Justice League: Darkseid War

Go Big or Go Home must have been the mantra in writer Geoff Johns’ office as he was putting together his epic storyline The Darkseid War; or rather Go Big and Then Go Home Thankyou Very Much, as this was the climax of his blockbuster run on Justice League in 2015-2016.

Spanning 11 issues (#40 – #50) of the main Justice League title, along with 8 spin-off specials; this arc defies criticism through sheer force of will. All it’s really got to do is deliver on the promise of Big Action, and it does so in spades. Johns successfully ties together elements from his previous 4 years of stories including the Crime Syndicate, Luthor’s hero-turn and Darkseid’s revenge; but conspicuous by their absence are the elements that he has missed out. Aquaman, who had made such an impact in previous arcs (like Throne of Atlantis) is nowhere to be seen; and the wonderfully awkward love-square between Superman/ Wonder Woman/ Steve Trevor/ Batman is barely even acknowledged. My assumption is that these were addressed in other DC comics titles at the time, but it would have been good to have had some sort of resolution here to close out earlier threads.

It’s hard to be disappointed though, as so much extra content is packed in instead, including the (re)introduction of such fan-favourites as The New Gods, the Anti-Monitor, Mister Miracle and Big Barda, along with the return of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. Issue #40, the prologue chapter, is possibly my favourite issue of the entire run, and utilises some spectacular artwork to bring the reader up to speed on the last 30 years of DC comics events. The main plot-hook of the run, that the heroes of the Justice League are promoted to godhood after they each inherit near-limitless powers, is actually repurposed from an idea that Grant Morrison cut from the climax of his definitive Final Crisis event in 2008. Here, it serves to smash the League apart at the start of the second act, and the subsequent one-off specials are some of the highlights of the arc.

With so much going on, a lot of the characters do get lost in the mix, and the final few issues do suffer from having at least a couple plot-twists too many, where Johns seems to have trouble deciding who the true antagonist of his story should be. Amongst all the chaos though, there are some of the writer’s trademark character pay-offs; my favourite being a sequence between Batman and Green Lantern, which is a nice counterpoint to the beginnings of their dysfunctional relationship back in the Origin arc.

Mainstream superhero comics don’t exist in a vacuum, and Justice League was no exception. Geoff Johns’ run kicked off the landmark New 52 relaunch for DC Comics in 2011, and by the time #50 rolled out in 2016 it was ushering in the equally ambitious Rebirth initiative. As such, the close-out of the arc does not provide true closure, but instead passes the baton on for a number of other DC titles, many of which have since become bestsellers. The wheel keeps turning, the adventure goes on, but The Darkseid War concluded Geoff Johns’ time at the controls in spectacular fashion.