Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Justice League #11

By Avi Weinryb
December 28, 2016 - 00:54

Continuing from the previous issue, a dastardly iPad contains some troublesome artificial intelligence that threatens the world and every villain is out to get it. After being utterly devastated by this evil Siri’s power, the Justice League is doing all it can to keep the device out of the hands of the bad guys, but with Superman out of the picture, that won’t be easy.

This issue left me scratching my head. Beyond the tired tale of technology run amuck, we’re treated to an entire rogues gallery of villains waging battle with Earth’s mightiest heroes over some hardware by Steve Jobs. Interestingly, according to some reports, Apple approached DC Comics’ parent, Time Warner in 2016 about a potential merger before Time Warner started chatting more seriously with AT&T. Apple continues to cautiously keep an eye on Time Warner, so who knows -- maybe this product placement was sending a covert message to get around accusations of collusion, in violation of anti-trust laws that would give the companies some sort of unfair advantage in the market. Or, this was just a contrived, uninspiring comic book that could have been a lot better. Yeah, probably the latter.

Bryan Hitch is a talented writer, but this arc has left much to be desired. Wordy fight scenes, a dearth of engaging dialogue, and a preposterous, overly convenient conclusion requires a lot of patience from readers. Pencils by Neil Edwards are very proficient and convey a lot of detail. Some inconsistencies among characters faces left me a little cold, but it was otherwise quite strong. Paired with inks by Daniel Henriques, some of the pages took on an air of George Perez, which was quite welcome.

The Justice League ventured down an unfortunate path with this most recent storyline but I’m hoping the creative team can regroup and deliver on the promise of their abilities. No need to ask Siri how to do it. Instinct and common sense work just as well.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12