Justice League #18

Writer: Bryan Hitch

Artist: Fernando Pasarin

Colourist: Brad Anderson

Publisher: DC Comics

Bryan Hitch has been telling a really fun story these last few issues, but it has to be admitted that the story lost some steam pretty quickly. The momentum was never kept. Having members of the Justice League displaced through time is such a fun concept but Hitch failed to capitalise on it, having short scenes with our heroes interacting with whomever they were with at the time. It's highly unfortunate that a good story began dipping when we thought the series was finally getting good.

The art was very strong though. A problem that has persisted in Fernando Pasarin's art is that some of his faces are downright horrendous. Characters who yell simply don't look good. It might be the exaggerated facial expressions, but his stationary faces don't always look so chipper either. Pasarin's environments and action look great, but his facial depictions need some serious work.

The aforementioned problem of the heroes getting short snippet panels detailing their adventures in their current timeline persists here. We see such small, insignificant glimpses of these characters and their battles that it seems Hitch had absolutely no idea what to do with them since he already had those scenes in an earlier issue. The issue spent much more time on Batman than it needed to. Batman's part in saving Superman could have been achieved in a completely different and shorter way that would have allowed the Leaguers to shine.

The arc is almost over but, given the strength of the earlier issues, I'm genuinely curious as to how this story will end. The art was mostly nice save for the horrendous faces, but the pacing was off and pages were wasted on completely meaningless storytelling.