Is It Good? Justice League #28 Review

Welcome back to Justice League, a Forever Evil tie-in that features a revamped Cyborg and the Metal Men taking on the Crime Syndicate. Is it good?

Justice League #28 (DC Comics)

Cyborg visits a young Dr. Magus with the hopes that he can revive the Metal Men as a force to help combat against the Crime Syndicate. However, the good doctor doesn’t want to because of complications with the Metal Men when he first created them. From there, we get the origin of the new Metal Men.

What they wanted to do was build snowmen. It was a complete disaster of a project!

This issue pretty much amounts to an origin issue of the Metal Men and not much else. I’m not overly familiar with the characters from the original universe or know much about their origin, so I can’t say if this origin was better than their original and can only judge as is. As such, I thought it was a good and enjoyable origin story, introducing all of the characters very well and giving each member distinct enough personalities that they are not just identifiable by their looks. Their story was a bit familiar with science fiction tropes we’ve seen, but it’s a well structured back history with emotion — especially with how they interact with Dr. Magus. Sure, we don’t advance the storyline in Forever Evil all that much, but it’s still a highly enjoyable issue regardless that displays some rather upbeat heroes.

The rest of the writing is just as good. Along with the great characterization, the dialogue is very enjoyable and really helps build what kind of characters they are. It also has a bit of humor (I chuckled when Gold called Dr. Magus “bro.” You so crazy, Gold) and heart to it, especially during the ending which demonstrates how Dr. Magus ultimately feels about them. The story is also well-paced, there is a mysterious element to it with a side plot, and the ending is great. The only thing that bugs me is how this story works with a previous issue of Justice League, where we saw Platinum herself. Was that a second attempt by Magus to make the Metal Man, just a bit different?

Spoken like a true man that’ll accidently bring about the robot apocalypse.

There is not much else I can say about the artwork for this comic (divided between Ivan Reis, Joe Prado and Scott Hanna) that I haven’t already brought up in previous issues. It looks great overall with characters, the designs and detail, the layouts, the double page spreads (especially love this issue’s one where we have the Metal Man in action), the beautiful and vibrant colors, and more. The only nitpick I would have with this issue is that in some panels Magus looks a bit too much like John Constantine for whatever reason. Still, that’s a minor nitpick.

Well hello Platinum!

Is It Good?

Justice League #28 is a great issue, giving us a new origin for the Metal Men. The writing is fantastic, the characters are enjoyable, and the artwork is a treat as always. Even if you are not following Forever Evil, this may be a fun issue to get regardless if you’re a fan of these characters and want to see what they’re up.