Justice League #4

I've enjoyed the New 52 version of the Justice League, but this latest issue from writer Geoff Johns and artist Jim Lee is a complete trainwreck. For the issue that introduces Darkseid, one of DC Comics' biggest and baddest villains, to fumble the ball this badly is simply inexcusable.

Almost everything goes wrong here as the characters speak in nothing more than clipped plot and character points, Lee's art finds the characters in more and more ridiculous poses, and even the action shots don't make sense from panel to panel.

The humor and character interactions that worked well in previous issues are missing (except for Green Lantern's comment about Batman's reaction to GL touching Wonder Woman's lasso of truth). Darkseid is imposing, but I'm not really sure we needed a centerfold of the character, and the layout of the sequence is bizarre as the League is starring at the villain emerging from a Boom Tube yet, in close-ups, the Boom Tube is to the back of every character. How is this possible? Pass.

[DC, $2.99]