Justice League Annual #2
DC Comics
Written by Robert Venditti
Art by Aaron Lopresti
Inks by Matt Ryan
Colors by David Baron
Letters by Tom Napolitano
The Rundown: A murder mystery will bring the League to an unlikely location, the Hall of Justice.
There’s been a murder at the Hall of Justice and not in the museum. Batman gathers the League to help with the investigation and utilize their unique skills from Clark’s investigative journalism to Barry’s crime scene skills to determine both the victim and the killer. Unfortunately, their investigation will come to an abrupt end when they discover who the real culprit is.
Utilizing protocols designed to incapacitate the League’s greatest enemies against the heroes themselves, their unseen foe neutralizes their ability to escape. The Justice League will have to band together to break free and utilize a tactic their foe never expected.
The Story: Robert Venditti crafts an entertaining premise in this issue. Bringing in all the members of the League to investigate a murder is promising. I wish there was more of that in the issue beyond the first few pages. What’s unfortunate is that the promising premise gets eaten up by the Hall of Justice takeover and anything that could have shown the reader why these heroes are unique is lost as the story resolves to having them punch their way out of their predicament.
It wasn’t a bad story, it just wasn’t as good as its premise teased.
The Art: Aaron Lopresti delivers some great, classic looking art throughout the issue and manages to elevate what turned into a relatively standard story.