Review: ‘DC All In Special’ Is One Hell Of Kick-Off
by Tony Thornley
The DC Universe is just recovering from yet another crisis. It looks like things are looking up … but the DC All-In Special may show us there’s as much darkness as light in the future.
Joshua Williamson, Scott Snyder, Daniel Sampere, Dan Mora, Wes Craig, Mike Spicer, Alejandro Sanchez, Tamra Bonvillain, and Steve Wands show us the future of the DC Universe.
The Justice League stands reborn as the Justice League Unlimited, with practically every hero on the planet joining up. As Booster Gold watches future history unfold around him, he accepts membership whole-heartedly. But when Darkseid arrives on the Watchtower, more powerful than ever before, Booster is about to face the horrifying new future of the universe.
This extra-sized special is kind of interesting in structure. In one half (the first half for anyone who purchased it digitally), we get an extremely standard superhero story. It’s got all the tropes of the cliched “putting the team together” story that any superhero fan has seen a dozen times. It’s executed well, especially the emphasis Williamson and Snyder puts on Booster, and Sampere and Sanchez’s art is really good, if a bit house style. It’s a strong but ultimately standard Justice League story, slightly above average.
Then Darkseid shows up, the action gets brutal (Sampere and Sanchez totally step up their game in the fight), and that goes out the window. From the fight until the reveal of the issue ending two page spread, it’s much more engaging. A huge part of that is Booster’s narration, in which the time traveler is panicking about the changes to the timeline he just witnessed, and volunteers to go on an extremely dangerous mission, which naturally goes wrong, ending with Mora and Bonvillain’s stunning final two page spread.
Then you flip the book, and this is much more engaging. It’s the story of how Darkseid became the new incarnation seen in the opening story. (Honestly, I know it’s a flip book in print, but I would highly recommend reading it as presented in digital: JLU then Darkseid.)
The Darkseid story is brutal through and through. Snyder and Williamson’s narration evokes Jack Kirby and Morrison, and the plot sends the ultimate evil on one of the most fascinating quests a DC character has been through. Craig’s art dives into the world created by Kirby, making the pages explode with cosmic grandeur, and Spicer makes it drip with atmosphere. It’s a stunning story that complements the other side of the flipbook, but also stands on its own as a character study of the greatest villain in comics.
DC All In Special is available now from DC Comics.
Overview
This is such a unique way of kicking off a new era. I liked it quite a bit and excited to see what happens next.
