By Harrison Stewart — Can it really be a spoiler with the premise emblazoned across a sharp, acetate cover? Unless you haven’t read a single DC comic in the past three months, you know how this ends. The marketing push has been unavoidable. How, then, do you build an exciting, worthwhile adventure when the outcome is telegraphed so clearly? The answer: urgency and action. 

Justice League #75 begins in medias res, interrupting the League’s regularly scheduled programming with a desperate cry for help. In the pages of Justice League Incarnate (also penned by the writer of this book, Joshua Williamson), President Superman et al. have waged a losing battle against The Great Darkness, the living embodiment of all that is not and should not be. Thankfully, Williamson spends little time on set-up, instead offering a single page of exposition with a succinct bottom line: this threat is coming now and we need all hands on deck. The approach perfectly brings new readers up to speed without punishing the faithful with retread. 

Indeed, Williamson’s narrative in Death of Justice League moves at an impressive clip. He smartly assumes his readers’ familiarity with DC classics, wasting no time to explain Pariah or the Anti-Monitor. Unlike Death of Superman, where our hero fells the beast with his final blow, the villain of Death of Justice League is still very much a threat by story's end, meaning legacy characters like the Teen Titans must now face it down without their mentors and greatest defense. This gives the story a distinct sense of urgency, as if a single non-crucial word balloon will mean certain doom for the entire multiverse. For an oversized issue, this was a breezy read, accomplishing exactly what it sets out to do with surgical precision. 

Lest you forget the massive scale of this multiversal conflict, artists Rafa Sandoval (pencils), Jordi Tarragona (inks), and Matt Herms (colors) deliver a tour de force of bombastic, cinematic storytelling via comic book artwork.

The splash pages rock so damn hard, hitting you with one perfect shot after another. It's a real who's who of action scenes, like a Where's Waldo? page with significantly more punching. Perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay is how frequently I was reminded of George Perez's legendary sequences from Crisis on Infinite Earths. The last thing to note is that this is all sort of prelude for DC’s big summer event. If Dark Crisis continues the trend, we have plenty to look forward to. 

Overall: Death of the Justice League succeeds on the strength of fast-paced storytelling and knockout visuals. 8.5/10

REVIEW: Justice League #75

Justice League #75
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Pencils: Rafa Sandoval
Inks: Jordi Taragona
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: Josh Reed
Publisher: DC Comics
Oversize special issue! Superstar writer Joshua Williamson pens the beginning of the next big DCU event! It all starts here! A new Dark Army made up of the DCU's greatest villains has formed on the edges of the Multiverse! The DCU's best and most powerful heroes are pulled together in an epic war to push the darkness back! But in the end, they are no match for it! That's right, you heard it here first: the Justice League are killed by the Dark Army, with only one survivor to warn the remaining heroes of Earth about what is coming for them! FINAL ISSUE!
Buy It Here: Digital / Physical

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Harrison manages a comic shop by day and writes comics by night. You can find more of his writing at @stewart_bros