Great artwork and storytelling in equal measure.
This is almost a completely different team to the last JLD I read but I really enjoyed the dynamics here and the introduction of some characters I wasn't overly familiar with. As much as I loved the previous JLD I read, it was very Constantine heavy and felt less like a team book than this one.
The main storyline is quite complex and convoluted and I may need a refresh before reading the next volume, but since rereading this won't be a hardship I don't mind.
The only problem I had was that The Witching Hour takes place off page in between two issues and not having read that I was somewhat lost. Maybe a one page summary of the events would have helped. ( )

Justice League Dark: Volume One
The Last Age of Magic

NOTE: Not really Volume One. Volume One of Justice League Dark was in the New 52 era of DC Comics. Ridiculous that they aren’t keeping better track of this crap.

Author:James Tynion IV (Author), Alvaro Martinez (Illustrator)
Publisher: DC Comics
Publishing Date: 2019
Pgs: 160
Dewey: 741.5973 JUS v.1
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
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REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
The Otherkind an the Upside Down Man are coming. They are going to eat the world of magic...and all the magic users they want. And when they’ve had their fill, they may eat the rest of the universe, starting with Earth. Magic isn’t just dying. It’s being devoured, one sorcerer at a time. Wonder Woman’s new Justice League Dark is on the case, provided they don’t get eaten along the way.
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Genre:
DC Comics
Graphic Novels
Superhero
Comics

Why this book:
Why not.
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The Feel:
Feels like a zombie apocalypse without zombies.

Favorite Character:
Detective Chimp. ...and...the chimp drinks.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
Zatanna seems OOC here. But I guess, how would you act/react to your entire life, a foundational precept of who you are and your reality stopping working.

Favorite Scene / Quote/Concept:
The Themysciran Hecate witch dance ritual is a great visual.

The chimp drinks sequence and the Nightmaster’s funeral is a very well done character piece.

Paragraph/Line of the Year Nominee:
“There is great power in a secret. For it is not the known that shapes the world, but, rather the unknown and the fear of it.”

Hmm Moments:
So...Khalid is dead...not dead...trapped in a mystical jar. Wonder if all Fate’s other former hosts are dead too. Nabu has always been an SOB. He’s totally capable of this. He’s the most in-character of all those appearing in this book.

WTF Moments:
In a book where Lovecraftian, John Carpenter’s The Thing and other stuff drip from the pages, the Upside Down Man is messed up.

Meh / PFFT Moments:
The Powers That Be at DC Comics have changed the pecking order of magic so much that it’s hard to keep track of the hierarchy of mystical beings in the DCU.

Juxtaposition:
I like the jux of the voice of reason being presented through the twisted psyche of the Man-Bat.
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Pacing:
Well paced.

Questions I’m Left With:
If the Otherkind and the Upside Down Man remove the devils and demons of the DC Universe, and nature abhors a vacuum, imagine how supernature feels about one? Could be the launching point of a new devil and hierarchy of supernatural evil in DC Comics. Nice.

Author Assessment:
I like that. Will definitely read volume two.
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Magic is broken? Wonder Woman is trying to fix it and trying to get others like Swamp Thing, Bobo aka Detective Chimp, and Zatanna to help out too, but, they're not being very receptive.

Eventually they do come together (it would be a boring book if they didn't) and because this is Justice League Dark they sorta kinda almost win? Sorta?

Then there's another story where we find that Bobo has screwed up another dimension quite spectacularly.

And finally we're back to the Otherkind trying to destroy our world and quite the cliffhanger.

There was only some John Constantine, so that was awesome. I really liked the Traci character too. And there was plenty of Zatanna and Wonder Woman. Overall a horrific mind bending TPB.

I received this book via Netgalley thanks to DC Entertainment. ( )