I will admit that up to now with the exception of Justice League Dark, I have never read another Justice League title up till now. Something about the original team just didn’t click because of how invincible they came off, but this book is something different. And different I think is what many have needed for a long time now to feel that push to read a Justice League title. It the structure of this team alone is something that really grabs your attention.

Because a governing body isn’t sure they can trust the real Justice League if they ever went rogue, they decide to create their own. And they go through the candidates and arrive on the line-up by the end of the first issue. In JLI, it was the U.N. Here it’s A.R.G.U.S., with Skinny Amanda Waller and Colonel Steve Trevor picking the team. Their secret mission is to be able to take down the Justice League, if it ever comes to that, and so each member is chosen to match-up against a similar counterpart on the real Justice League. Overall it’s about recruits who didn’t necessarily want the job and are going on missions they aren’t too passionate about, but they do it for various reasons. Each person on the team has their own agendas and reason for being there and if they were promised something in return they would receive it after their service is complete.

As you can see from the cover, this team is comprised of Cat Woman, Green Lantern(Simon Baz), Vibe, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Katana, Green Arrow, and Star Girl. Though they may have been chosen to counteract the real Justice League, I can’t help but get an uncanny feel to the selection. I mean there are some better heroes that could have been chosen other than this bunch, but this is who they went with. Characters newly created, evil, and unknown. They are all put together and have not a single attachment to one another. Something that was universal among many of Marvel’s uncanny titles is that they put together heroes that only really had a single goal in common that brought them together or made them see eye to eye. That is what I see here from this team that the government put together.

Now am I saying that they’re copying and that it’s a bad move? Not in the slightest. In fact this is something that I like to see from many team books these days. I don’t really care to see the same heroes mixed together and having that connection from the start. I think that readers today want to see some sort of development and progression to reach that point. They want a twist and something they aren’t used to that makes that certain team stand out among others. This JLA team leaves so much room for their story to go in many directions because seeing the backgrounds that they all come from there will not only be challenges they face to be prepared for the real Justice League, but challenges they face amongst each other to accomplish this.

From how the first issue explained how this team came to be I am very excited for it’s future. I mean I will say that the matches such as Katana vs Wonder Woman do throw me off a bit, but that I guess will be explained later because what they do seem to have in common is their exceptional fighting skills. There’s much to question in general, but I think that is what adds to the books mystique because they didn’t create this story for you to guess how it would play out on the spot. So the uncanny feeling to this team definitely drew me in and I can’t wait to see what it has to offer in the end or if this is a team we might see more of afterwards.

Excelsior!

And stay tuned!