Justice League #5

writer: Geoff Johns
artist: Jim Lee

"Who the hell's Bruce Wayne?"

That's just a highlight of the conversation Green Lantern and Batman have during this latest issue of Johns and Lee's superior Justice League. All along I've been describing this series as the event book as an ongoing exercise, and this issue just confirms that all over again. I've read nothing much good from other commentators around the Web, but to me, that's just insane, because this is not only a definitive team book much less one starring the Justice League, but the best possible way to introduce each of the team's members to anyone curious enough to want a look.

This is the team's first adventure. They're all meeting each other for the first time, and so they're also figuring out what it means to be superheroes in a world where there are differing approaches (not to mention advantages) to doing so. The juxtaposition of Green Lantern and Batman is something few writers have really tried to work with (Frank Miller comes to mind), and here Johns is actually suggesting they're a lot alike. He would know about Green Lantern, so on the eve of his Earth One date with Batman, it's interesting to see exactly what Johns thinks of the Dark Knight (adding to what he already did, brilliantly in Flashpoint, by the way).

Add Darkseid to the mix, and you've got an iconic story in the making.