JLD will focus on the magical characters
Justice League Dark appears to be hybrid of a traditional superhero comic and a more-adult Vertigo title. For those not familiar with Vertigo, its DC’s imprint which caters to nontraditional comic buyers, namely Goth kids who love Sandman, vampires and anything written by a British dude. I was personally attracted to it because the team’s membership includes Zatanna, Deadman and Shade the Changing Man. Just to nitpick though, Shade’s M-Vest isn’t magical, it’s a gadget from his native dimension but author Peter Milligan may have altered its nature when he wrote the Nineties comic.
Out of the five initial titles I chose in DC’s 52 reboot, Dark has been the clear winner through its story, an origin story about the team’s formation, grabbed my interest immediately and left me hanging at the right point. Justice League and JLI tried but came up short. Suicide Squad and Teen Titans weren’t even close. The artwork has been excellent as well.
The story appears to begin in the present day. The Justice League is an established organization with Zatanna as a lesser member, as she has since Seventies. Somewhere in the sticks, longtime adversary the Enchantress is wreaking havoc with her magic through a young woman named June Moon. Superman, Wonder Woman and Cyborg are sent to stop Enchantress. There’s a huge flaw in the plan. Superman is not just vulnerable to Kryptonite, he’s powerless against magic so he gets cut to shreds while the other two heroes have to rescue Supes. Zatanna and Batman witness this remotely, ponder a new battle plan. Zatanna tangles up the Dark Knight with her famous spells, understanding she has to go it alone; she figures that if she dies, the world will be alright, if Batman dies, the world will be in deep trouble.
Little does Zatanna know, fortune teller Madame Xanadu has foreseen the crisis and is pulling the strings to assemble a team consisting of John Constantine (a Vertigo staple from Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing days), Deadman and Shade. I know Deadman can possess people’s bodies and Shade’s M-Vest can manipulate reality. I’m not sure what Constantine brings to the party beyond indie credibility.
Where things go next should be interesting. Sadly, I think this book will be one of the first casualties when DC has to start culling less profitable titles. The last couple times I went by my store, there was a hefty stack of unsold JLD #1’s and I don’t think they were reprints. I’m hoping interest will pick up soon. It would be a shame to see a rather intriguing experiment fail before it has the chance to be the next Vertigo-esque Doom Patrol or Seven Soldiers of Victory without the disappointment.