JLA #3

By Bryan Hitch and Alex Sinclair

It’s getting to the point where shelves are overloaded with different Justice League titles. There are probably half a dozen titles that start with Justice League from DC right now. Not all of these books use the same characters, but the ones that do need to distance themselves from the others. This is the dilemma the consumer faces every trip to the comic shop. This week we get Bryan Hitch’s JLA #3, which is a different book then the other titles.

Seeing Bryan Hitch’s name on any comic is almost a guaranteed way to get sales. The man is a great artist and he’s trying out his writing chops on some of the biggest characters in all of comics. This has been a pretty good series so far, Hitch has separated the main characters for the most part. Each character has their own story within this first arc; it’s nice to see that Hitch is taking time to flesh out his vision of the JLA. One of the cool things Hitch does this issue is that he poses a question to the reader; what happens to men of God when they come face to face with a God? We get some interesting answers here. Some people worship him, others want to stop him. Hitch does a good job showing how a real world may potentially handle a situation like this. Many characters seem to be stranded in places where they are isolated from their friends and surroundings. Hitch makes good use of some of the confusion the characters are feeling. Almost everything is turned upside down, and that’s the way we like it.

Bryan Hitch also draws the book, but he gets help on the colors from Alex Sinclair. There really isn’t any other word to describe Hitch’s pencils than amazing. People look wonderful and they look about as realistic as possible. Barry and Hal’s trip back in time is awesome. Seeing Hal deck tons of guards with boxing gloves from his ring is a pretty epic sight. Rao turns a wasteland into a paradise and Hitch draws it beautifully. Bryan is helped tremendously by his colorist Alex Sinclair on these pages. Sinclair makes the paradise come alive with his greens and blues. Hitch’s pages with Wonder Woman on Olympus are given a dark and moody edge thanks to the colors of Sinclair. The art in this book is better than the writing, and the writing is pretty damn good.

If you’re looking for a DC book to read, JLA is recommended. It’s only three issues in and has been a blast so far. The art of Bryan Hitch may be a huge selling point, but the writing and story has been good so far too. The colors by Alex Sinclair rock and add so much to the pencils by Hitch. This is a book for people who like epic stories.