Justice League #35 Review

Compare and contrast.

Geoff Johns starts the next Justice League saga by finally completing a big move that was in the works during the past few issue – the association of WayneTech with LexCorp.

And this provides rich fodder for Bruce and Lex to measure each other up.

I’m a little sad that Fabok is still not on (given that I loved what he did on Batman Eternal), but Manke and Reis are no consolation prizes. Especially after the art travesty of last issue, it’s heartening to see the publication’s top book in the hands of competent artists.

SPOILERS FOLLOW…………..

Lex manages to mix a little fiction and fact into a beautiful speech about human ability that would ring true is you didn’t know Lex Luthor. But Bruce is able to one-up him by bringing up his late parents and taking actual names as examples of humanity’s perseverance.

You can gather a lot from the way both spoke. Geoff fashions Luthor as a man who has never tried to believe in the strength-in-numbers approach given his one-man crusade to the top, and yet goes into hyperbole and abstract in order to win favor.

While Bruce personalizes the effort and even brings up one of the people who’ve shown that adversity isn’t a roadblock. The difference here is Luthor doesn’t really believe what he’s saying, while Bruce does.

All the Justice Leaguers are in position surrounding the building, in a pretext of protecting the meeting, but actually waiting for Bruce to get the evidence they need to put Luthor away.

Luthor though isn’t that easy. He casually brings up his cloning project and even brings Bruce to his inner sanctum (whether this is his personal lab, only Lex knows).

But along the way, both verbally spar – as Lex mentions Bizarro’s death and compares it to the countless Robins that Batman had lost while Bruce mentions that Lex fled like a coward when he couldn’t cure his sister instead of nursing her to health.

And we get two more supporting cast members introduced – Lena Luthor, Lex’s crippled sister, and Neutron.

The latter is on a mission to kill Lex, working as a mercenary for an unknown enemy, but in the battle with the League, one of Lex’s containment units are ruptured – and out comes the Amazo virus, while we see a rare side of Lex – panic.

This delivered on most counts, though the verbal spar did slow down the plot. The cover is a total lie right now, as nothing of that sort happens here (but seem like they will happen), but it is cool.

I certainly like how Johns is treating Lex knowing Batman’s secret identity. This provides rich fodder for Lex and thankfully, instead of painful mutterings of ‘I know your secret, gonna tell’, we get some psychological attacks with Lex using this knowledge.

The rest of the League don’t have much to do in this issue, though there are some nice moments for most of them – like in the beginning, when Flash hand delivers the earthquake victims ice-cream (normalcy in times of distress) and then, when Clark and Diana watch and comment of their colleagues’ respective speeches.

SPOILERS END……………………

Overall, a very nice read as Geoff subverts usual superhero tropes by making the conversations the highlight of this issue, though unlike last time, he balances it with some action at the end.

Manke and Reis collaborate to bring some great visuals, especially with regard to Batman, and it’s a good turn from last month’s disappointing artwork.

So, I give it 8.5 out of 10.

+Johns give us some great Bruce vs Lex moments

+Verbal and Physical battles are great

+The artwork is excellent

-Most of the League is side-lined

-The verbal battle does contribute to the plot being a slow burn