So, here we finally are. The Darkseid War has been teased throughout Geoff Johns’s long Justice League run since the very start. Although the Origin storyline (Justice League (vol 2) 1-6) introduced Darkseid to us at the beginning of the run and our heroes sent him packing back to Apokolips, his return was inevitable and hinted at throughout the run. Not only is Darkseid returning, but also the Multiverse’s old foe, the Anti-Monitor. Destroyer of the world once inhabited by the Crime Syndicate, Johns places the two biggest threats to the Justice League in one story. This scale of threat is by no means unusual or unprecedented – other writers like Grant Morrison, who teased Mageddon throughout before it emerged as the all-powerful baddie in JLA: World War Three – but the stakes remain high. Speaking frankly, Geoff Johns has written one of the best Justice League runs of modern times, and much of the drama has surrounded the oncoming storm of Darkseid War. Can it – with all its hype and promise – live up to expectations?
Sadly, that question cannot be answered in full here today. Including everything, there are nineteen parts to Darkseid War, making it even longer than either Trinity War or Forever Evil. Luckily, Johns and DC split the mega tale into three digestible parts, acts if you will. We’ll be starting with Act One, consisting of Justice League (vol 2) 40-44, along with a prelude from DC Sneak Peak: Justice League. Written by Geoff Johns, Jason Fabok is present as the main artist, but Justice League (vol 2) 40 does feature a grand return for some of the old regulars, such as Kevin Maguire, Phil Jimenez, Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Scott Kolins, Jim Lee, and Scott Williams. Act One has been collected by DC in Justice League Volume 7: Darkseid War Part One.
DC Sneak Peak and Justice League (vol 2) 40 are both preludes to the main event. Big stories like this can always do with a prelude, something that sets the scene. It’s especially essential in this case since Johns floods Darkseid War with a large platter of new plot and fresh characters. Previous issues and stories from Justice League (vol 2) have hinted at the return of Darkseid and the oncoming threat of the Anti-Monitor, but Johns delves even deeper here. It all goes back to the ancient Gods. Some – like me – may groan when Johns writes Paradise Island and the Amazonians into the story. However, at least Johns writes something a little bit different. On the same night as Wonder Woman’s birth, another baby was born on the island. This baby – named Grail – is the daughter of Darkseid, who planted his seed in Myrina, an Amazonian assassin. Grail is predicted to be the harbinger of all evil, and Myrina leaves Paradise Island. Over the years, Myrina has been training Grail to become all-powerful so they can kill Darkseid. Now, all this sounds very familiar. If you’ve read The New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, you’ll notice the similarities between Raven and Grail are sharp, staggeringly so. While pretty much every original concept in creative media has been exhausted long ago, Grail’s premise is so predictable that its hard to be interested hugely. The drama in the story does come from a rivalry between Grail and Myrina, but I would be lying if I said it was the most entertaining part of the story. Nonetheless, this serves as the first prelude and it does set the scene well, even if Myrina and her daughter most probably should have been thrown into the New 52 mix earlier – their appearance here in such a crucial story almost feels too late.
Justice League (vol 2) 40 is another prelude, but it features little that’s new. It simply reestablishes the facts, with Metron in his Mobius Chair acting as a narrator. We’re reminded of the war between New Genesis and Apokolips, and how Metron broke his own rules as spectator by organising an exchange of sons between the leaders of the two worlds. Mister Miracle, son of Highfather, is a key player in this story and he’s surely one of the most interesting characters from Kirby’s Fourth World (mainly because the others consist of too basic or dry personalities). There’s also a bit about the Multiverse, and a great moment recreating the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, and Flashpoint – those cataclysmic events in DC’s history which create fundamental change. What is new is the development of the Anti-Monitor’s character. Back in the days of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Anti-Monitor was basically a universe-eating machine. Why? Just because. That is still very much the case today, but it’s revealed that his name was once Mobius. Metron’s chair once belonged to him, but Mobius fell from grace and became the Anti-Monitor. It still raises questions about the Anti-Monitor and his dreary love of destruction, but the expansion of lore is nice. Nonetheless, the Anti-Monitor is another key player here – it’s Grail’s goal to destroy Darkseid by using the Anti-Monitor…
Finally, with the preludes out of the way, Justice League (vol 2) 41 kicks things off. Myrina Black has been in hiding on Earth, but Darkseid’s warriors smell a plot against him. They begin to kill every person named Myrina Black to destroy the plot. Some of Darkseid’s warriors, like the Furies, turn up here and throughout, but really, they’re so obsessed by their own cruelty that they don’t add anything of interest. The Justice League do investigate the murder scene of one of the dead, but really the Justice League’s place in this story is minor thus far. Instead, Mister Miracle takes the helm of hero for this part. As I said, Mister Miracle is interesting because he feels more diverse compared to the stale old ‘100% good’ or ‘100% evil’ characters of the Fourth World. Johns writes Mister Miracle’s memories of torture and prison on Apokolips vividly and with emotion. And there is a chill when Mister Miracle confronts Darkseid at the end of this issue in a scene which alludes to the drama and fights to be seen later in the tale. But Mister Mircale spends most of the time researching Myrina, Grail, and the oncoming war so he can warn the Justice League. They finally get involved when Grail materialises on Earth (by actually using the Flash’s mouth as a wormhole to teleport through – a moment which needs much more discussion than it gets!) and a big fight breaks out. What can be said? Why is there a big fight? Although Grail wants to kill Darkseid, she just so happens to also hate everyone else in existence. Her main challenger is fellow Amazonian Wonder Woman (she, on as side note, is the prime narrator of the whole Darkseid War tale, but her narration adds very little detail or anything of help), but at the same time, everything else goes wrong. Superman and Lex Luthor are together in LexCorp headquarters when Lex’s sister, Lena, is revealed to be a Darkseid agent – she transports her brother and his arch-nemesis to the grim world of Apokolips. Geoff Johns. The Anti-Monitor also appears on Earth about now. It’s not the first time that Geoff Johns has done anything like this. You might recall that Trinity War ended flawlessly with, first the reveal of the Outsider, and then the arrival of the Crime Syndicate on Earth. The repetition of ‘one surprise after another’ here is good, but perhaps lacks the same impact. We all knew that the Anti-Monitor was coming back, and while Lena Luthor’s betrayal is a shock, she wasn’t exactly a personality who shined or really featured much. But overall, such an explosion of revelations does the story far better than harm.
Justice League (vol 2) 42 features – just like Forever Evil did – a league in retreat. While Luthor and Superman arguably do little or anything on Apokolips for the next three issues, the rest of the league can do nothing to fight the Anti-Monitor or his ally Grail. As for Myrina, she runs into Mister Miracle, but thus far she is little different to her daughter in terms of her goals. All that does change, but not yet. The best scene in this issue comes when the Justice League come face-to-face with Metron. Another decent character from the Fourth World saga, Metron is depressed about the chance of victory against both Darkseid and the Anti-Monitor, but the heroes believe they can get the answers they need not from him, but from his chair. The Mobius Chair contains the knowledge of everything, past and present. With remarkable ease, Wonder Woman removes Metron from the chair and who should place themselves on it but Batman. With that, the Dark Knight obtains the knowledge of everything. For a faultless ending to this part, the Justice League’s only human or non-superpowered hero becomes a god…
Out of all the heroes to become a god of all knowledge, it always had to be Batman. This choice is one of the best that Johns makes during the whole story. Not only is he the source of all knowledge, but it also makes Batman into an even more calculating and coldly logical figure. Emotions now mean very little, and there is a fantastic moment when he insults Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern by telling him that he is simply a feeble human who has power only because of a superpowered ring. The Darkseid War has become famous for this new Batman, but it also features a moment of great revelation and shock. To discover the power of the Mobius Chair, Batman asks it questions to test it. One question he asks chair is what the Joker’s real name is. The Dark Knight is visibly shocked by the mysterious answer, and later in the story its revealed that there are actually three Jokers. This is a grand surprise and a moment worth remembering, but perhaps the surprise and very idea of three Jokers is better than the actual concept. Five years after this in 2020, Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok released the three-issue miniseries Batman: Three Jokers. This isn’t the place to go into it in detail, but in short, explanations were insufficient, and it fell short of expectations. Either way, while the miniseries was a disappointment, you cannot condemn The Darkseid War or Geoff Johns for writing such a shocking change in the Batman mythos.
Other than all this, Justice League (vol 2) 43 is the beginning of the end for Act One. Darkseid arrives on Earth and battle between himself, and the Anti-Monitor begins, with the Justice League acting like ants on this battlefield. But after Batman’s transformation, this is where the other theme from The Darkseid War emerges. While the main theme has to surround Darkseid and his battle with the Anti-Monitor, the secondary theme is how the Justice League all begin to receive new powers. After the Dark Knight, we’re taken back to Apokolips where Superman can no longer recharge his powers due to lack of sunlight. Therefore, Lex Luthor throws the Man of Steel into a fiery solar pit, transforming him into an invincible and almost-sociopathic figure who looks down on humanity. Although Batman and Superman are altered, the spotlight isn’t yet on them. We have to wait an issue or two for the interesting stuff, as it’s time for the big fight.
So, for Justice League (vol 2) 44, it’s Darkseid Vs the Anti-Monitor. In effect, two gods fighting one another for no reason other than power. Geoff Johns does make the last two issues of Act One into grand fight scenes. While it cannot be compared fully to the storytelling of Justice League: Origin, where it literally was just a big fight scene for six issues, the duels do hide the fact that little else is going on in the story. Sure, Batman and Green Lantern go and explore the Crime Syndicate’s old destroyed world just to see the power of the Anti-Monitor, but then the story strays badly into interminable nonsense about the creation of the universe and the Anti-Monitor. Batman and the Mobius Chair is behind most of this dialogue, but it just doesn’t make much sense. That’s the only downside to Batman’s new powers – he talks a lot more rubbish. More detail is given about the Anti-Monitor’s depressing life and how, in his pain, he destroys universes, but it still doesn’t alter the fact that he’s a dull character with little to offer. What is interesting is how a few more characters from the league receive new powers. For instance, the Flash merges with the Black Racer, a Fourth World character who unleashes death at a moment’s notice (who, before the days of racial awareness, once used to be a black guy on skis). And Captain Marvel loses his connection to Shazam. Big changes there, and all this leads up to the very dramatic end to Act One. After all the destruction of the fight, there is a definite loser. While the Anti-Monitor is nowhere to be seen, Darkseid’s bloody corpse lies motionless on the ground. It’s a shocking moment. Although Darkseid is a boring villain who just likes killing for the sake of it, the death of this god is a big moment, and marks a perfect place to end Act One.
It is difficult to look at just one slice of a much larger story and pass a strong judgement on it but Act One is something of a rollercoaster ride in terms of events and plotting. The preludes and opening issue are very plot-heavy, something which Geoff Johns hasn’t really done that often in the Justice League (vol 2) run. Sure, you’ve had stories like Trinity War and Forever Evil, but they were larger events that broke away into other titles. Darkseid War is pure Justice League tale, and for its length, I think it’s absolutely fine for the early issues to have a lot of plot. It may be true that foes like Myrina and Grail are, frankly, not very interesting foes, and this will be a point of discussion when looking at Act Three, but Johns clearly wants to give them a chance to breathe and explain their stories. But after those introductory issues, Act One slows down dramatically. The fight scene between Darkseid and the Anti-Monitor is a big event, as is the transformation of Batman and a few other events, but overall the plot slows down. Having long and drawn-out fight scenes can only take a story so far and be entertaining for a limited time. In a way, I’m glad that Johns ends the Darkseid fight when he does. That isn’t just because of Darkseid’s death, but because it creates some variety and rescues us readers from half-a-dozen issues of fight scenes. But in those final two issues of Act One does spawn another problem. Geoff Johns begins to go too-Grant Morrison for my liking. Now, I love Morrison’s stories as much as the next person, but he had this terrifically pretentious tendency by attempting to explain what doesn’t need to be explained in great detail. Dialogue surrounding the origin of the universe and the ways of the Anti-Monitor make this tale dull. While it never becomes too grating or obvious here, it does creep into Act Three especially. But all of that will have to wait…
Jason Fabok brilliantly brings Geoff Johns’s writing to life and enlivens the action in this story in a fashion similar to the work of Jim Lee. It’s energetic and looks exciting. But Fabok can also convey a story interestingly and it is never static or boring. His inks over his own pencils are dynamic too. However, while Fabok is great, one aspect should not be overlooked. And that is the brilliant return of those classic artists from the past to reconvey old events.
Artists like Maguire, Ordway, Jimenez, Jurgens, and Lee provide some stunning pages reminding us of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, and Flashpoint. These scenes recapture the moods and appearances of the earlier stories very well.
VERDICT
Overall, Act One of The Darkseid War is a decent introduction to a much larger story. I do think that the story becomes too obsessed with Fourth World characters who really aren’t that interesting, and the fight scene takes up too much space towards the end. But I really do like what Johns is doing with the Justice League heroes, and I think that is where the greatest potential lies. There have been many surprises along the way, one of them being the death of Darkseid, but where the story goes from here, who can say?
Next Week: Justice League: Darkseid War Act Two: Power of the Gods (Justice League (vol 2) 45-46, Justice League: The Darkseid War Specials featuring Batman, Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Shazam, and Lex Luthor). Written by Geoff Johns, Peter Tomasi, Francis Manapul, Rob Williams, Tom King, Steve Orlando, with art by Francis Manapul, Fernando Pasarin, Matt Ryan, Bong Dazo, Jesus Merino, Evan Shaner, and Scott Kolins.
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