Some thoughts about Justice League: Road to Dark Crisis #1

The Justice League is dead, now who can save the world?

Nightwing believes that their mentors will come back like they always did but they might not be on time for the upcoming crisis they have to face so they will all have to work together if they want to survive.

As the title says, this issue is dedicated as a prologue to the upcoming Dark Crisis crossover and weirdly enough, it doesn't offer us more about the plot of the event itself as much as a perspective of all the characters about what's about to happen.

The issue opens with a little story between Nightwing and Jon Kent written by Joshua Williamson and I believe is the one that handles the main theme the best. Both characters reflect about what they will do in a world without a Justice League with Nightwing coming to the conclusion that they will eventually return as usual. Once again, Williamson uses continuity to reinforce a story while also contributing to Dick Grayson's classic hopeful characterization (and maybe even hinting that Williamson doesn't take the whole Death of the Justice League mandate seriously) while also keeping the tone serious by mentioning that not every character comes back from the dead. This is all handling nicely and showcases a few charming moments (although I'm not fond of the sudden friendship that Tom Taylor created between the protagonists). Dan Jurgens handles the art and is solid with expressive characters and clear storytelling.

Jeremy Adams follows with a segment between Wally and Wallace and after dropping the main Flash title for a while, I'm sad to learn that some of the problems are still present here. The direction for Wally West is fine but the whole execution still feels overwritten with characters saying more than they should and ending in a rather average manner. Rosi Kampe's artwork is decent though, following the speed moments appropriately.

The section focusing on Aquaman works a little better thanks to Chuck Brown's more elegant writing that depicts Jackson's characterization clearly thanks to the more natural dialogue. If there's a complaint though is that Hal Jordan's appearance here doesn't offer much insight aside from some cool moments due that he has no connection to Jackson (and very little with Arthur to be honest). Fico Ossio's artwork is fantastic here, very vibrant and beautiful.

Phillip Kennedy Johnson brings one of the most interesting stories from this special focusing on Pariah due that it explores his backgrounds and reveals more about his history and motivations (which quite honestly, have been lacking all these years) and serves as an actual set-up for the upcoming event. Leila Del Luca's pencils are pleasent to look at due to the detailed characters.

Finally, Stephanie Phillips creates a segment about Nocturna dealing with a lot of the ideas that Robbie Thompson has been handling on Suicide Squad... which is automatically a negative and sadly Phillips doesn't do much to make the character more interesting and feels like one of the weirdest persons to connect to the main crossover. At least Clayton Henry's artwork is good looking and follows the story appropriately.

Overall, a decent read but not really necessary in the grand scheme of things.