Justice League Dark #30

I share my thoughts on the J.M. DeMatteis scripted Justice League Dark #30, with pencils from Andres Guinaldo, inks from Mark Irwin and colours from Brad Anderson.

Justice League Dark is a series that I’ve been wanting to get into for a while, but the 18-issue crossover of Forever Evil: Blight between multiple series such as Constantine made me not want to invest in this title until the series ended, and thankfully #30 proved to be a good jumping on point as my first issue of the series since #1 (which I got a 3^rd printing of from my LCS a few months ago) and allowed for a good look into the team and their state post Forever Evil, which is the trend with a lot of the books lately.

Thankfully though, J.M. DeMatteis gets this book off to a strong start. We open with my third favourite DC Character behind Nightwing and Green Arrow, John Constantine, sitting in a bar in New York City. He gets approached by a waitress, only to find out that the waitress in question is being possessed by Deadman, who’s angry at Constantine for being trapped in the Sea King’s body during the “Blight Mess” as Constantine puts it. It’s an interesting look into the two characters, one of whom I am very familiar with whilst it is my first encounter with the other. Not long after we meet the likes of Zatanna and company – and DeMatteis does a much better job with these characters than in Justice League 3000. He makes the characters interesting and gives teasers to keep the reader up to date as to what they’re doing, as well as providing a set-up for the next issue that should be pretty interesting.

There are several awesome members on Justice League Dark – I’ve already mentioned Constantine, Zatanna and Deadman, but this book also boasts Frankenstein, the Nightmare Nurse, Black Orchid and more. Some of these characters I’m familiar with but others like Black Orchid I’m encountering for the first time, and it’ll be great to explore these characters going forward because this team up has the potential to be the most interesting of the current Justice Leagues – the core Justice League title, Justice League 3000 and the recently launched  Justice League United, and it should be very interesting to see where things go in the future.

The artwork by Andres Guinaldo is handled well. It’s solid and is enhanced by Mark Irwin’s strong inks and Brad Anderson’s colours help add to the atmosphere. There are some good panels here and hopefully we’ll have some stability with the series going forward.

Speaking of things going forward, much like The Flash, I’m certainly sticking around long term with Justice League Dark. The cliffhanger was promising and the supernatural side of DC Comics is among my favourite (I’m in the process of a Hellblazer catchup and am currently reading Charles Soule’s epic Swamp Thing) and the team is interesting enough with some good art to make me want to read more.

Overall, this is certainly one of the better releases this week, and going forward I’m hoping for more great things from DeMatteis and Justice League Dark.

VERDICT: 4.25/5