Another excellent title in the big New 52 DC relaunch effort is without a doubt Justice League Dark, which throws together DC’s more fringe, occult characters whom you would normally find restricted to the Vertigo line, and thrusts them firmly into the mainstream spotlight.
Issue 5 entitled “There was a Crooked Man” is the finale of the opening salvo that was “In the Dark”, penned by the always twisted and enjoyable Peter Milligan, featuring a stunning cover of the team in action by Ryan Sook.
Madame Xanadu is responsible for separating the Enchantress from June Moone, thereby unleashed a terrifying and uncontrollable witch who seeks to be reunited with her host but who may just tear down all of reality in the process. Xanadu has brought together the likes of Deadman, Zatanna, and Shade the Changing Man to try and confront and stop the Enchantress directly, but in the end it may just be left up to the always unpredictable John Constantine who has to make the hard decisions and end this for everybody.
A fantastically dark and twisted tale as expected, plenty of mystical and physical action seeing as this is the finale and a good ending to the first big story arc.
The real star of the show however is without a doubt artist Mikel Janin, who together with colourist Ulises Arreola produce some of the most fantastic and well suited artwork for this type of book. Janin’s characters, expressions and proportions are just fantastic, and combined with his brilliantly clever panel layouts makes for a superb looking book.
Very enjoyable and well worth picking up, though be warned you do need to enjoy the darker side of comics to get the most out of this title, as it definitely isn’t your run of the mill super hero tale!