We’ve already got to talk about Injustice on the occasion of the Italian release of the animated film inspired by him: not just a elseworld in the broadest sense of the term but also a very clear example of transmedia and cross-media that is bringing a lot of luck to DC. In fact, no one would have thought that a tie-in comic of a video game, fighting game, a genre that often does not shine for plot, focusing instead more on the action, would have been so successful, earning the favor of critics and audiences. Panini DC Italy then begins his revival of the series from Injustice: Year Zero that is an unpublished volume, originally released in the United States as a series digital first, which serves as a prequel to the main saga and writer ever since Tom Taylor (former signature of the main saga and currently one of DC’s leading writers) with pencils by Roge Antonio And Cian Tormey.
Injustice: Year Zero, the principle of evil made flesh
The annual meeting between the Justice League and the Justice Society is the best opportunity for the heroes to relax and discuss the present and especially the future. On the one hand, the heroes of the JSA represent an important historical memory and on the other they are testimony to a legacy perpetrated by the Justice League. Batman and Superman reflect on this: the first is doubtful of the example he is leaving to her protégés, the second confesses that he is afraid of not doing enough and that talking about children with Lois can make her unhappy.
At the same time, Andre Charvard is denied parole in Blackgate Penitentiary. Old and sick, the inmate just wishes he could meet his grandson. Willing to do anything, Charvard launches an offer to anyone who manages to get him out of the way: “power” in exchange for freedom. Thus a series of events are triggered that immediately escape his control because it is even the Joker who responds to his offer. Charvard is then forced to keep his side of the bargain by revealing to the Clown Prince of Crime the location of a very powerful artifact that has been hidden for over 50 years.
It is an amulet, found at the time of the Second World War, by Carter and Shiera Hall. An artifact so powerful that it influenced the battles on the North African front and required the intervention of the Justice Society. While we discover the origins of Charvard, Joker takes possession of the amulet and immediately learns how it works: he is able to give control to every human being and the first to fall victim to this power is Green Lantern (Alan Scott) the one who had materially hidden the object decades earlier.
Including the power of the amulet and accessing the hero’s memories, Joker hatches a plan to indirectly but brutally strike Batman. The Clown Prince of Crime then begins to wreak havoc, death and destruction in the ranks of the JSA and the Justice League until, engulfed by the power of the artifact, he tries to take possession of Superman.
Injustice: Year Zero, prelude to madness
Tom Taylor he takes the word “prelude” literally and realizes with Injustice: Year Zero what, at first reading, is “a dress rehearsal” for the plan that will lead Joker to manipulate Superman, causing then the domino of events he cleverly orchestrated between the comic series and the two videogame chapters. The plot therefore does not differ much from the plot of the so-called Year One of comic stories (which Panini DC Italia should start reproposing very soon in volume) however it is Australian writer is too shrewd to pack a “school” job e draws heavily from the rich DC mythology and specifically from tradition of great events.
Injustice: Year Zero indeed for incipit and construction it pays duty at the great annual meetings between the Justice League and the Justice Society of the pre-Crisis era (the so-called Crisis on Multiple Earths). The two groups meet, at the same time an enemy designs a plan that inevitably forces the two groups to collaborate. Using this classic structure how they fly, Taylor it then gives further depth to the universe of Injustice showing such familiar interactions between the characters (see the two Flashes) so capable of gaining their own autonomy (the Black Canary-Green Arrow-Black Canary triangle) while old and new characters find an unexpected location such as Amazing Man, Alan Scott himself or again Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy in mini “secondary” narrative arcs that are resolved either at the end of the volume or remain open acting as a link for the stories to come. In this sense it is brilliant the prodromal conclusion of Superman’s fall but at the same time capable of reabsorbing the very absence of the JSA from the main continuity of Injustice.
In this sense the rhythm of Injustice: Year Zero it’s all played on his own adventurous premises, extremely Silver Age, that recall the Second World War and the legendary exploits of the JSA which come in stark contrast to the progressive brutality of the Joker attacks and with their decidedly “modern” character that culminate in the excellent final confrontation at the center of which the pivotal questions of this whole alternative universe forcefully return: how far do you have to go to corrupt Superman? and how far can heroes go to be considered heroes?
Definitely Injustice: Year Zero it is therefore a must-read for fans of Injustice but also pleasant for all DC readers who will find here some atmospheres of other events of the “recent” past such as Vices and virtues or The Day of Judgment.
The graphic sector divided between is very good Roge Antonio And Cian Tormey. The two designers have one similar edgy and snappy style, with very thick and voluminous inks and blacks that bring anatomies closer to certain character design used by Warner Bros. Animation in some of the latest animated films. However, the substantial difference between the two concerns a greater stylization of the first compared to the second which, however, replies with a greater overall dynamism of the table. It is interesting to note two other points of contact in the work of the two designers: the particular attention to the marked expressiveness of the characters And the construction of the table. There coordinated which is mainly developed is that landscape which makes action scenes extremely cinematic and is often declined with an intelligent use of inserts or large half-page overlapped panels.
The volume
Panini DC Italy presents Injustice: Year Zero in a hardcover volume of large format dimensions 18.3 × 27.7 cm. The binding is solid and the trimming of the pages allows an agile reading that does not cause rash opening of the volume itself, the chosen paper is thick and coated with an excellent yield especially in balancing blacks and colors. From an editorial and editorial point of view, the care is good. The translation perhaps presents some passages that could have been better filed (in the very first pages there is a “come in” decidedly colloquial) but nothing that tarnishes the reading too much.
There is one short introduction signed by the Italian supervisor which rightfully focuses more on introducing the universe of Injustice that the volume in itself thus avoiding giving too many previews to those who may not have read the comic series yet but only know the narrative premises of the universe itself. At the end of the volume there are some original covers and some preliminary sketches.
