Title: Wonder Woman and Justice League Dark.
Volume: 1.5.
Story-Arc: The Witching Hour.
Writer(s): James Tynion IV.
Inker(s): Jesus Merino, Emanuela Lupacchino, Alvaro Martínez Bueno, Fernando Blanco & Miguel Mendonça.
Colourist(s): Romulo Fajardo Jr. & Brad Anderson.
Letterer(s): Dave Sharpe & Rob Leigh.
Publisher: DC Comics.
Format: Hardcover.
Release Date: May 1st 2019.
Pages: 160.
Genre(s): Comics, Science-Fiction.
ISBN13: 9781401299354.
My Overall Rating: ★★★★☆.
Previously on the Justice League Dark series:
Justice League Dark (Vol. 1): The Last Age of Magic by James Tynion IV
There are only several writers who are able to envision creative new ideas based on existing lore, graft those original concepts onto existing stories that currently serve as the foundation to many character’s backgrounds, and flesh out these new worlds with enough substance for readers to engage with. This applies even more to the comic book world, notably for well-established superheroes who have known multiple reboots as new eras are introduced. Writer James Tynion IV thus attempts the unimaginable with Wonder Woman as he continues to write Justice League Dark and places the legendary princess of the Amazons center-stage in this latest event. This time around, a terrible spell is cast, bringing fans an obscure and witchy origin tale that has never been done before with Wonder Woman.
What is Wonder Woman and Justice League Dark: The Witching Hour about? With magic dying in their world, the Justice League Dark find themselves up against an ultimate evil born from the Dark Multiverse looking to open a pathway to Earth. Countless years ago, the witch-goddess of magic, Hecate, had devised a plan to take back the magic she once stole from these very monsters when the time will come. She thus extracts these powers from those who were Witchmarked to finally face these creatures and punish those who have worthlessly used magic in their lives. Among those who were scarred lies an ultimate weapon and it is nonother than Wonder Woman. Collecting Wonder Woman/Justice League Dark: The Witching Hour #1-2, Wonder Woman #56-57 and Justice League Dark #4, this event raises the curtains on a brand-new and occult mythology around one of DC’s most iconic superheroes.
The most important thing about this event is to know when exactly it takes place in writer James Tynion IV’s Justice League Dark. Unlike any other series I’ve picked up, this must be one of the messiest ways to collect the various issues/story arcs. In fact, The Witching Hour begins in the middle of the first volume of Justice League Dark, after issue #3, making it extremely inappropriate and confusing for newcomers who dive into the first volume of Justice League Dark thinking that they’ll be able to follow the second half of that story. This event could’ve also been perfectly incorporated within the original Justice League Dark run by James Tynion IV without having to make a separate graphic novel. Sometimes I wish they could just think this through better for fans without screwing them over in the process.
With that being said, James Tynion IV’s direction with this Dark magic universe remains enthralling, to say the least, and it’s the potential of his ideas that make this volume such an exciting new adventure. He continues to be successful in managing a team of heroes as he gives us a dose of decent character development and excellent banter between these heroes. To think that a team composed of Wonder Woman, Zatanna, Bobo the Chimp, Man-Bat, Constantine and others could ever work so well was beyond me but I’m glad to be proven wrong.
To complement this unusual team-up of heroes bound by their deep roots in the realm of magic is also an introduction to a couple of goddesses straight from Greek mythology who make an important debut and impact in James Tynion IV’s story-telling vision. Although he’s a comic book writer who is extremely content to be overly-voluble, he utilizes this talent to focus on the world-building and ultimately help readers fully appreciate the lore he wants to bathe in. It does get slightly convoluted towards the finale as it contemplates a relatively cheesy resolution but at least sets the table for the chaos to come.
The artwork remains strong throughout the volume despite the constant change in artists as they all work cohesively to deliver a whole that isn’t too obvious in its artistic substitutions. The vibrant colours accompanying the explosive action sequences while plunged in a dark atmosphere also captures a very unique style that works well with the occult magic theme that is present in this series.
Wonder Woman and Justice League Dark: The Witching Hour is an enthralling and action-packed story of an occult and powerful goddess of magic and her otherworldly mischievousness who seeks to reclaim the magic flowing through the world.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for sending me a copy for review!
Roars and Echoes 
WOW Talk about different!! I was totally blown away by the cover and would certainly be intrigued. I do love when creators can be creative with favorite characters with an already established mythos. It does sound like the publisher didn’t make it easy for those readers who aren’t already rabid fans of this dark version Justice League. Sounds like fun though Lashaan!! 😉
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Yes! It’s nice what they attempted to add to Wonder Woman’s mythos and it works well, as long as the worthy dialogues isn’t a turn off. Anyone who does their research or know their superhero comics will easily find their way through these stories but it’s still oddly compiled to my taste. Thanks for reading, Dani! 😀
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I’m in love with that cover. I bet the artwork is amazing. (If you included pics I’m sorry- im in the app and it’s not playing what looks like might be a slideshow at the end.)
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I adore the cover too! The art isn’t exactly like the cover but still pretty decent. Oh man, that’s unfortunate. I think there’s a way to open the link to the blog’s page from the Reader from the app but I’m not sure… I sort of hate reading or writing through the app actually hahah
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I like the app because I can use it on my phone which is convenient. I don’t have a desktop and I don’t always have time in my day to get out my laptop and read/blog/comment. I’m really lazy. Lol
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Hahahah I can definitely understand and I do understand its advantages. I use the app to reply to comments and track statistics but otherwise, when I need to write, I need to be in front of a laptop/desktop computer hahah I just find it unfortunate that the app doesn’t help redirect you to the blogger’s website to see the full content though hahah
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Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t- it’s weird. If im reading in reader, I get the “app” version, or mobile friendly or whatever we want to call it, if someone leaves a comment and I click over to their blog from the comment it often redirects me to the website.
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Great review! 🙂 I’m seriously loving that cover. ❤ Definitely wanting to check this one out now.
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Thank you! It really is a wonderful collection. Quality stuff; eye candy too! 😀
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Amazing review, Lashaan! 😄 I love the fact that they added greek mythology! Also, why is it James Tynion IV ? It sounds like a king or something 😂
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Thank you hahaha Well, Wonder Woman’s story is pretty much based on greek mythos too! 😀 And yes, it’s quite the name but still pretty cool hahah
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The reason why this wasn’t incorporated into the original, as you would have liked, is probably because they had no idea about this when they wrote the previous one. I have a soft spot for Greek Mythology, so to here that some of it is incorporated here is pretty cool.
Why were there different artists working on that? Everyone looks so angry and overly-exaggerated to me. Are there any “pretty” faces in the comic?
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Well, that’s the thing. Even if it wasn’t planned, they could’ve still kept it under the “Justice League Dark” comic book run instead of creating a separate thing, released in random issues with different titles. It’s overly complicated for no good reason.
Yep. Wonder Woman’s stories are often set in Greek mythos, and it’s nice that this story adds even more to her story by adding that “witch” component to her life.
It’s probably related to the time frame within which each issue needed to be released. As mentioned previously, the issues that are collected to do this graphic novel each have different titles and aren’t part of the a particular series. So they probably had different artists working simultaneously on the same story.
Absolutely. Loads of pretty faces throughout the story. Zatanna, Wonder Woman and a bunch of Greek goddesses get the “sexy” treatment here and then.
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Another awesome review sir! I have yet to take a look at this series but I was enthused by your review for volume 1 and the same applies here, although it’s a shame that the collection is a bit messy and I share your frustrations at these mini-events within a run that tend to upset the flow (there were similar problems with Aquaman).
Have you heard about the new Justice League Dark animated movie that’s in the works? I though the first one was pretty good, so I look forward to the sequel. Perhaps one day the live action film will eventually surface…but I want another main JL team up first!
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Oh yes, the Aquaman and Justice League crossover event was just as messy and it was very disappointing. Sort of ruined the Justice League run’s quality for me; instantly made it inferior to Geoff John’s run.
I do recommend testing out Tynion V’s JLD run though, while keeping in mind about this event’s timeline when you should read it.
I too enjoyed the JLD movie, although it’s far from being among the best animated movies for me. It would have been so cool to have a live-action movie for them though. It would justify the use of CGI and what not, and the dark magic elements would appeal to so many.
Got to admit that I would also want to see a Batman Beyond live-action movie someday. It would be such a cool concept, especially in this era of cyberpunk movies/games.
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You know what? I still need to check out Batman Beyond, it’s always highly praised but it passed me by during it’s original run. I have seen the Return of the Joker movie though which I thought was okay – need to give it another shot perhaps and get some episodes on iTunes.
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Broooo. While nothing beats Batman: TAS, Batman Beyond is still classic stuff! I do hope I’ll find time in the future to rewatch the whole run, especially with that bluray collection release. But again, I do think a cyberpunk Batman Beyond movie is totally doable… Someone just needs to pitch to Warner Bros or something hahah
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Hahah…fire off that e-mail pitch to WB right now! I do plan to get to Batman Beyond eventually and look forward to diving in.
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It seems that everything worked together well to create a truly engaging comic read here. Great review, Lashaan, I really enjoyed reading it!
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Thank you so much, Darina! I too was glad that it worked for the better this time around! 😀
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FIRST LET ME JUST SAY – THAT COVERRRRRRR!!! 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 SOOOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL!! 😍😍❤️❤️😱😱😱😱😱😱😱
Hecate!! SUCH AN EXOTIC NAME! 😍 Whoa! I am intrigued by this goddess and her plan to punish the unworthy!! 😍😍😍🤣🤣
And I am soo glad that the artwork is spot on in this one, which CAN HARDLY COME AS A SURPRISE JUDGING BY THAT AWESOME COVER!! 😍😍😍😍😍
LOVED EVERY WORD OF THIE REVIEW, Lashaan! ❤️💕👻👻☔️
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Hahahahahh right???? I love the artwork for the cover. And yes!! I can also confirm that she’s quite evil and godly in the story too. 😉 Thank you so much for your kind words, Rain! ❤
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Evil + Godly = AWESOMEEEE!! 😍😍👻👻👻🤣
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