No lengthy summation or plot summary at the start of THIS review, kids! All exposition is completely unnecessary. True, this new Justice League is born of the events of Dark Nights: Metal and Justice League: No Justice. Yet the uninitiated can jump into the story so far with this issue and be brought up to speed on recent events as quickly as if Barry Allen on a triple-espresso bender were lecturing upon Recent DC Comics History 101.

Here is all you need to know: The World’s Finest heroes are back.

Comparison has been made to the classic Justice League and Justice League Unlimited animated series, with the team’s roster now including Green Lantern John Stewart, the Martian Manhunter J’onn J’onzz and Hawkgirl Kendra Saunders. It’s a fair analogy, but were I to liken this book to anything I would compare it to Grant Morrison’s legendary run on JLA from 20 years ago. Why? Because what Scott Snyder has wrought here is born of the same spirit.

Call it Superfriends for adults or an adrenaline-fueled action movie on paper. What this new Justice League comic is ultimately about is the most powerful heroes on Earth (and beyond) joining forces to deal with absolutely ludicrous, wrath-of-the-gods, extinction-level events. It’s the end of the world as we know it, every month, and we feel fine!

This is why I don’t need to go into any detail describing this book beyond that point. What more needs to be said in the face of that concept?!

Quite a bit, as it turns out.

(Click on the above images to open the full image in another window.)Snyder goes beyond the high concept of a Justice League comic as a disaster movie and adds a level of humor and ethos to the whole thing that adds an entirely new level to the proceedings. Snyder’s heroes are friends as well as co-workers and they joke while on the job, with the opening sequence featuring an argument as to who does the best impression of Batman. Until this book, I had no idea that we needed the image of Wonder Woman growling “I am the BLEEPED Wonder Woman!” to make this world complete.

That is the other reason why I’m not wasting any time describing the plot or the contents of this issue. You have to experience these moments for yourself. Describing them would do you little good without a page to show you why things are so amazing.

On that note, the quality of the artwork in the above pages should be apparent. Jim Cheung does a fantastic job depicting the action of Snyder’s script and Mark Morales perfectly defines Cheung’s pencils with his inks. The colors by Tomeu Morey are perfectly chosen throughout and letterer Tom Napolitano does what he can to keep Snyder’s dialogue from obscuring the artwork.

Bottom Line: This is Justice League and superhero comics the way they should be done.