THIS WEEK: Justice League Vs Godzilla Vs Kong #5 keeps up the fun in a solid crossover. Plus, Wonder Woman goes to war and John Constantine – Hellblazer: Dead in America is still awesome.
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 #5
Writer: Brian Buccellato
Artists: Christian Duce and Tom Derenick
Colorist: Luis Guerrero
Letterers: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt
The title of this crossover comic reminds me of one of those (usually unlicensed) t-shirts, you know the ones, it’s like:
Superman &
Batman &
Godzilla &
Kong &
It’s a little unwieldly, but necessarily so, laying out what readers can expect from the jump — a romp of a widescreen comic story that involves the Justice League…& Godzilla…& Kong. That’s the expectation anyway, and now on its penultimate issue, this series has largely delivered. It’s actually exceeded my expectations just a bit, sort of keeping itself just a bit more interesting than the usual team-up comic.
Generally, these sorts of stories sees one character (or set of characters) picked up from their universe, and plunked down in the other character’s home world. They are both disoriented, they fight, a bigger evil makes itself know, and they team-up, saving the world(s) before everyone shakes hands and returns home.
I think this comic is doing that, in a macro sense, moving toward that eventual outcome, but on an issue-to-issue basis, it’s flaunted those expectations a bit — and the book is better for it. It’s gone bigger with the long, extended they fight section, really putting some of our heroes in dire straights, as one should reasonable expect when they square off against the king of all monsters. It’s only just now in this pre-finale chapter seeding how the two sets of characters will unite and head toward a team-up villain takedown. And I applaud this series for that kind of patience.
So, that’s the part of this book that feels a little surprising, but the rest of it is pretty much as you would expect, which isn’t a bad thing. There are big set pieces and heroes in dire circumstances and as many classic DC characters as the creators can manage trying to handle the advent of all these monsters showing up (or benefit from it, if you’re the villains). All told, I think if the idea of a Godzilla & co. mash-up with the DCU interests you, you’ve having a great time with this book.
Verdict: BUY
The Round-Up
- So, I wrote last time it was my week about John Constantine – Hellblazer: Dead In America, which picked up right where the last art of this book left off. I don’t have too much to say about this week’s issue — it’s absolutely excellent — but this run remains so good, I feel obligated to continue pointing it out and encouraging everyone to read it. If you haven’t read the first 12 issues in the arcs before this one, do yourself a favor and catch-up with one of DC’s best comics. This issue was written by Simon Spurrier with art by Aaron Campbell, colors by Jordie Bellaire, and lettered by Aditya Bidikar.
- And at the other end of the aesthetic and tonal spectrum, we have Nightwing #111, which actually does push this book into a little darker territory. Kicking off a new arc, this story is interested in delving into Dick Grayson’s orphan story in the same way that so many comics over the years have done with Bruce Wayne. At the same time, you can kind of tell this run is entering its end game, looking a bit backward to some of the plot points that have been seeded much earlier on, specifically the return of a villain. I thought it was a strong start to a new arc though. This issue was written by Tom Taylor, with artwork by Sam Basri, some inks by Vincente Cifuentes, colors by Adriano Lucas, and letters by Wes Abbott.
- Finally, Wonder Woman #6 gives us….BATTLE. This issue is almost all action, action that’s been setup and built toward, which is excellent. Daniel Sampere (colored here by Tomeu Morey) is just a fantastic artist for giant superhero punch fests, and this issue delivers some big awesome visual set pieces (including Giganta slamming the Washington Monument down on Wonder Woman). On top of that, Tom King captions the action well, not distracting from it but instead reminding us what’s at stake, how we got here, and why all this fighting — as grandiose as it is — is unlikely to solve a thing. This run rules, and you should absolutely be reading it. This issue was lettered by Clayton Cowles.
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Justice League Vs Godzilla Vs Kong is a seven issue series so two more to go.
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