Should Have Trusted My First Instinct - A Review of Justice League International #1

When DC Comics announced their plans to cancel all of their current titles and start with 52 new #1 books I took a close look at the offerings to see which ones I was interested in picking up. Based on which characters I like to follow, the creative teams associated with the different titles, and the concepts for some of the books, I tried to scale my new DC Comic pull list down to a fiscally-responsible number of books that I expected to enjoy reading.

One title that was on my list originally, but didn't make it to that final list was Justice League International. The books features a team of heroes selected and sanctioned by the United Nations to address global threats. Dan Jurgens is the writer and the art is being handled by Aaron Lopresti; two creators whose work I have really enjoyed in the past.

Why didn't I take the initial pass on the title? I was looking at all the new DC Comics that I was checking the box next to on the order sheet my comic shop had provided me and thought I needed to be a little more prudent in how many titles I went with at the beginning. I decided to leave off JLI because it was a lock that I would be getting the flagship Justice League by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. Figured I only needed one Justice League title on my pull list.

However, that decision continued to nag at me as the release date for JLI #1 got closer. I really like Jurgens and Lopresti, and was interested in the members of the newly forming JLI. So yesterday, when the comic was released, I took advantage of DC Comics new policy of simultaneously releasing new comics in stores and online on the same date. It's a move that DC hopes will help drive sales overall. For me, it helped drive an impulse buy that I was able to make from my office and then read on my iPad during the train ride home that night.

And I'm very glad that I did. Jurgen and Lopresti deliver an incredibly fun super hero team comic that is efficient and precise in it's setup so that the story can quickly move on to main point of the book - adventuring. I love the mix of characters, though I'm not completely sold on Godiva, a new character who apparently was spawned from the timeline resetting events of the Flashpoint mini-series. Red Rocket stole every scene he was in, and look forward to seeing how he and August General in Iron play off each other. The team dynamic is pretty much what I was expecting and hoping for.

The book was light and fun without being saccharine, but still maintained a level of seriousness in the story that prevent the book from being nothing more than a comedy book.

Most of all, Justice League International was flat out fun to read. I've already read the book a second time, and am anxious to read the next issue. I think that is praise enough, and an indicator that I will be making an change to my pull list next time I visit the comic shop.