THIS WEEK: The world’s greatest heroes collide with the greatest icons of the Monsterverse in Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #1.
Note: the review below contains spoilers. If you want a quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendation on the comics in question, check out the bottom of the article for our final verdict.
Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #1
Writer: Brian Buccellato
Artist: Christian Duce
Colorist: Luis Guerrero
Letterers: Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
Cover Artists: Drew Johnson & Romulo Fajardo Jr.
DC and Legendary’s much-hyped crossover event series, Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong, at long last launches this week. The debut issue of the series serves primarily as setup for the main event, creating the conditions for the denizens of the Monsterverse to cross over into the DC Universe.
Writer Brian Buccellato is relying on the most iconic versions of DC’s heroes and villains in this book. The emotional heart of the issue is Superman’s upcoming proposal to Lois Lane, which Buccellato utilizes to great effect in displaying the relationships between the various members of the Justice League.
The main antagonists here are neither Godzilla nor Kong, but rather the Legion of Doom, which Buccellato and artists Christian Duce and Luis Guerrero amalgamate from the cartoon and comic book versions of the characters to come up with a group that’s at once extremely dangerous and cartoonishly inept. The Legion of Doom are the first DC characters to encounter the Monsterverse, and Grodd’s reaction to Kong is by far the highlight of the interaction.
Duce and Guerrero’s artwork is decent throughout the issue, if occasionally a little static. One imagines Duce was probably brought onto this series for his ability to draw screen-accurate versions of Godzilla and Kong, and from our glimpses of the two of them in this issue he definitely has those two down. Duce and Guerrero’s storytelling is straightforward and enjoyable, not flashy but also not always super-exciting. One imagines the visuals will kick into high gear once the punches start flying between superheroes and super-monsters.
Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #1 is light on the titular throwdown, but does a nice job putting the pieces in place for the eventual confrontation, and having a lot of fun in the process. If you’re just here for the punchy-punch you might be a little disappointed in this first chapter, but as establishing pretense for a crossover goes, you could do a lot worse.
Final Verdict: BROWSE.
Round-Up
- Elsewhere in multiversal meet-ups, Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #20 finds our heroes travelling to Kingdom Come‘s Earth-22 in search of the lost Boy Thunder. This issue is again the first part of a larger storyline, and as such is a lot of set-up for what’s to come, but Mark Waid, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain, and Steve Wands do a fantastic job grounding it in the characters both of our Earth and of Earth-22. Now that we’re there, I can’t wait to see where this story goes.
- Jay Garrick: The Flash #1 picks up in the aftermath of Stargirl: The Lost Children, as Jay and Joan Garrick’s long-lost daughter returns to their lives. Jeremy Adams is no stranger to writing speedsters, and he and artists Diego Olortegui and Luis Guerrero are a great team for a story that seamlessly combines superspeed action and awkward family dynamics. This is a super-fun one.
- This week’s Superman #7 marks the 850th titular solo comic for the Man of Steel with an oversized issue that features three connected stories from writer Joshua Williamson and artists Gleb Melnikov, Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund, and Edwin Galmon. This series is firing on all cylinders, and Williamson shows no signs of slowing things down as this issue advances existing story threads and teases new ones for next year.
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