Justice League Dark #4 Review

The world is succumbing to the darkness Enchantress has brought…  And Justice League Dark is finally starting to come together.

Justice League Dark #4

To protect June Moone, Deadman enters the Enchantress’ body to find she’s nothing more than a hallowed out shell without June inside her.  Dead man is able to end the threat by tearing this version of Enchantress to bits.  Meanwhile, Dove comes back to Boston’s apartment to find John Constantine waiting.  Constantine warns Dove to steer clear of both the trouble brewing and June.  Madame Xanadu looks out onto the world and sees scenes upon scenes of morbid violence, suicide, June Moones running about scalping people, and people shooting blondes on sight in fear of June.  Zatanna goes to the farmhouse where the Justice League tried to stop Enchantress, but she’s quickly overmatched when one of her spells doesn’t do what she expects it to.  When she splits, she winds up in Shade’s company.  Shade then opens a portal for Deadman and June, but June doesn’t make it.  Instead, she’s brought what appears to be directly to the Enchantress.  Xanadu says it’s time for her to face the witch and for the rest of the JLD to face their futures.

For four issues, Peter Milligan has been building the tension.  Things are going bad.  Creepy shit is all around.  It seems no one is able to escape one of the several copies of the Enchantress.  While slow moving, the pace is actually quite good for this book.  I’ve enjoyed seeing this loose band of heroes who don’t exactly like each other start to be pulled together.  There’s a creepy horror feel to it that isn’t exactly right in your face, but rather underlining every little moment.  We don’t need to see constant gross outs from the Enchantress to understand she’s a threat.  Everyone else simply stating the prophecies laid out by Xanadu is enough to get the chills going.  It looks like our team will be assembled by the end of issue 5 or sooner.  It’s all building to what should be a visually beautiful confrontation.

Speaking of the beautiful visuals, Mikel Janin is a fantastic artist.  The whole mood put out there by Milligan is getting a huge assist from Janin.  Everything seems dark and uncertain and, at times, even frantic.  I’m not likely to soon forget Deadman tearing his way out of Enchantress.  I’m not likely to forget the more innocent appearance of the real June Moone.  I’m not likely to forget how cool Constantine’s looked whenever he pops up or the horde of Enchantresses and evil Junes tackling Zatanna and ripping at her face and hair.  Add everything together and you’ve got a really good book.

Justice League Dark, despite the pacing of getting the so-called “team” together, is easily one of my top 5 New 52 books and anyone who likes horror comics should check out these issues.  They definitely make for some serious creep factor.

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Tags: John Constantine Justice League Comics & Justice League Reviews Justice League Dark Mikel Janin New DCU Peter Milligan Slider Zatanna