Justice League United Annual #1 Review

Jeff Lemire has a tough egg to crack with this annual in that he’s not only got to continue with the development of his brand new team of Justice Leaguers, but he’s also got to introduce (re-reintroduce?) the Legion of Superheroes to readers all while continuing to tell his half Canadian, half Space-based superhero tale. Even with the extra length format of an annual, Lemire’s story comes up short in a few key ways that makes this issue less fun to read than it could have been.

The biggest problem with this issue is the almost obscene amount of exposition that is laid on the page. In no particular order we first have the space-based portion of our adventure featuring the return of Byth and another familiar face. While there are certainly a few surprises and fun action sequences to be had here, there’s a ton of exposition expressed to readers in a less-than-interesting conversational format. The same thing can be said of the Earth-based story featuring the debut of the New 52 (Prime Earth) Legion of Superheroes. This is a team that is in desperate need of rejuvenation, but instead of presenting a brave new version of the team, it’s hard to tell them apart from their Earth 2 counterparts. Worse still is the fact that their backstory is presented in a very straightforward and uninteresting way.

Get full review from IGN here