Customer Reviews

Justice, Vol. 3

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Let me first accentuate the positive by saying that all three volumes of Justice have absolutely brilliant art and are plain and simply fun to read. Seeing all of our favorite heroes and villains together in mostly their "Silver Age" glory with a modern twist is a fun trip for an old guy like me.

That being said, all three volumes of Justice have some glaring weaknesses as well. First of all, the overall plot is poorly conveyed and, at times, muddled beyond clear comprehension. I'm not going to say the plot was poorly conceived because I don't know the exact intended storyline, so I say "conveyed" because I'm basing it upon what I read. Secondly, the narration sometimes tends to shift from character to character without an apparent signal. This shift fails in come cases because the "voice" of the narrator alone is not strong enough to help the reader figure out which character's perspective we're getting. I noticed this to be particularly the case in Volume III when the colors of the narration boxes were not enough to convey the viewpoint.

Finally, Volume III in particular got a bit heavy-handed with the heroes donning armor in order to face their foes. This felt a bit like a promotional toy move than anything, and furthermore it was difficult to figure out who was who beneath the armor in some cases.

All in all, I think Volume II was the strongest in terms of story, narration, and dialogue, but all three volumes had astronomical art with very cool interpretations of character's designs. If you're a fan of Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, Doug Braithwaite, the Silver Age, or the old Super Friends cartoon, you'll probably enjoy this work. Just be ready for a convoluted storyline and (at times) confusing narration.

~Scott William Foley, author of Dr. Nekros: Phantasms and Chicanery (Volume I, Episode II)

Whenever Alex Ross is involved in a project it feels like an event and Justice is no exception. The art is absolutely gorgeous and it's a real blast to see classic DC characters like Gorilla Grodd and Solomon Grundy rendered in museum quality detail. Ross's inspiration for Justice was the old Challenge of the Super Friends cartoons from the late 70's. What I tried to do was mentally separate the spectacular art from the story and see how it holds up and quite frankly judged on its own merits the story is rather average. Justice started off with a huge bang in book one with a coordinated assault by the Legion of Doom that left the Justice League reeling. Perhaps the most indelible image was the four on one attack on Superman by Bizarro, Grundy, The Parasite and Metallo. The other big shock was Brainiac cutting open Aquaman's skull. I love the look of Brainiac in the doctors' scrubs like an evil scientist from the 1940's.

Each Justice book has impressed me less then the previous and I think I've put my finger on the problem, writers Alex Ross and Jim Krueger just wimped out. If you're going to write a non-canon comic about well established characters why not go for it all. Have a major character or two die or create a fundamental change in the dynamics of the relationship between the heroes and villains. It seemed after book one that this was where the writers were going with the villains discovering the secret identities of the JLA and Brainiac lobotomizing Aquaman. This was powerful stuff. The Legion of Doom was more vicious than ever but in book three we discover that they were being controlled by Brainiac's nano-technology and everything is resolved using DC comics ultimate Deus Ex Machina, the ring of Green Lantern. Wimpy.

The cover of Justice 3 shows the JLA all decked out in form fitted armor created to protect them against Brainiac's mind controlling nano-worms. To me it seemed like nothing more than a plot contrivance created so that our heroes could wear super cool constumes. On the upside some of the villains, most notably Grodd, Grundy and the Toyman are rendered and written superbly. It was nice to see Grundy back to his zombie like, decaying self. Gorilla Grodd has never looked more legitimately frightening and even the usually goofy Toyman is fiendishly terrifying. Again, I have no complaints on the visuals.

Justice just doesn't compare to classics like The Marvels or Kingdom Come but I have to give Alex Ross major credit for bringing back the Legion of Doom particularly since I'm old enough to have watched them when they were originally broadcast. If I had it to do all over again I'd still purchase the Justice series in a heartbeat but it's unlikely to go down as a modern day classic. I give it five stars for the art and three stars for the story which averages out to four stars.

This volume is the third in the Justice trilogy written by Jim Krueger and illustrated by Alex Ross and Doug Braithwaite. It picks up right where volume 2 left off with the good guys and the bad guys priming their forces for the final showdown and I have gotta say that it does not dissapoint. Going into the story, the readers (for the most part) know how the story will end...the good guys will undoubtedly win and kick the bad guys' collective butt. But knowing that fact doesn't detract from the story and half the fun of the story is seeing the heroes get to that point.

The highlights in this book (in my humble opinion, of course) are the awesome fight scenes. In the first opening chapter, you have Captain Marvel has going up against Black Adam and a brain-washed duo of Mary Marvel and Capt. Marvel Jr. Capt. Marvel tries to pull his punches and the emotion he feels for his family clearly shows through. Thanks to Ross and Braitwaite, saying "Shazam" never looked so good. Another highlight in the fight scene between a very gruesome looking Wonder Womand and Cheetah. There are many more fight scenes, rescue attempts, double crosses, near fatalities but thanks to our intrepid heroes, they do not come to fruition.

I have said it in my reviews of the previous volumes and I will say it again, this is one of the best told JLA stories in recent years and will be enjoyed by fans of both Silver Age and Modern Age comics.

And finally, for those who are still doubting the awesomeness of this comics, I have 2 words: "Vampire Joker". 'Nuff said.

Rating: Fabulous to breathtaking. In my opinion, today's comics wouldn't be worth a hill of duck dung if it weren't for great teams like Ross and Braithwaite, who breathe authentic yet contemporary life into time-honored characters and produce true, legitimate art (as opposed to pitiful Manga-wannabe drivel). I wholeheartedly recommend the entire Justice series and can only wish this penciler/painter duo would take over the entire comics industry.

Alex Ross' stunning answer to mass-hyped and lauded events like Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis comes to a slam bang of an end with the third hardcover volume of Justice. The final issues collected here finds the Justice League back on top, united, and storming against their foes as the series comes to a dramatic and quite satisfying close. Scripted by Ross and his Earth X writing partner Jim Kreuger, and drawn by Dougie Brathwaite with Ross' paints, Justice ends up being a thoroughly entertaining ride that reminds us why we started reading super hero comics in the first place. It's stories like what we find in Justice that make us want to run away to the fantastical worlds of heroes and villains that didn't turn quite so dark once the Silver Age came to an end. Ross' love for the characters and the Silver Age in general shines through as well, which also helps make the entire Justice series a true winner. Though there really isn't anything we haven't seen before, Justice is a real treat that longtime comic readers and DC fans should love and cherish. If you haven't read any of Ross' Justice work, you're missing out.

I'm not going to spoil the ending for those who haven't finished the series yet. (That would be incredibly cruel and jerkish.) What I will do is tell you what changed for me by the time I finished reading the last word. First, I came to appreciate the point made in the intro to volume one; that point being, "The difference between the villain and the hero is this. The villain fights to save himself. The hero fights to save the villain from himself." This is crucial. It is so easy to go the Punisher route in many of the comics today. More blood, more sex. Ya, Frank Miller did it, but Frank Miller knew what he was doing. Most of the writers out there don't. The hero clings to the "old ways" that may seem very campy in today's world of blood and gore (hell let's face it, the world beginning in the 80's), but THERE IS A REASON. Alex Ross and Jim Krueger show that reason in a powerful and moving way. It's not for the hero's sake, but for the villains. It is to show that though the world may be blood and war and death, it DOES NOT HAVE TO BE. There is the way the world is, and there is the way the world can be. And this is made clear by the end of the series. Second, I saw how the Super Friends (A and B team, and let's face it C team) can truly work. Let me explain what I mean. Though I always loved the TV show, as I grew older I grew tired of the massive amount of superheroes that seemed to be lumped together piecemeal. Ross and Krueger show how integral each member is and at no point does it seem artificial, forced, or arbitrary. Third, (and this is something I would have never predicted) I gained a new and profound respect for Hal Jordan and the entire Green Lantern mythology. Before "Justice" the entire Green Lantern mythology seemed to me, to be quite honest, ridiculous (this coming from someone who reads about superheroes). I guess it goes back to Coleridge and our ability to "suspend disbelief." The Green Lantern storyline simply snapped that thread suspending my disbelief (I can think of nothing dumber than a weakness of the color yellow . . . well, the concept of the Captain Cold character might be just a little dumber). While Geoff Johns has rethreaded my string with his current run on the Green Lantern Corps (actually it's got belay like strength now cause of him), I would have never even been interested to go back to that series if not for Ross and Krueger. They gave me a profoundly strong respect for Hal Jordan, as well as the relationship between him and Sinestro (mirror images in a sense). They also showed me the serious flaws of a character with no fear and the way to remedy these flaws (Geoff Johns expands MUCH more on this). Out of the literally scores of characters in the Justice series, Hal Jordan was, by far, my favorite. As I said earlier, I would have NEVER thought I would say that going into the series especially since every character gave amazing performances (hell, even Elastic Man had his moment in the spotlight). These are just a few of the things I gained from reading the series (and the last volume in particular), and I hope you find your treasures within the series. It is a work of art in every sense.

All cylinders fire in this, the final volume of the JLA saga that's put new life into the classic characters. Awesomely rendered by the pencils of Doug Braithwaite and paints of Alex Ross, the story (also by Ross and Jim Krueger)runs to a fast paced yet satisfying close with the doom of one character and the rebirth of another. My only gripe with this embarrassment of riches is that sometimes the full spread action becomes a tad confusing as characters mix it up at full attack, bringing the narrative flow to a stutter. A minor quibble however, against such a fine production. If you liked Kingdom Come you'll love Justice. One to treasure.

My goodness, what a finale! This Ross series is amazing. From Art to Writing to Characterization. Truly amazing and highly recommended.

It's easy to get into this story because it's self contained. Meaning, if you buy Volume one and Volume two, you'll follow and Volume 3 will be a satisfying finale. Much can be said about such "elseworlds" stories, but the story is what matters and the story in JUSTICE is truly magnificent.

Highly recommended

Reprinting Nos. 9-12 of the semi-Elseworlds (i.e. non-continuity) epic "Justice", Volume 3 of the saga is a conclusion that lives up to everything promised by events in the first two collections. It's pretty much impossible to discuss this without going into the previous events, so I'm just going to assume that people reading this will be familiar with Volumes 1 and 2.

Which in a way makes a review or endorsement superfluous; it's hard to imagine that anyone who read both previous collections (or all 8 previous issues, whichever the case may be) won't want to be around for the finale. If one is hesitant that the series won't be able to satisfactorily resolve itself, there's nothing to worry about here - the quality established before doesn't drop off one bit. It's seemed apparant from the beginning that there was going to have to be a mammoth battle between the superheroes and their legion of A-List adversaries, and although there are more angles in the final chapters than just that titanic confrontation, the battle itself does come. And pays off in spades, delivering one of the greatest head-on clashes in comics history. Meanwhile, revelations as to true objectives, clashes between former allies, and shifting loyalties as certain of the bad guys aren't sure they want to go all the way with this once certain facts come out, provide other facets of the climax to co-exist with the big showdown.

The first two volumes posed some big questions. On the question of why, in a world with Superman-level beings, the world still has the problems it does, isn't definitively answered (and I suspect that the point may be that a definitive answer for something like that is pretty elusive in any world) but it certainly comes off seeming a lot more complicated than when Luthor first posed the question, seeming to argue that if the Justice League really wanted to, they could wipe out the world's ills overnight. I don't want to say too much about the resolution, and it's easy to talk around it because a lot of things are left open to interpretation, but in places it seems like the answer might in part be, in fact, Luthor and those like him. Back in writing about Volume 1 I said that I'd always assumed the supervillains and other mega-threats provide such a counter-balance to the JLA and their peers that it gets in the way of solving the bigger problems: every time Superman delivers an emergency aid shipment or overnight carves out irrigation tunnels for some drought-stricken part of the world, an Imperiex probe (or some similar threat) crashes down somewhere else and creates the same problem over again, so the net change isn't as great as it could otherwise have been. One is left to wonder: did any of the 'villains' actually believe the lines Lex had them delivering in Volume 1, and what would their inner reaction be to the idea that the superheroes might actually be able to pull off so much more for the world if it wasn't for exactly the kind of scheme they're hatching here, always taking up so much of the herores's and the world's combined efforts?

Some non-spoiler thoughts on the whole series, now that I'm doing a writeup for the finale. One thing that's immediately noticeable in "Justice", although I think I forgot to mention it before, is that with the bad guys - many of whom have been through a number of incarnations during their existance - this book really went for the intimidating and scary look on many of them: just check out Grodd, Bizarro and especially Solomon Grundy (awesome depiction). Even Toyman's contraptions are disturbing: nightmarish corruptions of children's puppets. Second, it's great to see less obvious picks like the Metal Men and Elongated Man really shing alongside the JLA heavyweights in here. Also, what's been done with this version of Lex Luthor is simply brilliant. There are such glaring differences between the way he presents his case early on and what he truly feels. See the scene in Volume 1 where Luthor and some of his allies appear as giant holographic projections and address the Earth's general public; then compare that to when the cornered but still defiant Luthor is making a very different case to Batman, apparantly speaking his mind this time about his motivations. Any normal person would be taken aback by Lex's ruthlessness, but Lex himself believes it makes him noble, that he's actually the biggest humanitarian in all of this. By the same token, you can take the disturbing attitude Luthor displays toward those ordinary humans who went and placed their trust in him after Volume 1's speech, and compare it with the more flattering sentiments toward Lex and his allies, being expressed (in # 10, in this volume) by the Indian girl in her letter, who sees things in a much more benevolent light, and seems to feel that her and others' trust in the 'former' supervillains has payed off and that they've proven the new image of themselves to be sincere. Luthor has schemed to gain the respect and confidence of the world's people, but sees it as a weakness on their part when they give it to him. And sees no contradiction between this and his view of himself as humanity's benefactor.

Although Lex hardly comes off smelling like a rose, there is that balance there where, to him, his reasons make perfect sense; and that balance has been applied to a lot of the villains. On one hand, one of the book's themes serves as a counter-arguement that society brings its misfortunes on itself and that the actual perpetrators aren't the bad guys (a view that seems eerily close to Luthor's own logic, and is vehemently opposed by Superman and Batman in both the tale itself and in the back-of-the-books profiles they've contributed outlining various characters); on the other hand it nuances the villains; one of Luthor's allies in one especially entertaining scence appears decidely less than impressed with Lex's true thoughts and goals making themselves known, for example. It would take pages more to go into all the subtext indepth, but the bottom line is that all the characters in here - from champs like Superman and Wonder Woman to the most dastardly of the baddies - are handled in their portrayals with detail, insight and respect from writers and artists who obviously care as much about the DC Universe as we, its fans, do.

There were other points I was going to make but I'm running out of space, and I could never make them as eloquently as the characters and tale itself - and Krueger, Ross, Braithwaite and the rest of the guys who put it on paper for us - do. Bottom line - "Justice" is one of DC's alltime standouts. Highest possible recommendation for all three volumes.

This is the big finale of the Justice series. The story is great and Alex's art continues to be amazing. The Heroes finally reliazethe Villans are working together because Grodd implemented thoughts into thier minds. The epic final battle is absoluetly gorgeous and Ross does the characters full Justice. The series is a great read and all three volumes are reccomanded.