Justice League United #0 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Jeff Lemire
Art By: Mike McKone
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 23, 2014

JL Aye?

Here we are with the premier issue of Justice League United, or Justice League Canada as it was called when the rumors about it started flying last year.  We begin in a post Forever Evil world, where it appears the JLA have disbanded.  Let's start the story that will see the beginning of a brilliant new team in the DCU.

Explain It!:

Our story begins in Toronto at a special autograph signing with celebrity Animal Man and America's sweet heart Stargirl.  The day's going as any normal Con goes, cosplayers, lines out the ass, and a man searching for his girlfriend.  Well people are searching for their girlfriends differently at normal Cons, but Dr. Adam Strange has come here to meet the two heroes to seek their help to find his missing girlfriend Alanna Lewis.  Two weeks ago hunters came across a strange alien skeleton in the woods then Alanna disappeared in a beam of light when the two went out there to classify it.  To prove his point to Buddy and Courtney, Adam brought an alien skull and a strange device that for a second transports the three to an alien world and then back again.  Well like our two heroes I would tend to believe this Strange man as well.

Our trio goes out to the spot where Alanna disappeared to look for clues, when the biggest one blasts Star Girl with a ray gun.  I guess for all the police and agencies that were out there looking for Alanna, the aliens just happen to wait for our main cast to come around to show themselves, what luck.  So a battle ensues, and our only heavy hitter is Stargirl, but luckily for the sake of this ongoing series Stargirl called in some backup before they left Toronto and Martian Manhunter and Green Arrow show up to take the aliens down.  It's funny we almost have a moment like Green Lantern and Batman had when Justice League first started.  But instead of making fun of someone for not having powers, Green Arrow just keeps saying "you're Animal Man" to the point where J'onn has to tell them to act professional.  It's pretty funny, but I guess you have to be there.  So the team regroup and find a secret entrance to an alien lab.  It seems that these aliens are working on some sort of hybrid birthing project, and when threatened by our heroes they unleash a rejected fire hybrid to slow them down.  When the head alien scientists zeta beam to their HQ on the moon of Thalsalla by Hawkman's planet Thanagar, to report what's happening, we get our first glimpse of our big bad for this arc; Lord Byth, who in the old continuity was a shape shifting criminal pursued by Hawkman so I wonder what changes we'll see for him in the New 52.

We'll take a brief pause from this story to go back to Earth to Moose Factory Island the home of the Moose Cree First Nation, to meet the newest character to the DCU; Miiyahbin, or Mii for short.  Mii goes home to her granny to find a man standing in her house.  The man talks to her like he knows her, but Mii doesn't appear to recognize him.  He says that the Whitago is here, and he begins changing into a monster.  Mii magically transforms into a superhero outfit and wards off the monster by shouting the word "Keewahtin".  But next we see her Granny enter the house, and Mii is still in her plain clothes and alone,  it's way too early to be making guesses about her deal.  But I'm interested nonetheless.  

Elsewhere we see a bunch of prisoners thinking about fighting back against the bounty hunter that captured them, well mostly one prisoner, the missing Alanna Lewis.  She's trying to get them to have her back when the door to the cell opens, but when the bounty hunter comes in everybody backs down, everybody but one.  We see Hawkman walk out of the crowd and challenge the guard, oh who's the guard you ask?  Well none other than the new Lobo.  Shit's getting crazy in the DCU, next month in Red Hood we have the old Lobo vs Arsenal, and next month here we have Hawkman vs the new Lobo.  Damn, I can't wait to see this fight go down.  Also apparently Supergirl shows up next issue so make sure to come back and we'll talk about it. 

Bits and Pieces:

Justice League United started out slow then jumped to intriguing and then punched me in the face with a whole bunch of awesome.  Does that make sense to you?  Well if you read the issue it will so don't worry.  It's a badass first issue and I can't wait to see where the rest of this story arc takes us, especially with what could be the best cast of characters to ever be on a team together.  This issue got me hyped to get this series started, and now I'm just reminded why I'm not a patient person.  Get me the next issue so now so I can continue my fanboy euphoria.

9/10