Justice League #32

Writer: Robert Venditti

Artist: Liam Sharp

Colourist: Adam Brown

Letterers: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

This issue is a contradiction. On the one hand, Liam Sharp is the artist here. Sharp is one of the best artists working in the industry, and his work needs to be seen to be believed. On the other hand, the story isn't paced very well and barely advances the narrative of this crossover. It's filler, plain and simple, and my excitement for this crossover is officially dead.

According to the solicits for the next two issues, Cyborg is going to play a big part in this story, so writer Robert Venditti gives Vic some narration throughout the issue. It's not very well-written; the first page or two had some good moments but it was so sparse and actually distracted me from the story that was happening. The scenes featuring Aquaman and Wonder Woman were well-handled for the most part but the narration annoyed me.

Another aspect of the story I didn't like was Aquaman's dialogue. It looks to me that Venditti has never read an issue of Aquaman in his life, since he sounds more like Thor than Aquaman. Phrases like "heel, creature!" and "fell place" don't sound like anything he would say.

Despite my huge gripes with the story, Sharp did a wonderful job here. If you're intent on buying this, I'd advise to at least ignore the dialogue and take in the art. It's seriously stunning, and I love the way Sharp crowds the borders of the page as well as his panel placement. It's truly expert.

I love Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt, but the Red Death's lettering was excruciatingly hard to read. They use a strange double-shadowed technique that Steve Wands did quite well in the Red Death one-shot, but the Red Death's sections took me ages to read because of the awful lettering.

I'd wholeheartedly recommend this issue based on the art alone but the story is so very weak. This might be the worst written issue of this event yet, which is a shame since I've been enjoying a large amount of the output.