Justice League Vol 1: Origin by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee
The first group of graphic novels from DCs New 52, the name for their monthly comics after they were all restarted from issue one last September, have started to arrive in stores with the Justice League graphic novel being the centrepiece. The story has been created by two legends of the comic book industry, Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, who are also the Chief Creative Officer and Co-Publisher of DC Comics respectively.
The story shows us the first meeting of the Justice League, DCs premiere superhero team featuring all their big name heroes; Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash and Aquaman, as well as telling the origin story of lesser known hero, Cyborg. With so many big names appearing in this book its a brilliant place to start and definitely the most bank for your comic buck!
Every page is filled with action, with the obligatory infighting happening as the group gets together and then finally comes together to fight off an attack on Earth from the villain Darkseid. Geoff Johns doesn't forget his trademark characterisation however and each hero manages to feel different from each other with their own backstories and motivations, even when they're not shown. The only problem comes with the characters who aren't introduced until late on in the book, most notably Wonder Woman and Aquaman, who have very little time for character development during the story.
For fans of the bigger name characters who are just getting into comics this is a brilliant place to start however, the heroes origins are fairly well established by now, especially after the success of DCs comic book films, so this book doesn't need to show all that and instead focuses on a huge amount of action and what would happen if this amount of characters with huge egos were all in the same room together.
The artwork in the book is absolutely amazing, as it always is from Jim Lee. Every page is a work of intricate detailed art which skirts along the thin line between realism and super heroism, and could stand on its own without the word balloons. Despite the outlandish circumstances the heroes find themselves in Lee still manages to let their character shine through and you can see the kind of person they are through their reactions, Wonder Woman looks blissfully ignorant of how the world outside of Themyscira works for example.
If you've just seen a few of the DC comics movies and you want to spend a little bit more time in that world
Justice League: Origin is a brilliant place to start, and even if you're a long time comic fan you'll find an action filled retelling of the Justice Leagues first adventure with some amazing artwork.