Comic Info
Comic Name: Justice League of America (Volume 2)
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Brad Meltzer
Artist: Ed Benes
# of Issues: 7
Release Date: 2007
Justice League of America (2) #1 Variant
Reprints Justice League of America (2) #1-7 (October 2006-May 2007). The Justice League is dead…killed by its own members. Now, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman realize they need to put the past behind them and form a new Justice League of America while learning from their mistakes. When Red Tornado tries to return to life as a real human, a chain of events begins that could form a new League but also destroy it before it even begins!
Written by Brad Meltzer, Justice League of America: The Tornado’s Path is the relaunch of DC’s second volume of the Justice League of America. The comic collection features art by Ed Benes.
JLA was a fun title that got a bit long-in-the-tooth. When it was put down, it was “The end of the JLA!!!” (which of course isn’t permanent because nothing is permanent in comics). With comics in such a downer state, it felt like Justice League needed new direction…and in a lot of ways this comic gets it right.
The comic brings together a combination of a traditional JLA (with Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman), but it also mixes in the idea that the Justice League is a home for new heroes, diversity, and redemption. I’ve never been that into the “big three” but I always liked how they interacted with some of the other characters. With Red Tornado (an odd favorite), Hawkgirl, Black Lightning, Black Canary, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan…aka my Green Lantern), and Vixen, there is plenty of opportunity for storytelling.
Justice League of America #3
The problem with this volume is that it is unnecessarily confusing at points. Meltzer sometimes tells the story out of order, but not out of order enough to be completely non-linear (which would have helped). The framework of the story has the panels sometimes reading across the page but some pages have them reading vertically…it isn’t always easy to distinguish wish direction they are going (a flaw in a lot of writers/artists combos when they start to get more creative with the page layouts).
Ed Benes is a pretty solid artist for Justice League of America. His designs have a lot of classical looks and combines good aspects of ’90s art (which was for the most part bad). I don’t know how much say he had on page layout, but as mentioned, the book struggles there…at least the Super Friend’s “Hall of Justice” gets to come into play as the new HQ.
Justice League of America: The Tornado’s Path is a solid start to the series. It has some wobbly points but it also feels like Metzler could clear them up in future issues. The series sets up some storylines (like with Geoforce) and the Legion of Super-Heroes. The JLA is set for a crossover with the JSA in the next collection. Justice League of America: The Tornado’s Path is followed by Justice League of America: The Lightning Saga.
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