heads and lay a beat down on one of their own - in the Watchtower, guests of the Justice League while being vetted by the big guys with a chance to join. Hey, gold woman, check yourself, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman are all there- they can handle the silver chick. Talk about your bad guests. But all this chaos does lead to the intro of the Atom proving the old adage that best thing do come in small packages because she picks up the story and the book improves from there but, alas, she falls back into the background and Shazam appears out of nowhere trying to bury someone in a country he shouldn't be in and the Superman got to put a stop to it because of geo-political tensions and before you know it the JLA appears with attitude and their all going at it and Superman gets zombiefied and Batman's running around with a magic box that'll fix it all with Wonder Woman chasing him down and than a group of alternate Justice Leaguers appear from an alternate reality and their up to no good and it ends. Talk about lack of focus; be sure to have your DC multi-verse encyclopedia handy for this book because your gonna need it. Unfortunately, I don't have mine so I was left trying to put all these puzzle pieces together and I don't think succeeded.I realize that a lot of the problems I have with this book is because of the corporate nature of the comic book industry and that the creative team is probably working under pressures from above to promote these new characters but that doesn't mean I have to like it.I would have given this book only two stars because of unfocused storyline but it does have some strong points. The bromance between Batman - the strongest character in this storyline - and Superman is developed and the Superman/Wonder Woman romance is given some air time before Batman - him again - sticks his third wheel in. Also the Atom girl story line is good and Firestorm proves to be a better character than I first expected there also is plenty of action to help even out the mess and the Despero fight is cool. As a whole I feel this book is not bad enough to be awful but not good enough to be great. It's middling. Woah, can't believe so many low ratings from Justice League fans? C'mon people,we have to come together around the League...Leagues, plural. Sorry. Yeah, the Justice League(s). Personally, I thought this was a great lead up to Trinity War, which was a pretty awesome event, if I dare say. So I went back and read this trade (got it from the library) to get a better grasp on the subsequent unraveling of my beloved Justice League ( in this iteration, the traditional line-up of Supes, Bats, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash-Barry Allen-and Cyborg). Now, c'mon folks, that's about the most impressive line-up in all of comics ever, and that's what makes the League special. These guys are business. They've completely committed themselves to the higher cause of service, and that's why they're the only League that can stave off the likes of Dark Seid and the Anti-Monitor. If Simon Baz (Green Lantern) and J'onn J'onzz (Marsian Manhunter) didn't have other obligations, they would be aligned with the League, and it would really be too much power and badassedness for one team. So, we've got this core group of the heroes we all know and love, commingled with a fresh set of dramatis personae. We get the likes of Pandora, and Constantine, whose presence adds a mystical bent to the inter dimensional dark arrival. And I love how poor Cyborg (via the Grid) becomes a proxy for this rising cadre of vicious psychopaths from Earth 3 (who we all get to love and loathe in Forever Evil). It's a subtle build, and many other plot threads are being woven masterfully by Johns, while we don't know exactly what's coming. But okay, where was I, yes, thought this trade was definitely the meat and potatoes the the story arch. Vol. 1.(Origins) and Vol. 2 (the villains' journey) were like nachos and a soda, Vol. 3 (Throne of Atlantis) was a Nerds combo pack that we had to pay twice for (see Aquaman: Throne of Atlantis-sure glad I read that AT Barnes and Noble) but this trade was that tenderloin with the garlic mash. Little asparagus on the side. But like Trinity War and the other books in the Geoff Johns run, I really enjoyed the JL and the JLA more than the JLD. Hopefully that makes sense to someone out there thinking of reading The Grid. Good read.
What do You think about Justice League, Vol. 4: The Grid (2014)?
Most of this is Trinity war story, so see that review if you're curious. The rest is fluff. *sigh*
—eyer45
seems weird to publish a trade the takes place before, then after the Trinity War.
—Warewolf11
