Justice League Unlimited #3

DC Comics
Justice League Unlimited #3
By Koppy McFad
November 8, 2004 - 14:52

DC Comics
Writer(s): Adam Beechen
Penciller(s): Carlo Barberi, Walden Wong
Cover Artist(s): Ben Caldwell

The Atom leads Wonder Woman, Firestorm and Icemaiden in battle against tiny invaders in the Justice League satellite in the main story of this extra-sized issue. It has a nice Silver-Age tone with the heroes cleverly improvising to detect and defeat an enemy they can barely see. The art is neat if a little too simplistic for such a complex story. There are amusing jokes about vomit and some clever science fiction elements but the whole story seems to drag in the end as the League easily routs an opponent they probably could have squashed outright in the first place. This is followed by two short back-ups, one featuring Mister Miracle being forced to help a convict escape jail and another with Power Girl fighting some weapons smugglers. Despite some economical use of small panels, both stories are rather confusing without being very interesting. What is really confusing is why DC brought in these two back-up stories set in the regular DC universe rather than the "animated" universe of the cartoon. This title is clearly intended to appeal to kids so why have stories that are unlikely to hold their interest featuring characters they probably won't even recognize? The cartoon Justice League just had its ranks expanded so why not use the newly-introduced characters like Nemesis or Vigilante or even (gasp) B'wana Beast? This title has the potential to bring many kids into comics. But they aren't going to succeed unless they can show that the Justice League is every bit as dynamic and exciting as the Japanese cartoons that are the craze nowadays.