Justice League of America #31



It looks like it's time for another membership shakeup in this month's Justice League of America.
Team leader Black Canary confronts what she sees as obstacles for the
League and tries to figure out not only why they're in a shambles, but
also where the team should go from there and with whom. Big gun members
are quitting and Green Lantern is even forming a splinter League. None
of this is sitting well with Canary. There's anger, hurt feelings and
the change that happens every few years with the membership is
happening right now. Even her husband Green Arrow is joining Green
Lantern's team and that leads to a great scene where the three of them
kind of have it out. All the cards seem to be on the table and now she
just needs to decide if the game's worth playing.

The Good

It's about time that we got a solid issue of this
title! It seems like it's been forever since I haven't scanned through
pages and found myself asking why I was still reading this book. The
art was the best the book has had in awhile and the characterization
came back in a big way. I have to think that now that Final Crisis is
over, all of these books at DC that were a great read at one time but
had lost their glory, can now get back to the business at hand. To say
that McDuffie has underwhelmed me since he started writing this book
may be an understatement, but I always thought he might break out of
it. With this issue, he did. Modern Justice League of America has
always been more successful when the characters come first. Yeah, you
want to see the big, crazy action from it, but it only really kicks in
when you give a damn about the team members. McDuffie handles these
characters so well here that it makes me wonder what the hell he's been
doing all this time?! Why wasn't this the Dwayne McDuffie from
the start?! Well I don't care about all of that anymore as long as he
goes with the promise that this new quality hints at. The Bad

Whenever you have a major plot point that references
a book that hasn't come out yet, that frustrates me. When confronting
Green Lantern about his new Justice League, we're told "For the full story on GL's team, be sure to pick up Justice League: A Cry For Justice mini-series
coming this July". Well that kind of stuff just plain sucks. Yes it
makes me that much more eager to read said mini-series, but this still
sucks. The Prognosis

This is the best issue of Justice League of America in
a loooong time. It seems to be at a turning point where it's either
going to sink or swim. If the new arc tanks, I expect readers
(including myself) to jump from the sinking ship for good. The way the
characters are handled here are a nice indication that there could
still be some life left in this title and I've definitely got my
fingers crossed. And why shouldn't I? Why wouldn't you want this title to be good?! It is my pleasure to finally give an issue of this title a B+! I've missed you Justice League, welcome back. I just hope you stay around for more than just this issue.