Justice League Dark #1

Old crooked witches' teeth hurting Superman. That's all wrong.

Some characters most recently (or not so recently in some cases) seen in the Vertigo line of comics now turn up in the newly rebooted DC universe. Shade, the Changing Man, Madame Xanadu and John Constatine all make appearances as do Zatanna and Deadman. All great characters but hard to see many of them working together as a team long term.

Some of the Justice League show up as well (Cyborg, Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman) just to prove that this is a DC book and not a Vertigo one and to show Superman being injured and being ineffectual against magic. The story is filled with mystery, madness and dark portents but is still in its early stages as only Madame Xanadu and Shade have hooked up and none of the team have come face to face with the adversary yet, the Enchantress.

This is only the second comic that I have read in the DC universe reboot (Swamp Thing was the other) and I have to say neither has knocked my socks off yet. This one was written by Peter Milligan (who wrote the nineties version of Shade, the Changing Man) and is no stranger to other Vertigo titles. I hope that he is let off the leash enough that he can bring some of that Vertigo sensibility to this book. The art by Spanish artist Mikel Janin is very good - clean and detailed.

I will give this book (and the Swamp Thing) a couple more months to see how the stories develop but I am slightly disappointed that they haven't produced more of a bang for the launch of the new universe.

First published on RevolutionSF on Thursday Sep 29, 2011