There are a lot of reasons personally for me to be reading this issue. First of all, it ties into Forever Evil. Secondly, it is the first part of a larger crossover called Blight (it’s 18 issues in total, two more than Infinity). Thirdly and most importantly, we get a new writer on this with J.M. DeMatteis. I’m quite curious, so let’s find out if of all this can help us answer: Is it good?
Justice League Dark #24 (DC Comics)
John Constantine wakes up in the House of Mystery, safe and sound after the thrashing that the Crime Syndicate had delivered onto the Justice Leagues. He’s trying to remember what happened and how he escaped, but his memories are vague at best. However, his house has something to show him. Something new and sinister that has been building for quite a while.
So… it’s a Heartless from Kingdom Hearts then?
This isn’t what I was necessarily expecting from this issue. I thought we’d get more of Constantine trying to figure out what happened and have him start searching for Zatanna, the person he once (still?) loved. Instead, it’s much more of a personal issue, focusing in on what he thinks and what he desires, which is to locate his fallen teammates. Plus, we also get insight into a mystery shadow that is feeding off the hate and loneliness of people, growing larger. It’s not what I expected, but I still found it interesting overall.
Due to focusing solely on Constantine and looking into his inner self mostly, we get a lot more characterization and depth for the character than we usually do out of the book, or for any character for that matter. He is much more interesting now and then he has been at any of time he has appeared in the run. Most of this is revealed through narration, and there’s lots of it. Most pages are filled to brim with it, for better or for worse. It’s not that it is bad or sounds unnatural, though it can feel a bit heavy-handed and redundant at points. It’s also really not exciting and doesn’t feel like anything gets going until the end. There’s something definitely building, but we don’t really have much an idea of what it is.
A majority of the issue reads like this.
The artwork is by Mike Janin, who has been with this book since the very beginning (impressive if I do say so myself), and it looks pretty good as always. His characters look good, the world is nicely drawn with some interesting looking angles and views of locations, and the magic he draws looks great. I do like the look and coloring of the shadows, with how hazy and smokey they look. If you liked his work up until now, it’s the same quality as always.
7.5
- A new and rather interesting direction for the book.
- Heavy on the characterization for Constantine.
- The artwork is great as always.
- Not much is happening in the issue.
- Very heavy in the dialogue & narration department.
Is It Good?
Justice League Dark #24 may not be the most exciting thing you read this week, but it’ll be one that you’ll like. It’s an interesting new direction for the book that I look forward to reading, but what it’ll be able to do within this long crossover is questionable. Let’s keep an eye on it throughout the months to see where it goes.
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