Justice League #22 Review

In Space...

Written by: Shea Fontana
Art by: Philippe Briones, Gabe Eltaeb and Dave Sharpe
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: June 7, 2017

It's Justice League time again and while I have not been a fan of this run up until now, this issue has me excited.  Why?  Because upcoming Wonder Woman writer, Shea Fontana, is in the house and that means two things...we get an idea of her writing (if you haven't already checked out her DC Superhero Girls) and we get a reprieve from Bryan Hitch.  I don't know which is bigger for me...I guess they are both pretty big.  So, how did Fontana do with the Justice League?  Let's find out...

The issue opens with a pretty exciting scene with Simon and Jessica doing some Green Lantern-ing, destroying an asteroid.  The action was cool, but the dialogue jumps right into the cliche zone, especially where Jessica is concerned.  This is actually one of the biggest problems with the issue...it seems as if Shea Fontana only knows enough about the characters to give us generic versions of each as we go through the issue.

After the asteroid, we find out that Lois and Jon are on the Watchtower to get an interview about how awesome the Watchtower is and after Simon dishes out high fives to everyone but Batman, we get to it.

Actually, the interview isn't the focus of the issue, the nearly microscopic (?) aliens that Simon and Jessica brought back with them is.  It's another opportunity to show Jessica's anxiety, Simon's anger, Superman's compassion...you get the point.  The issue continues with the Watchtower quarantined and Lois, Batman and Superman on the case.

Now, you'd think that being in quarantined with an unknown alien presence would cause issues, but Wonder Woman sets up a training session with the Lanterns and Cyborg plays video games with Jon.  I liked both scenes on a surface level, but they just felt strange given the situation.  Still, it was nice to see Cyborg have a gaming partner since Shazam has been MIA.

Things go bad, however, when the training session gets interrupted by a swarm of aliens (who are far from microscopic when together).  They seem to be attracted to Jessica and after a shower scene straight out of an Alien movie earlier, it's easy to guess why.  The whole problem is resolved in a pretty ridiculous way and the issue ends with a very happy Jessica and a very "meh" Jimmy boy.

I really wanted to like this issue and it is a refreshing change to get a bit of a lighthearted Justice League, but the dialogue and characterizations are way too cartoony for my liking.  I didn't get the feeling that Shea Fontana knew the characters any deeper than the surface level and so the story itself came off as very generic.  Still, I liked this more than the average issue of Justice League so take that for what it's worth.

I did like Philippe Briones' art, but I usually do.  Everything and everyone looked great, but being confined to the Watchtower did kind of handcuff him a bit.  Still, the art is the best thing in the issue.

Bits and Pieces:

Shea Fontana jumps onto the Justice League book, but with generic characterizations, cartoony dialogue and a forgettable story, I can't really recommend it.  Still, the art was great and I still liked it more than what we've gotten from most of this series since Rebirth.

6.5/10