Geoff Johns’ run on Justice League was firing on all cylinders by 2014, after the successive blockbuster smashes of Trinity War and Forever Evil, so it was a relief when he throttled back for a couple of relatively low-key arcs in the year to follow. The first storyline, Injustice League, unrolled in the direct aftermath of the Crime Syndicate’s invasion, with Lex Luthor now enjoying his newfound global status as a celebrated hero. Johns’ plotting juggles a surprising number of elements, including an origin for one of the DC Universe’s newest heroes, Power Ring, as newcomer Jessica Cruz became the latest recipient of the malevolent Green Lantern ring analogue from the Crime Syndicate’s dimension.
The best scenes go to Luthor though, and his spars with Batman, as he inevitably manipulates his way onto the League. Despite this being entrenched in the continuity of the New 52 storyline, Injustice League is relatively new-reader friendly, and thanks to some strong character writing and a zippy script, I would recommend issues #30-#34 as one of the best arcs of the run.
The follow-up arc, The Amazo Virus in #35-#39, isn’t quite able to keep up the quality unfortunately. There’s a nice bit of cat-and-mouse interplay between Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor to begin with, as they try to intellectually out maneuver each other, but this is quickly dropped in favour of a standard zombie/mind-control plot which has been seen numerous times before. The spectacular artwork of Jason Fabok elevates the comic above the level of a bad Resident Evil knock-off though, and Luthor’s machinations continue to be dark fun. It’s just a shame that, had the arc stuck with a Wayne/Luthor battle of wits, it could have been so much more…
In the wider context, these arcs were really just biding time before the Main Event; allowing the reader a little breathing space before Geoff Johns opened a can of intergalactic whup-ass on his heroes in the epic Darkseid War!