1050

4,0 ( )

I was drawn to this book because of Brad Meltzer. I have read his adult fiction thriller books. I have never been a comic book person, even in my youth. So I wanted to see an 'adult comic book'. What I learned is I AM NOT A COMIC BOOK PERSON. That seems to be a world I can't get my head around. So it would be a great injustice to try and review a book that is not in my color wheel. (LOL made a joke and I didn't know it...." it would be a great injustice..." and the book is called "The Justice League of America! LOL)
Anyway, I will review the imagery in the book. That, I feel I can have an opinion on. So this is for you illustrator...oh, crap. In this comic book world, there is not just one artist/illustrator by a whole group of pencilers, inkers, artists, letterers, colorists.....I guess giving my opinion is going to be harder than I thought!
Well, here goes. The cover is beautiful. I love the variation of characters and poses. I love that a woman is the center figure on the cover and that it is a beloved female superhero, Wonder Woman. So yes, I was drawn to this cover. Whoever did it - good job. One thing, though. I know that this is NOT something that a book cover person has control over, but it is a pet peeve. All the stickers that the bookstores and libraries (yes, I have a library copy) put all over the books, it blocked out some of the titles of the book and on the back, they covered up the blurb on the back cover. So maybe the artist's need to take that into considering when they make the covers. In this case, the lettering on the cover is from edge of the right side to the edge of the left side, so it would for sure be covered up by stickers. Just a note to think about.

The front cover has the image of a variety of characters wrapped around onto the back. Not as interesting, it looked awkward. But at least they didn't attempt to write the blurb on top of all the color images, they put the blurb in a black background column with white print. Legible, thanks. The colors and images were very well done (by whomever!) I liked the imagery a lot. The content page has a page and 1/2 of all these unique characters (at least to me) all standing around kibitzing with each other. Much like a casual shot of a bunch of people starting to line up for a group shot. I like this and found it intriguing. It appears they are having loose conversations and interesting body language. No voice bubbles. One female character is moving away from a scary looking animal dude. Funny. Later in the book, they actually used that same page that grabbed me and then had all the voice bubbles with what each was saying to each other, that was a treat. Seeing Batman in conversation with a busty (VERY BUSTY) blond while he drinks a cup of tea! Funny! (and he appeared to be staring at her breasts the whole time.
Layout: I LOVED the variety of layout formats used. I have to admit, that I ended up looking up what the actual terms for comic book formats were. So even though I didn't understand the comic book, I did LEARN something from it. Let’s see if I can give you, my readers some education too. The layout in these types of books is called the comic paneling. The usually use a 9 or 6 grid format on a page. They also use Big frames (1/2 page or full page) to show the importance of that frame in the story line. They also use small frames to lead you along in the story. I couldn't find all the names for these layouts, but I will list out some of the layouts that I enjoyed a lot: they intermixed small panels with long -widescreen panels (ones that are narrow and long, sometimes horizontal and others vertical.) I loved the full page panels where they had lots of room to give vivid detailed actions shots.

In one entire chapter, they used a frame edging that I liked. It had wide screen panels with a ripped edging. The character is trapped under a building, and the ripped edging of the story ADDS to the crushed world in the story line. Brilliant! And when they were bouncing from the trapped area to the above ground scenes, the ripped frame allowed me to know 'where we are now' in the story. So it was a very good way to allow the reader to follow the movement of the story.

I really enjoyed the variety of characters and the uniforms and such. Not being in this comic book world, I had no idea who 99% of them were, so it was an enjoyable part of the book. But not a bunch of reality going on here. Every guy had rock hard abs and legs. And not an inch of anything missing ...but the detail in the costume...

Now, for this next part, I have wrestled with my opinion on the women's portrayal in this comic book world. And I know that mostly men read these books....And I will be booed for saying this but WHY DO ALL THE FEMALE CHARACTERS NEED TO BE HAVING ALL THEIR PARTS HANGING OUT INTO THE WORLD? One jumping off a building and those tiny fabrics will give! And the breasts are bad enough but now they have the high cut legs that leave NOTHING to the imagination! Guys....I know....but COME ON. I know you are 'in another world' but don't they have GRAVITY there either? Ugh. Ok. I had my peace. I'll move on.
I'm going to rate this book on IMAGERY ALONE. Not the story line, since I just could not follow it. It's like reading a book in a different language. So would I recommend? If you’re a guy? Yes. If you have that kind of brain that can follow this type of story telling? Yes, if you like imagery that is full of movement (not the breasts, they are cemented in place), but lots of action? Yes. If you don’t get comic book world speak….PASS. But visually pleasing. ( )

So this one gets 2 stars because I just didn't get it. But I did really like the "Walls" single issue. I just felt like I need a much vaster knowledge of JLA or even the entire DC universe to really get it. The surprise ending was totally lame and didn't make sense. I wish I could ask the author a couple of questions. "Like why would they keep it a secret?" It just doesn't make sense. Oh well I guess I should start reading the earlier graphic novels first before getting to this newer material. ( )

Two of the top writers for DC Comics get together on this action packed story that returns a lost hero to the DC Universe. ( )