ARC Review: Injustice: Gods Among Us (#1)

Title: Injustice: Gods Among Us (#1)
Author: Tom Taylor
Release Date: November 19th
Category/Genre: Comics, Graphics, Superheroes, DC

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Injustice is a prequel that presents and explains the events leading up to the start of the video game from the makers of Mortal Kombat.

Things in the DC Universe have changed after Superman is tricked into destroying the one thing he loves the most. Now unwilling to let crime go unpunished, the heroes of our world must choose if they are with Superman or against him. But not every country will submit to his new world order and neither will Superman's greatest threat—Batman!



There’s going to be a lot to discuss going into this review because, well, it’s a comic… and superheroes… and a complex storyline… and my whole nerdy-love is just going to go BLAM all over the place for the next few paragraphs, okay? Okay.

Now that’s out of the way, I’ll try to sound like a normal human.

That’s probably not really going to happen though.

Here’s the thing about Injustice: It’s DC. And while I’m normally a Marvel fan, I do like some DC characters (preferably not from the newer releases though)--and despite the recent DC controversies, I was still highly fascinated with this premise. After reading a few reviews, I really wanted to read it also. The idea sounded just too cool. Besides, comics are generally quick reads. I wasn’t worried about a time crunch.

The good news about this series is that it’s separate from the New 52 and is its own storyline. In fact, most of what I really enjoyed out of the characters were the feelings of originality/back to their roots in how they’d been created in the first place. There were still some annoyances, of course, and I’ll get to this in just a moment.

What Injustice presents is this world and idea of a possibility that a superhero can turn into the “bad guy” just as easy as a normal good human being can become bad after going through situations, events, etc.. This message left for a lot of thought, too, because to be honest I’d never really considered before the off-chance any of the famed superheroes turning somewhat villainous until I read this installment. They’d always been the good guys.

While I’ve never been a fan of Superman or his story, he is one of the DC characters I know the most details about (all thanks to childhood, movies, television, etc.). Admittedly, I went into this storyline thinking it was going to be a let-down since he is a main character, but I was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out. The fact that I was a fan of Superman’s character in this speaks volumes. If you’re looking for a tortured villain, there he is… and I’m glad to be saying he is in fact a bit of a villain in this series, an actual great fit. It all happens after a tragic accident, and like mentioned above, our superhero snaps. It’s not an obvious turn in the beginning, but a slow burn that sparks a lot of controversy amongst the rest of the Justice League--eventually dividing them. Where Superman is out to ensure a “safe world” that means by any way necessary, Batman is against this new policy--finding it to be trouble. And here I thought Batman would be the bad guy if any of them were to turn. Ha.

So the characters? As I said already, I enjoyed them for the most part because it felt like reading THE characters again. With a few exceptions. I have to confess I have not read much of Wonder Woman or Aquaman, so I’m still learning those characters and their traits and such. Same with The Flash. I have to say that I adored The Flash in this installment, too, and it has now made me want more of his comics. The inner conflict he often fought with was understandable. And Aquaman? I’d always heard jokes that he was lame, but he certainly wasn’t when he was featured here. Not every superhero should be concerned about saving humans. I really like his concept, and I really liked his courage despite the danger he was in. Wonder Woman was awesome at the start of the volume but toward the middle and end, began to taper off. I’m not sure if it was just me and my lack of knowledge/still learning of her background, but I found myself getting easily annoyed with her at times. There were moments when all she seemed concerned with was following Superman around, almost pathetically, obviously hoping for a romantic connection that she wasn’t getting. I’m almost certain this isn’t the characteristics of Wonder Woman. She’s a warrior. Very independent. And yes, there were plenty of action scenes where she fought, but I still felt disconnected to her character in this installment.

A quick side note: Harley Quinn is in this, too. She’s always been one of my favorite comic characters. But I didn’t like her much in the few scenes she was in, except for the start where she did sprinkle in some of her old humor. And maybe it was just me… but I think there was an attempted ship of Green Arrow and Harley? That would be sooo weird.

Wow, okay, I believe I’ve said enough. I think you all get it. I enjoyed the comic book and will definitely be continuing on with this series to see where it will go from here. Besides, the end seemed to leave me off with a brutal cliffhanger.