Justice League Dark #19 Review

Threefold Pain

Written By: James Tynion IV

Art By: Alvaro Martinez Bueno, Raul Fernandez, Brad Anderson, Rob Leigh

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: January 29, 2020

I don't know if any of you know this, but magic is in trouble....  Yeah, that's been the tagline it seems since this series began, but now it's time to see if our Justice League Dark can fight against the Injustice League Dark and maybe get a win for the good guys for a change and maybe get magic in a little less trouble........ until the Upside Down Man pops back up and puts the whole thing back in trouble.  That's right, there's a whole lot of trouble going on here, but with Diana being given her body back from Circe's control, it's time to end this chapter of our story and see where our JLD team go from here.  Let's jump into this issue and check it out.

So as we saw in the previous issue it looked like all was lost for our heroes as the Injustice League Dark beat down the doors to the Black Vault beneath the Hall of Justice, but here we see Wonder Woman's return and just what the Upside-Down Man meant by giving her the power to fight against Circe.  Now, I'm not going to tell you that there aren't some seriously cool moments in this issue when it comes to the fight, but with that, I'm also not going to tell you that it all make perfect sense and doesn't seem like it comes out of nowhere in the eleventh hour to fix all the problems that have plagued our heroes over this past arc.  It's kind of a mixed bag really because it's magic and when you have magic involved....... you can pretty much do whatever you want and say...... "magic".  

Beyond the big fight of this book though we do have a narrative that runs throughout the story, where Man-Bat is asking Wonder Woman what she believes magic to be and it's a decent moment overall as a way to complete this chapter of our heroes' journey since they've been dealing with magic and its ramifications since this series began, but for the most part........ this issue is a big ass fight scene, which like I said previously, just gets magic-ed to a conclusion and with that aspect, there's a bit of a sense of disappointment because it felt leading up to this like we might have gotten more out of this at one point only for it to get wrapped up pretty quickly here.

All in all, the art in this issue is a bit uneven for me, where some parts look really nice, while others look undefined and little more than a basic model with color thrown on top, but this aspect didn't take away from my enjoyment of this issue for the most part.  More than anything, it was the quick wrap up that made me feel disappointed here because when magic is involved you can just do that and rarely does it come of as satisfying.  Thankfully though, we do have a character returning here and is a welcome part of this JLD team and we do see a side of Wonder Woman here that comes off like she's still in wonder of magic herself which was a nice touch to the story, but by the end I just wish the ending felt more satisfying for all the lead up.

Bits and Pieces:

While I have been enjoying the Witching War for the most part, this ending did leave me wanting more because like a lot of stories that deal with magic........ this kind of just gets resolved magically and comes off a little weak because of it, even though there were some cool concepts and decent visuals to accompany it.  I do look forward to where our team will go from here, I just wish we got a little more out of this arc's finale.

6.3/10