It would be more interesting to see stories that are larger in scope, but without all the tie-ins with other books that we saw in the previous couple of volumes. Nevertheless, that approach is a bit too formulaic. I suppose there is a reason that this book under writer JM DeMatteis seems to go round robin through the cast, figuring out ways that each character can shine and be a focal point for the book and readers. Through it all, Zatanna and John Constantine, well, *everyone* and John Constantine, bicker and finally realize that JC is just a jerk. In this next to last volume of Justice League Dark, our intrepid crew of mystical people are subjected to the nightmare which is Nightmare Nurse and the return (say what?) of Deadman to Nanda Parbat, now obliterated by a mad god named Pantheon. There's one more volume of this, but there's just no way I can read it.
In any case, what a shame to waste such a big, potentially out-there superhero team on bland storylines like these.
#Justice league paradise lost series
In addition to the constant, unearned conflict, several of them also do that thing where, when faced with an emergency, rather than explain themselves so everyone on the team will chill out, they just yell "There's no time for explanations!" Asshole, yes there is! This is one of the laziest possible tricks for forcing your characters to keep fighting with each other, and they do it many times in this series (and even more than once in this volume). It's basically all they do! I wish they'd stay there!Īny of this might be forgivable if the characters were decently attended to, but they aren't. And it has not one, but two separate stories about the JLD getting caught in a mysterious dimension between worlds. It has yet another story where it's revealed someone was not who they said they were. This volume has yet another story where Deadman is brought back to life and then immediately killed again to maintain the status quo. This series is about 30 issues long at this point, and they are already recycling material. While it's already difficult enough reading a book where all the one-dimensional characters are given "personalities" by just having them snipe at each other and complain, I really couldn't believe some of the stories in this. But this volume really drove it home for me: I hate this. This series was pretty much doomed from the start, seeing as it was built on the foundation that all the team members seemingly hate each other, have no vested interest in saving the world, and use lazy "magic" as their superpowers, which basically just means they can do anything they want without ever having to explain it. I don't know how a series this short has managed to retread its own ideas as many times as this one has, but that's just how it goes with Justice League Dark. Who does that? Meanwhile Zatanna almost kills someone because she doesn't listen to Constantine and then everyone says it was his fault.īasically it's roughly 120 pages of blaming John Constantine for things he didn't do (while he whines that Zatanna won't love him) wrapped in background stories about Nightmare Nurse and Deadman that don't interest anyone anyway. Boston Brand even states that he never was a good guy himself but at the same time calls Constantine the worst of all and even abuses the body of a stranger to beat him. Given that Zatanna spent years with him, she should've known better. They wanted him to be a hero and now are mad because he never wanted to be one. They are angry because Constantine acted like-well John Constantine. A twelve year old acts more grown up as they do. It starts with lengthy relationship disputes and ends in excessive mobbing (and they even openly admit that). What the heck was that? Each chapter got more and more offensive. These last two are just calling it in, man. The first 3 had their problems, but were decent enough. I'm like, "I don't know what's going on, and I don't know why I'm meant to care." Then the last story in the installment jumps ahead 5 years, we have yet a bit of a different cast - because every fucking story has had rotating cast - and random wackiness. The only "consequences" ever faced in this book is no one likes Constantine, shockingly enough, and he's turned into some sad sack because of it. Deadman was a neglected child who spent his childhood astrally projecting into Nanda Parbat and is secretly - even to himself - all mystical or some such nonsense.Įvery installment has them doing some dangerous, "this will kill you if you do it remotely wrong", and then it gets pulled off easily. Nightmare Nurse is really a demon inhabiting an almost dead body. Got some backstory on Nightmare Nurse, which was interesting, and backstory on Deadman, which was kinda hokey.
More coherent than the last story, since it was actually a complete story, but not a whole lot better.
0 kommentar(er)
