Monday, March 11, 2024

Book Review: Justice League Dark Vol. 2 by J. Lemire et al.

Justice League Dark Volume 2: The Books of Magic written by Jeff Lemire and Peter Milligan and art by Mikel Janin, Lee Garbett, Daniel Sampere, Cam Smith, and Admira Wijaya

See my review of Volume 1 here.

After a quick visit to a vampire apocalypse that ends all too quickly, the story shifts as the magic-powered version of DC's Justice League is drawn into a new ultimate, world-ending problem. Several baddies are looking for the Books of Magic, four legendary tomes that were thought lost for centuries. John Constantine has some information about it and wants them badly. Madame Xanadu has had visions of Constantine acquiring the books and causing the world to end. She works behind the scenes while Constantine is recruited by Steve Trevor (yes, Wonder Woman's boyfriend) who works for a shadowy government agency. It sent agents into the Peruvian jungle to check on Felix Faust, a wizard with a scheme involving the books. Constantine cons the rest of Justice League Dark into going south to investigate, setting him on the path to acquire the Books of Magic.

The main plot has a lot of little twists that are more or less believable. Since the characters and story are so magic-dependent, the storytelling does jump erratically from time to time. Some people get short shrift, like Zatanna whose backwards magic never seems to work against any of the bad guys. The book has a lot of characters so there isn't enough space for everybody. I enjoyed it enough to keep going with the story for volume 3.

Mildly recommended.

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