Justice League #45 Review

Vengeance Is Thine!

Written By: Robert Venditti

Art By: Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Tom Napolitano

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: May 26, 2020

Ancient and not so ancient grudges are bring brought to the forefront of the mind and not even the Justice League is immune to this threat.  In our previous issue, we saw our heroes taking on escaped mythological monsters, that made their way out of their Tartarus prison so that they could take their vengeance out on Wonder Woman, but once that threat was defeated, the Justice League started turning on one another for the smallest of slights that they may have had brewing in the back of their minds.  What could be causing this assault on the mind?  Well, I'd say that the Spectre showing up as the cliffhanger to the last issue may have something to do with it.  Let's jump into this issue and see what the Justice League will do against not only each other but the Spectre as well.  Let's check it out.

For this issue of Justice League we actually get some explanations about what's going on in this story and with that, we also get a bunch of action to keep you fight junkies satisfied as well.  The best part of this issue in my mind is that everything that I was concerned about in the previous issue, like Tartarus, just being opened and nothing really being done about it or even talked about by the end all makes sense in this issue and actually comes across as a well thought out progression to a story that takes Jim Corrigan, the Spectre to a new height in his quest to balance out the vengeance with the idea that Corrigan wants to have the weight of the Presence off his shoulders.  

Yeah, the Justice League aspects of this book are simply them fighting each other, with brief moments of them coming to their senses before we get the info dump about what's going on from The Presence speaking through the Spectre and how the events of this story started out, but I really dug the explanation and can deal with our heroes fighting one another, especially when it takes this story to a cool and unexpected place that not only threatens the world but puts the Presence in the mix to a point where we might have some real repercussions from Jim Corrigan's actions, which could themselves affect the world or show us that vengeance can and will be acted out by The Presence if the Spectre doesn't fulfill his duties.  By the end, we see our team with the information provided to them about what's going on; make their way to Tartarus, by way of Themyscira and while our heroes have to take on the supernatural, they'll also have to get through the Amazons to complete their task.

All in all, the art in this issue was amazing and while the action in this issue does just feel like a weird sort of quota that we have to fill for each Justice League issue, it was still fun seeing the different members taking on each other.  The real story starts though with the explanation about what's been going on and why and with that I got really excited because it seems like a really cool place to take the Justice League and Jim Corrigan that could elevate The Spectre or at least take him in a new direction, not to mention when you put these heroes against a threat like this, it should always lead to interesting concepts being played with.  

Bits and Pieces:

Yeah, you'll get some big beat downs from the Justice League taking on themselves, which I know can get old at times, but beyond the concept that our heroes secretly have grudges against each other, this issue in this arc really elevates the story in a cool way that makes me really interested in what's to come from this arc because essentially....... it's the Justice League vs the powers of The Presence..... and that just screams cool.  The art is amazing and I can't wait to see what we get next.

7.5/10