Well today is September 1^st.  This means that yesterday, the day we had been dreading, has come and gone.  As of 12:01 am, August 31 2011 the unthinkable has happened.

The DC reboot has taken place.

Everything we know is gone.  Everything we love didn’t happen.  Everything we paid for over the years – pointless.

So to start off I have to say I am not a fan (big shock) of the DCnU but I will do my best to give an open minded review of Justice League #1.

So here we go.

Justice League #1

So the book has an all-star creative team.  Scott Williams (Gen13, New Mutants, Batman) is the inker, Geoff Johns (everything) is the writer and the all powerful Jim Lee is the penciller.  With the flagship title for the new DC, and the first book released, the powers-that-be have stepped forward with their best foot.

The art is amazing.  Jim Lee, with the aid of Williams, draws the new DC world.  He draws a dark but slightly futuristic Gotham, a bold and brooding Batman and a hideous yet-to-be-unnamed horror.  I have said it before; Jim Lee is at his best when he draws Batman.  There is something about the Dark Knight that bring the best out of so many people.

But back to the comic.

Most of the costumes are unchanged except for a specific few.  Batman’s costume is beginning to look more assembled.  He is getting close and closer to a Tony Stark suit with every upgrade.  He had gauntlet gloves and an upgrade to the helmet.  Small changes but ones that make the suit look more…assembled then before.

Cyborg, who appears only on the cover, looks like a monstrosity.  He is a lumbering Golem who looks more like a DND warforge then the DC staple and long time Titan.  Lee does a wonderful job drawing the high school boy who has everything but is still missing the one thing he wants.

Superman has the biggest change to his iconic costume.  Gone are the red shorts and yellow belt, gone are the modest boots, and gone is the simple top.  The slick and well groomed hair has been replaced by a messy mop.  The chiselled jaw and experience face has been replaced by a baby fresh face begging for action.  His suit is now just a blue jumper with a red belt reminiscent of Wally West.  The costume and face now make Superman look like Superboy Prime

Geoff Johns pens the story and does a wonderful job of re-starting a world we already know.  Five years before the rest of the DCnU headstrong and sure of himself Hal Jordan stumbled across the man thought to be a myth – Batman – as he is being chased.  The majority of the comic focuses on Hal (Green Lantern) dealing with Batman.  Hal seems new but Batman seems experienced.  The book takes a few pages to introduce the ‘Normal’ Vic Stone before Hal and Bruce fly to Metropolises to meet Superman.

The book really lacks the League portion of the story.  There is only Bruce, Hal, Vic and Clark.  No Diana Prince, no Barry Allan, and no Arthur Curry. It’s just two heroes, a cameo of a third and some random black kid who’s a hero to be.  The story is also a little slow.  Johns is doing his best to properly chronicle the first meeting of the League but it makes for a slow first issue.  It makes for a slow beginning to the DCnU.

There is also the subject of Vic Stone.

I have long since said that Cyborg needed a promotion to the JL.  Before flashpoint he got just that.  Cyborg, the eternal Titan, was finally a Leaguer.  They that carried over to DCnU but it made little sense.  Back in the Regular – wait….the DClassicU – Cyborg was a grizzled veteran.  He had saved the world; he had faced the worst horrors anybody could think of, and he’d even made up with his father.

He grew up and became a serious hero but now he’s just a young boy still in high school.  The JL are supposed to be the best of the best so why do they take the brand new hero with no experience?  Does the Justice League really need a child sidekick?

All in all, the book was a decent comic.  It was a little slow but had humorous dialogue.  It was defiantly a good building block for the new JL series but at the 1^st issue, the launch issue of the DCnU it was a little lacking.