Justice League #1

Who can even stand against this team? Two Green Lanterns! A god! A Kryptonian! A speedster! A shapechanging computer! The Jeezly-Crow Batman! And a wet guy!

The Commentary!
The issue begins with a splash page of Wonder Woman that Greg Rucka wouldn't approve of because her underwear is showing. It's mostly a waste of space but I'm pretty sure it's in Tony S. Daniel's contract that he get to draw at least one large picture of a female in every comic book he works on. Wonder Woman is riding the Bolt of Zeus through the sky to remind everybody that it's her new weapon. I think she got it in Bryan Hitch's JLA comic book which never had a conclusion and probably never will because at this point, who the fuck cares? It wasn't even as great as all of the other comic book reviewers thought it was! Even if I thought it was good (which I don't think I did!), I was wrong if I did indeed do. Or whatever.

Anyway, I guess Bryan Hitch didn't like the idea that Wonder Woman could fly on her own or that she had an invisible jet. He needed her to fly around on the awesome weapon he created for her. I think that means Bryan Hitch isn't actually writing the character of Wonder Woman in this comic book. He's just writing the Bolt of Zeus.

On the second and third page (which is all just one gigantic image because Tony S. Daniel), Wonder Woman strikes the ground with the Bolt, blowing up tanks and soldiers all around her.

Who thought allowing Bryan Hitch to write a Tony S. Daniel drawn comic book was a good idea?! Bryan Hitch is a lazy writer and Tony S. Daniel loves to draw double splash pages. You know what that equation adds up to? Less motherfucking story, motherfuckers! But as long as Tony S. Daniel fans get to look at majestic two-page spreads full of action, I suppose everybody¹ is happy! On the upside, the two pages of image are only marred by one tiny Narration Box because the only work Bryan Hitch plans on doing to earn his check is cashing it.

War is a half-naked woman riding a bolt of lightning out of the sky to scold you with barely comprehensible phrases!

Wonder Woman explains to the Russians that she has given them every opportunity to start believing the things she believes. But since they believe other things and those things involve tanks and bullets, she's decided to kick all of their asses. I don't want to get my ass kicked by Wonder Woman! I hope I believe everything she believes too!

I can't believe Wonder Woman's attack on the Russians was sanctioned by the Justice League. At least not without Batman pulling one of those moments where he quits rather than be a part of international disputes. This must just be part of her job as the God of War. Plus Tony S. Daniel wouldn't draw this comic book without at least seven full pages of Wonder Woman action.

While Wonder Woman is teaching the Russians what happens when they don't toe her line, the entire city is shaken and destroyed.

He must not understand English very well since "killed us all" includes him and he's not dead. "Dumb Russian! Learn proper English!" typed the person who only knows one language.

This issue is called "The Extinction Machines" and it's Part One of a series that will probably never end because Bryan Hitch never finished JLA and now I don't trust him to finish anything at all. Extinction sounds pretty bad! It's a good thing the Justice League has all of those great members on the team as well as Aquaman.

The disaster Wonder Woman just witnessed is happening all around the world with death tolls probably in the millions. I just wrote a short bit called "Stranger Things: What About Barb?" where I discussed the reasons for my distaste of epic disaster movies with which Hollywood seems to be so in love. The problem with them is that the audience roots for a small number of people to survive a disaster in which hundreds of thousands die. Why should I fucking care about the arbitrary story of a couple of good looking people when regular folks are dying in the background of every single scene? Why would I want to celebrate at the end of a two hour cinematic experience where I just watched thousands of people killed? What's there to be happy about that the handful of main stars survived the near apocalypse? And why the fuck do I give a shit about the Justice League if their help amounts to saving just a small percentage of people caught in the disaster?

Although after typing all of that, Simon and Jessica do a pretty fucking good job of keeping the people of Beijing safe. So I guess that's one city where the League did a great fucking job! Although should I really put give congratulations to the Justice League? This was more of a Green Lantern Corps save! If only there were more Green Lanterns on Earth, the world could breathe a sigh of relief!

Even if I decide to believe that the Justice League saves every life, as shown during Flash's bit in San Francisco where he doesn't let one person down, I still have a horrible, empty feeling in the pit of my stomach thinking about how much work is going to go into reconstruction! Even Atlantis is falling apart since they don't have any heroes available to save them².

In Hong Kong, the residents steal the power from Simon and Jess's ring because Green Lantern Rings are the most unreliable gadgets in the universe. They're just so powerful that the enemy always has to remove their power. Although who cares if Jess's loses power since she can't even make constructs yet! What a waste!

Everywhere around the world, people have begun speaking in a red voice about being part of The Kindred and stealing the powers of the Justice League. Fuck. I knew Bryan Hitch wasn't here to do any writing! Can we stop having stories where the heroes have their powers stolen?! It's the weakest, least imaginative way to turn the tables on the Justice League and it's been extremely overused in the last five years alone.

Batman finally checks in from Gotham because he's got a bit of a situation that he doesn't recognize for some reason even though he and the team just recently battled Space Lice quite similar to this.

If only Batman had Freeze Breath!

While the Green Lanterns and The Flash get their powers stolen, Aquaman gets his words stolen because his powers are silly. Then Atlantis crumbles into a chasm at the bottom of the sea and Wonder Woman points out that The Kindred can't win because she has friends. Super friends³!

The Review!
It's hard to have a Justice League book without an otherworldly invaders threatening the lives of everybody on Earth. Even Geoff Johns can't get around that, what with his Darkseid's Invasion and his Crime Syndicate's Invasion and his Darkseid's Invasion II. And that's what Bryan Hitch is giving us with the new Rebirth Justice League. I thought maybe they would be battling the Watchmen in this book but I think that's been saved for whatever book Wally West is in, right? And who would give that huge of a continuity plot to Bryan Hitch and Tony S. Daniel to fuck up?! Does DC even believe this comic book will get past Issue #8?! I predict the story will bleaker and bleaker and then Bryan Hitch will walk away from it around Issue #5. I also predict Wonder Woman will have a shower scene in an issue or two. What I don't predict is that my interest will wax at all on this thing. It's just another standard alien invasion, Justice League members lose their powers, possible end of the world Justice League story. Haven't we seen every variation of this plot yet?
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¹By "everybody," I actually just mean Tony S. Daniel fans.

²Just Aquaman.

³Although some of them aren't as super as they used to be.