Justice League Dark (Post Dark Nights Metal)

June 14th, 2021

Finished reading all of the James Tynion IV and Ram V’s Justice League Dark last night. Damn good series, I wish it was still getting full issues, it’s been relegated to the back pages of Justice League. I wasn’t sure what to think of Wonder Woman leading the team, but early on it’s made clear that she doesn’t really know the magical world. She becomes a great point of view character, even if she does have her overpowered moments.

The core team of Wonder Woman, Zatanna, Swamp Thing, Man-Bat and Detective Chimp is a team I wouldn’t expect to love. Especially since their back up is John Constantine, Doctor Fate and even an Animal Man appearance. I did not expect to love this team as much as I did, especially Detective Chimp. Bobo is now the wielder of the Sword of Night after the death of Nightmaster in Dark Nights Metal. There is this whole few issues where Bobo confronts his guilt over that responsibility. The main overarching story is that thanks to Dark Nights Metal and No Justice, magic is becoming unstable, and this is because the god Hecate, and her dark half The Upside-Down-Man are at war for control of magic.

I’m glad it wasn’t just a six issue arc, and genuinely spanned over 28 issues plus the Wonder Woman/Justice League Dark: The Witching Hour cross over. I haven’t read any of Shadow Pact, and only a handful of issues for the New 52 JLD, but I do recommend this run. It also seems necessary to know what happened to Alec Holland in the new Swamp Thing series.