As they fight with their new enemies, David Graves and the media perceptions, the Justice League is subjected to each member’s own personal failings. You get to watch as each character is confronted with images of their loved ones who have had such an influential role in shaping the heroes that we know and love today.

In this issue, Geoff Johns works to build two distinct narratives. The first, accepting the reality that you as a hero might fail. The second, that personal relationships are damn near impossible for a superhero. As it was mentioned earlier the Justice League is tortured with their past lives. We get to see Batman talk to what he thinks are his dead parents. Green Lantern talks with his “father,” and so on for each member. They are each reminded that they are flawed and weak in some manner. The beginning of the issue lays this out perfectly by stating, “behind those masks, they’re as fallible as us. They have egos, doubts, secrets, and personal agendas.” When its time to accept failure on a previous mission you get a glimpse into Green Lantern’s ego as he wants to take the blame (unfairly) just to seem like the bigger man. Its an interesting play, but I felt it needed to be further explored. Perhaps in the next issue Geoff Johns will deal with it.

The second narrative was personal relationship are next to impossible to maintain. The above image gives you a giant spoiler as to what takes place in this book, but its not so cut and dry. Since the beginning of the New 52 Justice League, Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor haven’t been together. Their relationship is hinted at as a thing of the past. The only interaction between the two is due to Steve being the Justice League’s liaison. Steve clearly still cares for Diana but she keeps him at arms length. Johns makes it clear that Diana cares for Steve but keeps him away for his own safety. She later explains that she doesn’t truly understand relationships between men and women beyond a surface level. Her attraction to Superman is purely from an equality standpoint. She doesn’t have to worry about whether Superman can defend himself, hence she can just be with him with no worries. While I could see where someone would think their getting together seemed rushed, the groundwork for it was building for several issues it just wasn’t obvious at the time.

Per usual, Jim Lee’s artwork is great but I always find it a bit too busy. Other than that he is able to craft a great character design with David Graves. I absolutely loved Lee’s cover definitely the best of the series so far. The cover shows what has been evident in the Justice League series throughout, Wonder Woman is extremely powerful. It shows this while still giving her femininity and doesn’t take away her continued status as an Amazonian badass. Fantastic. Geoff Johns is once again crafting a great story and makes me want to see where he goes next.

Comic Review of Justice League #12
Jay's Rating
Overall Review

image via comicsalliance.com