Some thoughts about Justice League Dark #1

Magic is broken.

Something has happened to the supernatural forces after the Justice League faced the Omega Titans and now is up to Wonder Woman to gather a team able to stop everything from getting worse.

Here we go again. As some of you may know, I was a bit of a fan of the last Justice League Dark title, especially when it was handled by Peter Milligan and Jeff Lemire, so I was particularly excited about the return of this magic-focused team. What I wasn't so excited about is that this was handled by none other than James Tynion IV, a writer who has demonstrated time after time that he simply can't sustain a book with solid stories and accurate characterization so most of his books end-up going to hell after just a little while. I'm also not particularly a fan of how characters like Wonder Woman are being forced into the book because she's not really that connected to magic to have a reason to be here, much less Man-Bat whose inclusion can only be explained because of Tynion's previous involvement in the Batbooks (Hell, if he wanted to include someone from that side, Batwoman would have made much more sense considering Kate's history with supernatural threats).

But I digress. The issue itself is surprisingly not that bad. Tynion plays with the ramifications of the No Justice miniseries in which magic as a whole has been severely affected and now they need to find a way to stop the destruction of the world. The direction is solid so far with appropriate appearances of Zatanna, Constantine, Swamp Thing, Detective Chimp and other characters connected to the mythical side of the DCU and for the most part, they're well-portrayed, it was pleasent to see other familiar faces like Zauriel, Jason Blood and Deadman among the others, although for some reason Tynion is not addressing the fact that this is not the first JLD team and I hope the history between Zatanna, Constantine and Deadman is not forgotten.

The narration works fine with natural enough dialogue although there is a single page of third-person narration that is so out of place that it makes me wonder its point. That being said, the plot offers a lot of content and gives enough reason to be invested in it.

Alvaro Martinez handles the art and is wonderful with a really vibrant style and pretty creative storytelling that elevates the script.

Decent beginning so far, hope it doesn't end like other Tynion titles.