Scott's Take: Justice by Alex Ross, Jim Kruger, and Doug Braithwaite

Papberback and eBook Cover

Justice by Alex Ross, Jim Kruger, and Doug Braithwaite originally came out in 2005 and has been republished a variety of times in various forms. This is a review of the eBook version that came out in 2012. This version collects all twelve issues of the complete comic series for a total of 384 pages.

Justice is an out of canon story of the Justice League vs The Legion of Doom. Many of villains of the DC universe have been having the same dream that The Justice League will fail allowing all of humanity to die as the world literally burns in a fiery end. The villains decide to prevent this dream by killing all the members of The Justice League. To do that, the villains steal the files of Batman and learn the secret identity of every superhero on our planet. They begin to implement their plan by grabbing Aquaman as he is a key component to their plan to eliminate The Justice League.

Most of The Justice League is soon out for the count, so it is up to the backups to rescue the heroes and save the world. Heroes like Shazam (who is really Captain Marvel but DC lost the rights to that name) Zatanna, The Metal Men, Doom Patrol, and more.

Hardback Cover 

This story is very mature and violent and not at all suitable for little kids. The attacks on the heroes are brutal and graphic. In fact, even one hero has parts of his brain removed by one of the villains. The artwork for that section as well as the entire book is amazing and very realistic. Alex Ross more than lives up to his reputation for realistic and detailed illustrations.

All the heroes have epic moments that help a person understand the character. The perspective of the book shifts throughout as different characters visualize what is happening and their own personal experiences. This results in the fact the reader fully understand that the plans by the villains are impressive and lead to horrible actions which are counteracted by pragmatic and well-designed plans of the heroes.

Paperback and eBook Back

It is hard to discuss much of this book without spoiling the various scenes in the book that are very cool and very different. If you don’t like one of the main heroes of the DC Universe this book could change your mind. If you think Aquaman is lame, you probably won’t after this. Aquaman has one of the best story lines in the book but everyone involved pretty much has a good storyline.

This story I personally like a lot and it is one of my favorite comic books. I have read this story multiple times in different formats and especially prefer the eBook. The digital format allows one to zoom in on some of the smaller dialog boxes and take in the smaller scenes.

Despite how much I enjoy this story it is not appropriate for younger readers at all. There are sex jokes, torture scenes as well as scenes with extreme violence, and more. This is an Elseworlds story so you do not have to be caught up with any old or current storylines to enjoy. If you like this story you might also enjoy Kingdom Come which is a darker tale from Alex Ross and Mark Waid which is another Elseworlds tale though there one does need to be fairly familiar with most of the DC Universe characters.

Justice

Alex Ross, Jim Kruger, and Doug Braithwaite

DC Comics

July 2012

ASIN# B008Q1XEZ8

eBook (also available in various print formats)

384 Pages

$14.99

I purchased this many years ago when it was on sale at a far lower price.

Scott A. Tipple ©2019