Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #2 [of 7]
Scheduled to arrive in stores: November 21, 2023
Cover date: January 2024
“Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong”
Writer: Brian Buccellato
Artist: Christian Duce
Cover: Drew Johnson
Variant Cover: Jim Lee and Scott Williams
Connecting Variant Cover: David Nakayama
1:25 Variant Cover: Fancesco Mattina
1:50 Variant Cover: Dustin Nguyen
Reviewed by: JP Rocha
Issue two starts up where the first issue left off, with Superman confronting Godzilla. Picking himself off the floor inside of a nearby skyscraper, Superman discovers the hard way that Godzilla is strong. The Flash and the rest of the Justice League are already mobilizing to protect civilians and support Superman. Before Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Green Arrow, and Green Lantern can reach Superman, they are contacted by Cyborg who provides a heads up. It seems that Godzilla is not the only threat.
There are three other monsters, a giant crablike creature in Central City, a giant bat creature in Gotham, and a giant wooly mammoth creature in Themyscira. The heroes split up to confront the four threats. Hawkgirl is joining Superman in Metropolis. The Flash, Green Lantern, and Supergirl are going to Central City. Batman and Robin are already on their way in Gotham and are joined by Nightwing, Batgirl, Batwoman, Red Hood, Cyborg, and Black Canary. Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, and Wonder Girl (Cassie) are going to Themyscira. On their way, Wonder Woman and Green Arrow find an island that is not supposed to be there and Green Arrow stays to investigate.
With the heroes mobilizing, it is time to check in on the Legion of Doom. Toyman seems to have wished the members back to the main earth and they find themselves split up across the world. Cheetah and Black Manta are in the Arctic base. Captain Cold and Grodd are in Central City. Giganta is in Metropolis, Toyman is missing, and Lex Luthor finds himself in Lexcorp tower.
Cutting back to the four threats, the heroes are already engaging with the monsters. The Gotham team find a weakness, and minus Red Hood, work together to execute a plan to disable the giant bat. Meanwhile in Metropolis, the team is buying time for the city to evacuate, but Godzilla seems to be more than Superman and Hawkgirl can handle. Godzilla swats Hawkgirl away like a fly, but lucky for her, Shazam shows up in time to help. Superman then gets into a test of strength battle; heat vision versus atomic breath. Billy, trying to help, yells “Shazam” to call down the lighting of Zeus, but that of course renders him powerless. Superman is forced to help Billy, but this leaves him open to a Godzilla attack.
Story – 4: Overall issue two is another strong installment. While parts of the issue are a little formulaic, the cliffhanger ending makes it good. Serving as part two of act one Buccellato is setting up the initial problem and how the heroes plan on addressing it. We are made aware of four monsters spread throughout the DC world and the heroes are divided accordingly. What we do not know is, where Kong is or if there are more monsters out there.
Art – 4: Christian Duce’s monsters look great and his heroes look good too, but the faces of the characters change from panel to panel. Regardless, everything else about the art and storytelling pushes this issue’s art to a good rating.
Cover Art – 3: The main cover is again Drew Johnson. I have some similar issues as with his issue one cover, specifically relating to scale. Johnson makes a sacrifice by panning the image in tight in favor of showing off the size of Godzilla and the strength of Superman. With that said the cover image is still appealing. There are four variant covers including a hyperrealistic one by Fancesco Mattina, which beside the red eyed Superman, is excellent. The Dustin Nguyen cover and the connecting covers by David Nakayama are good. Nakayama’s covers have a well rendered Godzilla and Kong.
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