It’s been a big year for superhero comics, with the relaunch of the Ultimate Universe over at Marvel and DC’s version of that through the Absolute Universe. For DC, it’s been even more than that. After 2022’s summer event Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths, followed their 2023 line-wide relaunch titled Dawn of DC. It promised to be a new entry into the world, with new #1s and new creative teams, but that was derailed by events such as Knight Terrors and Beast World almost immediately. 2024 followed suit with their summer event, Absolute Power, which led into the current relaunch – All-In. Fresh jumping-on points and fresh books to get people back to comic shops and read comics.
At the center of that initiative lies the Justice League, a team that’s been missing in action since the Death of the Justice League all the way back in 2022 that kicked off Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths. In the interim, “DC’s main team”’ was replaced by the Titans (hence Beast World), but come on, they’re no Justice League.
DC All-In Special #1 laid the groundwork for the new initiative. Every superhero you know, regardless of what teams they might be affiliated with, are also part of the Justice League Unlimited. During the team’s inauguration, Darkseid attacks, and then dies. Darkseid was, from Darkseid is. The very setup of the League itself has led to various books; The Question: All Along the Watchtower (#1 out now!), Challengers of the Unknown later in December, and The Atom Project in February 2025. And, of course, the nucleus all these books are orbiting around, Justice League Unlimited.
Written by Mark Waid, with art by Dan Mora, Justice League Unlimited marks the duo’s fourth collaboration following Batman/Superman: World’s Finest, Shazam, and Absolute Power. They’re joined by color artist Tamra Bonvillain, who also colored World’s Finest, and letterer Ariana Maher, who lettered Absolute Power.
I’ll just give you the bottom line right here and now, dear reader, instead of stringing you along for a ride that you might not be interested in:
I don’t think Justice League Unlimited #1 is a good comic book.
Now hold on, don’t leave yet. I think it’s fine, in the same way World’s Finest has been fine, which is to say, it’s a book where you have a good time and feel like you’re watching a Saturday Morning Cartoon. You’re having a good time because these characters feel like their classic selves, with some stunning art to go with it. If you’ve been enjoying that book, this is tailor-made for you, because that is the audience the book is targeting.
Unfortunately, I am not within the audience this book is targeting.
Here’s the thing. Did Justice League Unlimited set out to be a comic that’s light, bright, and easy to pick up, just like those cartoons you loved and grew up on? Probably. But it’s missing any of the narrative beats that make them actually interesting. Really think about why you keep going back to a show like Batman: The Animated Series (episodes such as Nothing to Fear or Heart of Ice) or, hell, the show the comic gets its title from: Justice League Unlimited (episodes such as Ultimatum or Patriot Act) itself. These shows might seem like regular kid shows on the surface, and in many ways they are, but they’re exploring complex subject matter like politics, moral ambiguity, and the human psyche.
Further than that, think about what draws you to team books. Just this year, we got the newest iteration of the Ultimates by Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri, a book that immediately kicks off by looking at concepts like “What makes a revolution a revolution?” and “What defines a hero?” But that doesn’t end there, go to books like Bendis/Finch’s New Avengers, Hickman/et al.’s Avengers, and most importantly in this series of comparisons: Morrison/Porter’s JLA, a book that changed the Justice League forever, a high that creatives since have tried to reach, but have not met.
Why those books in particular? Aspects of Justice League Unlimited can be found in those books – New Avengers is about the new Avengers team that rises from the ashes of the old, abandoned one, Hickman’s Avengers brings everyone together, and JLA speaks for itself.
Those books play on these concepts in different ways, especially New Avengers, which is the most different of the lot, but they all maintain a series of characteristics that leave you hooked. Before Justice League Unlimited, Hickman’s Avengers approached the idea of “What if everyone was a part of the team?” through the concept of the Avengers World, but it did so by having the first issue end by making you believe in the concept. JLA #1 very succinctly sets up the antagonistic force of the Hyperclan and what the arc as a whole wants to go for. New Avengers #1 uses familiar characters to get you immersed in the setup.
What they also have in common is setting. New Avengers gets the most out of this by taking place in New York, a location any Marvel reader will be intimately familiar with. Hickman’s Avengers takes the riskiest approach to this, with most of the first arc taking place on Mars. JLA sets itself on Earth too. “What’s the common thread?” you might ask. The answer? The settings have character.
Again, New Avengers gets lucky in this regard. Regardless of whether you’re reading comics, watching the movies, or absorbing through pure cultural osmosis, it makes do. Hickman’s Avengers makes you really interested in what’s happening on Mars and what Ex Nihilo and co are doing there throughout the first issue alone. JLA’s first makes you concerned about the Earth and what the Hyperclan are doing there.
Justice League Unlimited #1 does none of those things. It takes the idea of the team’s existence by default and rolls with it. Much like All-In Special before it, it’s more interested in exposition dumping its way through everything. Yeah, the Justice League are together now, they’ve got a new Watchtower, and so on and so forth. It never decides to ever prove why the League should exist, and after all, why should it? This is the Justice League we’re talking about, right?
Well, it matters. I accept what All-In is going for as a marketing approach, but I can’t seem to accept taking this as a default. Why does the superhero team, this one in particular, exist? Even within your universe refresh, there should be character-driven reasons for narrative developments. Your story lives and breathes because of character. Even if your first issue is “Someone’s first day in the League,” you need to make me care. What makes the League so cool, etc.
To build off my previous point, there is a very rudimentary reason why the League exists – to “save the world!”. In that same fashion, the “Earth” only exists to be saved, simply a setting to operate on. Earth is too basic of a setting. I need to be made to care about it. One might point out that Bendis’ New Avengers doesn’t do this either, but it’s set in New York, and again, through reading and/or cultural osmosis, you kind of give a shit about Marvel’s New York as is. Furthermore, it shows off the danger through characters we already care about, and it’s drenched in such good character work regardless that it finds itself leeway. JLA #1 shows off the Hyperclan solving real-world problems on Earth to make you wonder if superheroes can solve real-world problems, and that’s interesting.
Justice League Unlimited is operating on default expressions on these things and expecting you to care, but it doesn’t end there either. All good superhero books require a good villain, or villains. Hickman’s Avengers does this through the new mysterious Ex Nihilo – the man trying to build a world. New Avengers does this through Electro breaking out all the supervillains from the Raft (Marvel’s maximum security prison) for reasons unknown to us, but enough to work as a hook. JLA does this through the Hyperclan – superhumans pretending to save the world.
What does Justice League Unlimited do? Our heroes are sent to deal with “weapons of mass destruction,” during which they save people and are greeted by this new mysterious group of villains known as “Inferno,” without anything for me to latch on to. Furthermore, within our heroes themselves, there’s no push or pull. They’re all very agreeable with each other, with no sense of tension, with no sense of conflict, just guys on the job. What am I supposed to latch on to? Why should I care?
I don’t expect a #1 to give me every answer or make me deeply and immediately invested, but I do expect it to make me care, at the very least. And unfortunately, Justice League Unlimited #1 does not do that one bit. Even Dan Mora’s art, which I love, isn’t really doing anything for me beyond looking cool – when it should! It’s a disappointing show, but not a surprising one, given that World’s Finest has not worked for me in a long time now (and that has the same problems of no real character drama to connect to), and Absolute Power did not work for me either.
I don’t recommend picking this one up.
Additionally, the Hush 2 Prelude at the end of this is a disappointing three pages (technically four, the last page is a spread). I’m a tough sell as someone who doesn’t like the original, but this did no favors and turned me off even more.
