Written by Steve Orlando
Art by Ivan Reis
Colors by Marcelo Maiolo
By Matthew Iung 
Out of the most recent DC comics event we get Justice League of America Rebirth kicking of another twice monthly. Steve Orlando and Ivan Reis bring us the newest team DC Rebirth has to offer. It’s important to point out that the run up to this series has been tremendous. Orlando wrote four out of the seven characters an individual Rebirth issue. Meaning that by the time issue one hits stands the series has five issues to its name. A JLA Rebirth one shot and four character one shots that orbit that Rebirth issue. Needless to say the books has a lot to deliver on.
As far as pencils go Reis is superb and Marcelo Maiolo’s colors have a vast range that when paired with his lighting effects make for an extremely dynamic and well built page. As far as Orlando’s story goes this is the getting the team together issue. Batman is jet setting around the the country or sending one of the newly minted JLA-ers to collect the next member of the team. The team itself consists of Vixen, Lobo, The Ray, (Ryan Choi) Atom, Black Canary and Killer Frost. Batman is leading the team and will more than likely be sticking around. This is a diverse group and with each of there vinyets we get an opportunity to see what Orlando thinks they bring to the team. Lobo gets thrown out of the top floor of a skyscraper and lives. Atom rides light waves at subatomic levels. Black Canary is supposed to be the hard nose that keeps everyone honest. While Killer Frost is the recovering villain with a dark past who has Batman in her corner. The introductions display that the team not only has diverse powers but a range of social roles within the team dynamic as well.
Over all the writing and plotting is good until Batman says “The world needs heroes they can know, not gods to inspire them”. This is not a bad idea because street level heroes are more often than not relatable. Because while it’s not hard to find aspects of ourselves in heroes like Captain Atom, the Flash or Wonder Woman they are essentially gods and depending on the story it can be more than less. Now Batman’s sentiment only runs into one rather obvious wall. Lobo is an immortal alien that seems to be able to heal from anything. Including having his head blown off which readers have seen as recent as Justice League V.S. Suicide Squad #5. He’s really the only member that doesn’t fit the mold Batman has been talking about for most of the issue. Lobos social role is clear enough he is the constant antagonizer. He is there to gas light any and everyone as often as he can. Having the ability to recover from anything and being virtually unkillable makes him a solid heavy and bullet sponge. Lobo feels out place on this team as well and every time he survives something extreme it just reminds readers that he’s not like them and is not all that relatable.
Orlando is on record saying that “JLA is all about characters coming together to rebuild themselves” and while readers get a taste of that in the reintroduction of Happy Harbor and the use of Killer Frost this book is a start. Readers will have to pick up issue one to see if the sizzle reel of panels in the back pays off and to see if the rebuilding continues.
Verdict, give it a look. The Art is gorgeous, the writing is generally good and the overall issue is alright regardless of its some what paint by numbers zero issue feeling. With the team being so different there is bound to be new and interesting adventures around the corner.
