April comics
I was so excited to get these books this week. Both of them spin out of the Dark Nights Metal and No Justice events, are the brainchildren of Scott Snyder (one is written by him, the other is by Tynion IV) and are beautifully illustrated. They’re Justice League stories with Wonder Woman front and centre, which is all I want.
Justice League Dark
DC comics is sci-fi for the most part, but I’m more into fantasy, so JLD with all its magic is right up my street. I love the Justice League Dark animated movie and, similarly to that, this story features Zatanna, Constantine and Swamp Thing, but the team is led by Wonder Woman instead of Batman. It’s also got Detective Chimp, who I grew a soft spot for in Dark Nights Metal. Man-Bat was the only main character I didn’t know before, but his addition is pretty entertaining.
Although the story is fast paced, it delves into the psyche of each main character so you’re really invested in what happens to them. It’s suspenseful, gory, heartbreaking and often funny. I’ve already almost finished it and I’m a slow reader. I’d give it six stars on Goodreads if I could.
One detail that I love is that their headquarters is in the basement of the Hall of Justice and there’s a little plan of it at the back of the book great for potential fanfic.
Justice League/Aquaman: Drowned Earth
I haven’t started this book yet so I can’t rave about it as much as JLD, but what I can say is that it is physically huge. I got the hardback and it looks almost twice as thick as my hardback copy of Dark Nights Metal.
I’ve dipped into Aquaman rebirth a bit and have followed the storyline on Comicstorian. Especially with how good the movie was and with Atlantis being a fantasy realm, I’ve become more and more curious about the Aquaman comics. I like the friendship between Arthur and Diana – they’re both royalty and from outside the normal human world, so they understand each other in a way that the rest of the JL doesn’t. I flicked through this book and saw that there is at least one whole section on the Titans, which is great because I’ve been wanting to read more about them too, and Donna Troy and Garth in particular.