Book Review: Justice League Dark Vol. 3 by J. Lemire et al.

Justice League Dark Volume 3: The Death of Magic written by Jeff Lemire and Ray Fawkes and art by Mikel Janin

John Constantine and the rest of Justice League Dark mount a rescue operation to get Zatanna and Timothy Hunter from an alternate dimension where magic is abundant. When the crew gets there, they are all affected by the magic, including Deadman becoming alive again, Madame Xanadu becoming old (she's been living for centuries and now starts looking like it), and Constantine becoming uncharacteristically honest (with comic results). Only Frankenstein's Monster is unaffected, presumably because he is a creature of science, not of magic. The alternate dimension has a crusading army of scientifically-advanced people who fight with all things magical, thus making them enemies of Justice League Dark. Meanwhile, Timothy has been hailed by the local magical creatures as their king. He leads them as an army against the science people. The story is exciting and filled with lots of drama and fun action.

A second story details the theft of Constantine's House of Mystery, which causes all sorts of nightmarish horrors all over the world. The Justice League Dark has to set things right, with some help from The Flash and Swamp Thing. This story is interesting but does not have the epic feel of the first story, though they try to pass it off as such.

Mildly recommended.

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.

Book Review: Justice League Dark Vol. 1 by P. Milligan et al.

Justice League Dark Volume 1: In the Dark written by Paul Milligan and art by Mikel Janin

Magical villain The Enchantress has gone berserk and her powers are causing chaos all over the world, including the slaying of a woman named June Moone. Well, a lot of copies of her are being killed and attacked. Justice League members Superman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg track Enchantress to her isolated cabin but are unable to defeat her. Tarot-card-reading Madame Xanadu narrates the story as she tries to pull together a bunch of C-list heroes (John Constantine, Zatanna, Deadman, Shade the Changing Man, and Mindwarp) to fix the situation. Xanadu can see the future, though of course it is hazy and fluctuates. She sees disaster unless these individualistic, broken heroes can come together to end The Enchantress's madness.

The story gives time to each character as the overall problem unfolds. All of them are broken people with difficulties in their past and their present lives. They are in especially bad shape, with maybe too much detail shown, and have a hard time working together. The chaos is also a bit darker and more unpleasant than standard comic-book fare. The idea of bringing the magic-wielding heroes together is interesting but the execution here is quite grim and they don't gel as a team. The next issue promises vampires, so I may give it a try with my expectations lowered.

Mildly recommended--this is not for the pre-teen crowd.