I have a friend that I’ve known all my life. He got married the weekend of April 16th in Philadelphia (another post about that as it pertains to books coming up soon) and I was his Best Man. As customary, I received a Best Man’s gift from the soon to be married couple.
Absolute Justice
I hadn’t read Justice when it was coming out as a series, and since I collect the Absolute Editions, it was a great gift. Not to mention the Absolute Dark Knight has some great extras in it, so on the whole, a great WIN for me.
Justice is a limited series, out of continuity, by Jim Krueger, Doug Braithwaite and Alex Ross. It is a huge story filled with pretty much all the major leaguers in the DC Universe, both hero and villain. As usual Ross’s paints are just stunning. Over Briathwaite’s pencils it gives Ross’s painting a bit more of a harder edge than when Ross tends to pencil his own art. Which is a good thing.
Here we have a ambitious story encompassing plenty of the DC stable and dealing with overarching themes. Usually, when Ross is involved the story tends to examine the idea of the hero and what makes a hero a hero. Once again, Justice takes a look at this theme but not the same way Kingdom Come or Marvels did. Since Krueger is involved we get a bit more of a look at heroes and villains from his perspective closer to Earth X or Universe X.
In Justice, Krueger throws in the idea of the villain thinking and ultimately acting like a hero. No, Luthor doesn’t go around taking care of super-villains and the Riddler isn’t stopping bank robberies. They begin to act like humanitarians.
While attacking the Justice League.
For you see it is all an elaborate plan to liberate humanity from the oppressive super-humans that appointed themselves guardians of humanity. Or so Luther and the others rationalize. Krueger mentions in his introduction to the first hardcover edition, reprinted in the Absolute edition, that he wanted to write villians as if the villain thinks that his motivation is honorable and right. That he doesn’t see himself as the villain. I don’t know if Krueger accomplishes this with Justice, since it is pretty much shown from the first few pages that the bad guys, lead by Luther and Brainiac, attack each member of the first string of the Justice League. Though I can see how Luther can rationalize it as a necessity in order for humanity to free themselves. Much like his main motivation for going up against superman, isn’t really about him being an evil guy, but just willing to do anything and everything to rid earth of this alien. No matter what Superman has done for Earth.
Overall Justice is a fun story to read. Ross, Braithwaite, and Krueger to a great job in both words and art. Ross never disappoints with his painting, making characters seem more real. If you can’t afford the Absolute Edition or the hardcover volumes, it is well worth finding the trade paperback editions of this mini series.
