Oh, now this was lousy. If not for Aaron Lopresti's, Matt Ryan's and Hi-Fi's Batman, this issue of Justice League International wouldn't be worth even two cents let alone $2.99. Lopresti's reputation as a babe artist remains unchallenged, but his and his fellow artists' depiction of Batman is just marvelous, an aggregate of Michael Keaton goodness, the New 52 look, and quintessential Batman body language.
The Only Good
Justice League light splits into duet teams to investigate the four Celestial-like robots doing strange cosmic things. Whose bright idea was this? You've got Booster Gold, Batman, Fire, Ice, Vixen, Godiva, a Rocket Red and the Crusty Chinese Guy. That's hardly a group of heavy hitters, and they acquit themselves as you expect. They fail miserably, overwhelmed and outgunned. The smart strategy here would be for the entire team to infiltrate one robot. Then, they would have at least stood a slight chance, or maybe not count three articles of dead weight among their ranks.
The more I encounter the new Rocket Red and the Crusty Chinese Guy, the less I like them. Rocket Red tries to score a date with Fire as he and Ice descend into the waters to invade their robot target. Really? I mean, Fire is hot, but there's a time and a place. I sound like the Doctor with regard to Captain Jack Harkness. The difference is that Jack's always on the make, and the scenes in Doctor Who were meant to be humorous. There's no jocularity in this Rocket Red's request.
Hai Karate
Crusty Chinese Guy is an effective fighter, yet he has no personality, and Godiva is just horrible. I know this is the new 52, but the old Godiva from Super Friends was serious about her status as a super-hero, and she sounded like a Cockney. This Godiva-as-pop-star treatment is the wrong direction, and for god's sake, please stop trying to make her sound British. She doesn't.
Hairy Spice
This team's adventures occur in the future where THE Justice League has been established as the world's protectors. So, exactly where are they? Batman might have asked them to hold off a little while, but that was when it was a missing persons case. As soon as giant robots reared their heads, he should have hit his signal device.
Ray Tate's first online work appeared in 1994 for Knotted. He has had a short story, "Spider Without a Web," published in 1995 for the magazine evernight and earned a degree in Biology from the University of Pittsburgh. Since 1995, Ray self-published The Pick of the Brown Bag on various usenet groups, where he reviewed comic books, Doctor Who novels, movies and occasionally music. Circa 2000, he contributed his reviews to Silver Bullet Comic Books (later Comics Bulletin) and became its senior reviewer. Ray Tate would like to think that he's young at heart. Of course, we all know better.