Customer Reviews

Justice, Vol. 2

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book collects the #5-8 of the ongoing Jusitce maxi-series written by Jim krueger (Earth X) and illustrated by Doug Braithwaite and Alex Ross.

The story picks up immediately after volume one of Justice where the JLA is systemetically being taken apart. The heroes begin to somewhat regain their footing but the battle is far from over. We find out that there is even a bigger play on hand than what appears. Batman is being mind-controlled, so are several members of the JLA. But thorugh the intervention of second tier or reserve JLA members such as Captain Marvel, the heroes narrowly escape the clutches of the Legion of Doom. And speaking of Captain Marvel, he has a prominent presence in this book. His powers and representation here is very similar to that in another story, Kingdom Come (which should come as no surprise). But not soon have the heroes regained their composure do they find out that their loved ones, i.e. Aquaman's son have been kidnapped. The battle lines have been drawn and the JLA and Legion of Doom are ready to go at it, which one can assume will take place in the next volume...and I for one can't wait.

The art team continues their excellent work. I love the scenes where Captain Marvel swoops in to save Superman and with the ease he disposes of Bizzaro, Metallo, Parasite and Grundy. Since, Parasite took Superman's strength, he also gained his weaknesses and Capt. Marvel exploits that by ripping out Metallo's kryptonite heart and using it against Parasite...awesome. I also liked the little banter that Superman had with Capt. Marvel after they recues the Flash whose own metabolism is killing him.

Superman: Do you have any money on you?

Capt. Marvel: Billy has maybe ten bucks, why?

Supes: Barry has to eat. An there's an all-you-can-eat buffet about 50 miles from here. It's $5.99. I hate asking...but my wallet got burned up when you threw me into the sun.

Capt.: This is going to be unfair to the buffet, isn't it?

Like I said, the writing is great.

As a bonus feature of sorts, the book features an intro by Doug Braithwaite which was very poignant. He writes about how he read the JLA as a kid and has the same enthusiasm as he pencils Justice. There is also more files of of profiles presented for heoroes and villains from Batman's computer. You also get a look at several pencilled pages.

In case it didn't coem through, I love this book. The way the story is written is vintage Superfriends type cartoon which has been matured to certain extent. It's an excellent read and I am very enthusiactic to see how it will end. So, do yourself a favor and pick this up. You won't regret it.

I'm a huge fan of Alex Ross, but I felt the illustrations in Volume 1 were somewhat - I don't have another term for it - muddied. Volume 2 is back to what I expect when I see an Alex Ross book: amazing depictions of old friends (I've been reading comics just about since the beginning of the Silver Age). Volume 2 has all the visual twists, surprises, and delights I had expected from the beginning.

Sigh. Now he's just made waiting for Vol. 3 all that more painful!

The second collected volume of the three volume Justice, orchestrated by artist extraordinaire Alex Ross, finds the Justice League in shambles. With various members under the mind control of the Legion of Doom, along with others left as shells of the heroes they usually are, none other than Captain Marvel swoops in to save Superman and the rest of the League as the two sides prepare themselves for a climactic showdown with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Like the first TPB of Justice, this comic reminds us that superhero stories were once supposed to be fun and showcased what the word "hero" really meant. Originally conceived as a strike back to the dark tone of DC's mega events Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis, Ross and his Earth X partner Jim Kreuger go to great lengths as well to make the use of the Elongated Man, who was the unfortunate focal point of Identity Crisis, and everything works out pretty well. Dougie Brathwaite's pencils embelished by Ross' paints are still striking as well, and by the time you reach the end of this volume, you'll be left salivating to see how it all ends.

The story continues as the Justice League battles the most diabolical
villains in the universe. The secret identity of all the League's members
have been figured out by the nasty villains and several of the members
are being taken down one by one. There heroes are uncertain of what the antagonists are up to for it's deeper then they mostly thought. However it starts to slowly reveal of what their evil plan is for. The League cannot handle this on their own so they must seek help from the Teen Titans and Doom Patrol.

I am not embarrassed in the least to acknowledge that I did not give Justice: Volume I a rave review. I enjoyed it, but I frankly claimed it was more of the same and didn't break any new ground in terms of originality.

Let me be the first to admit that Justice: Volume II more than exceeded my expectations. Everything that I didn't like about the first volume has evaporated with the second. In this volume, we finally see the heroes being treated as interestingly as the villains, and we finally get to see them taking some action and proving why they are CONSIDERED heroes in the first place. And best of all? We finally get to see the heroes interact in this volume.

And interact they do! It's obvious Alex Ross, one of the plotters and cover artist and general superstar, has an affinity for the silver age mythos of the DC Universe, and he's doing his best to intersperse them throughout this entire storyline. We've got some wonderful dialogue between characters we love to see talking with each other, though we normally wouldn't think of them being in the same room. And, what really rocked me hard, Aquaman is presented as a man who actually COULD be a king of seventy-five percent of the earth.

Okay, so this volume is far and away better than the first, which makes total sense considering it's the second installment of a three-volume storyline. The art is very attractive, the plot is interesting, the dialogue is entertaining, but if you're a DC Geek like me, the sheer number of characters intermingling is a joy.

~Scott William Foley, author of Souls Triumphant

disagree with earlier reviewer who said the continuation from first book was weak.think it is a good lead onto the final one - just wish I had that to read now - imagine those who have been reading it in comic from & have been having to wait over a space of 2 years for the series to start - finish! I always reread the last trade paperback in a series before reading the new one I just bought for best continuity.

everyone goes on about how great Alex Ross work here is so I won't other than to say it works great over the penciller's work. The story is terffic and shows the JLA in arguably the worst predicament in their career.

can't wait for the third & final volume to come out when the League will no doubt inevitably triumph & the bad guys get their come uppance!

In this second volume of Justice, the world has to come to terms with the absence of the core members of the Justice League. What will the people do in a world where the major heroes are missing and the worlds villians are acting like heroes? Who is really behind the team up of the worlds villians and their atypical behavior? What will the second-tier heroes of the Justice League do when they discover that the Justice League is missing in action? All these questions and more are answered in this volume.

This is one of the best looking comic books on the market. It's definitely worth picking up for it's beautiful art in addition to it's gripping story. I highly recommend it.

This whole series has amazing artwork and story that keeps up. It was hard not to just read the entire session as was with all three books of this series. FYI each book contains four comics in the twelve part series that makes up the whole thing. If there is not an image that you believe the entire book is as detailed as the cover or any page you can see on the view inside.

Reprinting #s 5-8 of the 12-issue Justice limited series, plus bonus pages featuring brief synopses of some of the characters (written as if by Batman himself) and awesome, full-page artworks of various characters (some color, some black and white), Justice Volume II continues one of the most epic of all Justice League tales.

Quasi-Elseworlds in nature (that is, it doesn't concern itself with lining up precisely with DCU continuity, but it doesn't go as radical as most Elseworlds projects, such as having Superman having landed in the Soviet Union rather than Kansas (Superman: Red Son (Elseworlds)) or placing Batman in 19th-century London rather than Gotham (Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (Elseworlds)) The previous volume (spoiler alert...) ended with many of the DCU's biggest guns in a dire situation, and with the villains led by Lex Luthor aparantly well on their way to succeeding both in their effort to crush all their main foes in one series of strikes, and in their seemingly benevolent plans for the world's future. Here, although the picture Luthor and allies are painting continues to be an attractive one, you begin to get a sense of the potential for abuse by those who would be left holding the reins of power in this new world order. In keeping with the series's "not cut-and-dried or black-and-white" theme, this is subtle, and it's left to interpretation whether even the villains are even conciously aware of all this. Also, the question of who was behind the various supervillains's recurring nightmares of global annihilation, and the question of whether there's another party pulling their strings, begins to dawn.

In Volume 1, the villains - Luthor, Bizarro, Grodd, and a ton of others - took center stage much of the time, and here it's a larger array of heroes entering the fray. Some in a major role, others in the back, in supporting roles, we see characters like Zatanna, Metamorpho, Captain Marvel and the Metal Men taking active roles. All the characters here are DC classics, in that they've been around for decades, and the series is bringing in most of the significant characters who were active before, say, the mid-to-late 80s, including some who are seldom seen nowadays. (To digress a bit, I'd really love to see the Ross/Krueger/Braithwaite team do another big epic where the relatively recent additions to DC's pantheon: guys and girls like Bane, Monolith, Stargirl, the current Mr. Terrific, the Cassandra Cain version of Batgirl, the Hate Furnace {now There's a modern creation who's seriously under-used}, Breach, maybe even Doomsday, those kind of characters, play big roles. In addition to players like Superman and Batman, not instead of.) If you've got some favorite characters, or favorite incarnations of characters, from a long way back, you've got a pretty good chance of seeing some of them in Justice.

As with the first one, the art is phenomenal, the writing excellent, the story riveting, and the list of characters irresistable. And if you look up 'epic' in the dictionary, they might as well just put a picture of one of the Justice volumes in there. The Justice saga may not tie directly in with continuity, but it's essential reading for the DC fan. Highest rating.

Great story, Great concept. Incredible art. Particularly liked the direction taken for Aquaman.