Justice League #41 (DC)

writer: Geoff Johns

artist: Jason Fabok

There seems to be a determined interest in downplaying or downright diminishing the work of Geoff Johns.  This is ridiculous and needs to stop.  Ideally, "The Darkseid War" will help with this.

FCBD's Divergence gave a preview of what to expect, including the official debut of a character the New 52 has been teasing for quite some time, Darkseid's daughter as she was originally known, now revealed as Grail.  Actually, this was the highlight of Divergence, which also included previews for the "Truth" arc featuring Superman and the new Batman.

What Johns does better than anyone before or currently is measure up a character, pretty much any character, and know what to do with them.  Since she made her debut in it, Wonder Woman has done a good job of making Justice League a part of her publishing cycle, which is still as close to Johns writing her as we've gotten.  At one point in this issue, he does a good job of reminding the reader that he has written solo adventures for nearly every member of the team to date, and nailed it every time.

The issue heavily features Mister Miracle, who has rarely been used as anything but an escape artist and general adventurer.  It's Johns who realized this is a guy who was traded by Highfather to go live on Apokolips.

And the final page features another addition to the growing stable of Geoff Johns Characters (he writes them, he owns them, and sometimes he creates them, too), a woman named Myrina Black.  It should perhaps be noteworthy that Myrina and Grail join Power Ring, Jessica Cruz, as formidable female characters.  Grail is an Amazon, by the way, so she's another way of Johns getting to write Wonder Woman stories without actually writing Wonder Woman.

A fifth woman also makes a big impact in the issue, Lena Luthor, Lex's sister.  Lex's status in the League takes a big turn in the issue as well.  Jason Fabok captures all of this typically in what is considered DC's house style, but brings his own ideas to the table as he depicts Darkseid himself.  Unusually, he keeps Darkseid in shadow, which has the effect of giving the granite-faced villain the kind of gravity he normally doesn't get to have.  You can practically hear the ground rattle beneath him.

When I've been reading this series (which, alas, has not been throughout its run), I've consistently tried to help sell Justice League as being as top-grade as you can get.  "Darkseid War" seems to be the arc where it, impossibly, sets the bar higher.