Snyder's Justice League: Thoughts So Far. (Spoilers)

[WonderScott]

I'm enjoying it, but it feels all over the place and that maybe there's a little to much octane fueling it. I like being able to take a breath and have some interesting interactions between the Leaguers or Legioners. Something feels slightly disjointed to me and that it's more interested in tossing out ideas, but not giving them resonance or weight. Kind of like watching a Michael Bay film.

[WonderScott]

Also, I'm not a huge fan of the continuity and concept glitches - like people being visible in Diana's invisible plane. I think in Rucka's run he had Amazons fixed Trevor's plane when it crashed on Themyscira so it'd be invisible and you couldn't see them when they traveled in it and returned to Patriarch's World.

I get it, it's JL and the flagship title, but sometimes stuff like that is "more is more" versus "less is more."

[SiegePerilous02]

"Shaping up" is the key phrase here. It's Snyder lol. Grand ideas with poor executions is him all day long.

#1-2 wasn't bad by any means but not enough to keep me reading twice monthly and at 3.99...

True, he could always screw things up, but I don't really take it as a given that he will. JL hasn't been a readable book since Rebirth started, and the franchise's problems go even further back. Johns run in the New 52 was all over the place in terms of quality, it was too inconsistent to every be considered a "great" run IMO, and prior to that we had that team with Dick, Donna and the rest that very few people seemed to care about, etc. I think Snyder will have to really botch things to worsen the books reputation any more than it has already.

[Iconic]

I find this to be the most enjoyable Justice League book in quite some time. It's a huge, entertaining story with an incredible cast and stellar art. I'm loving it.

[RepHope]

I wasn't even reading JL while Hitch was writing, and while I liked Priest, he didn't really have much room to dig deep into the League. Snyder is keeping me entertained, and excited for the next issue, which I haven't felt about JL since Johns.

[Drakeon]

Snyder seems like hes trying too hard to make this some interwoven epic but it just reads like a cluttered mess. Over written dialogue and too many small panels. A book like Justice League should be a summer popcorn flick. Let the art breathe!

[mrbrklyn]

Scott Snyder's is off to a great start.

That might not be a consensus.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

I'm gonna chime in and agree with those saying that this run is shaping up to be quite good. It does fall into some of the same patterns that are usually associated with Snyder's writing: making things too grandiose, too "epic" but that feels more at home in a JL book than anywhere else.

[Raijin]

That might not be a consensus.

The consensus doesn't matter to me. If i liked something, then everything else is irrelevant.

[Vinsanity]

I have no idea what's happening most of the time but I'm okay with this.

[mrbrklyn]

The consensus doesn't matter to me. If i liked something, then everything else is irrelevant.

then you say "In my opinion" or "I think", and then follow it up with support for why you feel that way, and then that leads to a conversation. But if you don't care what others think, or what the consensus or reviews of the title are, then there is not much to talk about.

It is hard to say that the title is off to a great start when the initial offering was hard to follow, jumped from time frame to time frame without explanation, pulled in unnecessary asides like the stone that the headquarters was made from, and seems to have no direction other than expanding the role and capabilities of the Martian Manhunter. It doesn't stand on its own as a story and seemed to be just bouncing around from topic to topic without any explanation ... all rather drool.

If you read it differently, I am interested in hearing what aspects of the story you find of interest and how you stapled the story together,

[WhipWhirlwind]

I'm gonna chime in and agree with those saying that this run is shaping up to be quite good. It does fall into some of the same patterns that are usually associated with Snyder's writing: making things too grandiose, too "epic" but that feels more at home in a JL book than anywhere else.

Yup, this is about where I'm at.

[The Dying Detective]

I don't hate it it's bombastic and crazy which is surprisingly appealing and I do wonder whether it's because my mind is wired differently.

[Ascended]

I'm surprised to see people saying they're not following the story. I thought it was pretty clear? Morrison, Snyder isn't (though he is trying to channel that madness here, which I support). Maybe I've just been simplifying things, but this is how I've taken some of the points that're being brought up.

jumped from time frame to time frame without explanation,

Do you mean the first issue, where we saw the Totality in several different timeframes (Kamandi, 853rd century, etc)? Because I simply took that to show that the Totality is beyond the physics of space-time that everything inside the Source Wall follows. The Totality was in all times (or at least multiple ones) as it traveled to earth because it comes from a place that doesn't play by any of the cosmic rules we've ever seen.

pulled in unnecessary asides like the stone that the headquarters was made from,

None of that was, in my mind, unnecessary. It's very carefully placed "flavor text" that actually helps the narrative by illustrating the size and scope and reach of the League. It's a show of wealth; even their headquarters is made of alien stone and invisible doors. That whole thing was designed to tell readers that this isn't just nine super-people working together; this is the fulcrum of the entire DC Universe, with all of its richness and history surrounding it.

and seems to have no direction other than expanding the role and capabilities of the Martian Manhunter.

This one I don't get at all. Other than *maybe* a power increase with his shape-shifting (not that J'onn hasn't turned gigantic before) he's not doing anything here we haven't seen him do in Morrison's JLA or the JLU cartoon or his own titles. Granted, he's got a bigger role now than he has in the last few years, but just showing up at all is a bigger role than he's had in the last few years.

It doesn't stand on its own as a story and seemed to be just bouncing around from topic to topic without any explanation ... all rather drool.

Again, I thought it was fairly simple? Stuff from the other side of the Wall is spilling into "our" reality through the hole the League made. New physics. New energies. New laws of nature. Those new forces will rupture and destroy everything inside the Wall, like a bubble bursting, and our multiverse will end. And so far, we're seeing forces opposed to ones we're familiar with come through the Wall.

The still force spilled into our multiversal structure first. That makes some sense (as much as any of this does) as the still force prevents things from moving (or so one would assume) so it's influence would have to pass through the wall before anything else was able to unfreeze and follow. The next thing to come through, or rather the next thing we've seen, is the ultraviolet spectrum; who's Entity appears to be a planet-swallowing galaxy rather than a red bull or green manta ray or yellow space cockroach. As this spectrum takes control of its wielders rather than the other way around, perhaps the massive size of the Umbrax entity represents the spectrum's larger hold on its user. Or maybe this just highlights the fact that the DCU opened a window to a much bigger reality beyond the Wall.

The Totality...well we don't know what it is yet, other than it's bad enough Vandal Savage wanted it kept outside the Wall and it seems to exist, or at least travel, outside regular time.

Lionel Luthor, John Stewart, and Sinestro all stumbled upon knowledge of the things beyond the Wall in the past (I'm sure they weren't the only ones), and now Lex and his Legion are using that knowledge, attempting to bring whatever is beyond the Wall into our reality. Why? We don't quite know just yet, but Lex believes that the Source Wall was put around our reality to keep us caged, not to protect us. He believes he's the predator in this story, swooping in to master a world that is already afraid of him.

The League has split into different squads to deal with each problem; Flash is dealing with the still force (tracking it took them to the Legion's HQ and Lex's pet white martians, because of course Lex has pet white martians), John and Vic are dealing with Umbrax, Clark and J'onn are trying to make first contact with the Totality (hoping it'll help them fix the hole they made in the Wall).

I'll admit, I'm not sure what's up with the baby. No clue who that is, though I can think of several people it could be. Safe money is on the Turtle though.

If you read it differently, I am interested in hearing what aspects of the story you find of interest and how you stapled the story together,

Happy to. There's a lot going on, I agree. And I don't think I like the idea that the stuff on the other side of the Wall just being bigger versions of stuff inside the Wall. But it's early yet so we'll see how things play out. But so far I've been entertained. Snyder is very much following the Morrison JLA floor plan here; lots of spectacle with solid character interactions sprinkled in for flavor, but no character development or deep insights. That's what the solo titles are for; JL is about summer blockbuster action on a scale only comics can achieve. Except for J'onn, who has no solo title. He's already started on his character arc and I expect that Kendra (the only other member without another book) will get a character arc of her own in the next storyline.

If the book isn't to anyone's tastes, that's all well and good of course. I'm not trying to be all like "You have to feel the same way I do!" or anything.

[BatmanJones]

then you say "In my opinion" or "I think", and then follow it up with support for why you feel that way, and then that leads to a conversation. But if you don't care what others think, or what the consensus or reviews of the title are, then there is not much to talk about.

This is my top peeve. If someone says something on a fan BBS the "in my opinion" or "I think" is implied. Without that every post would require an "IMO" and that would be maddening. Of course it's the person's opinion if the person wrote it. Who else's opinion would it be? Is someone confusing opinion with fact? Because that would be ridiculous. So the IMO is unnecessary and redundant. Always.

As to your other point that Snyder's JL isn't a consensus hit or whatever, that's also wrong. There's no such thing as consensus when it comes to art or to comics in particular but Snyder's JL is as close to a consensus hit as they come, by any metric (reviews, sales, fan sites, etc). You don't have to like it but that doesn't mean anything wrt "consensus." DC isn't publishing anything right now that is closer to a consensus hit than Snyder's JL.