Justice League #40 Justice Lost Part 2
Christopher Priest continues his run on the Justice League, pitting the main team again Batman's Justice League of America while unable to find common ground to work together. As the populus becomes more adverse towards either League, both teams must find a way to work together and stop the destructive descent of The Watchtower.
Much of the issue takes place within The Watchtower as their systems have been compromised by new villains, The Fans, continuing their attempts to “help” the main League by removing the Justice League of America from the equation, permanently.
Aside from a small fight with one of The Fans and Aquaman, a large part of this issue is spent on both Leagues attempts to stop The Watchtower on it's descent towards Earth. As No Justice inches closer to it's release, the disintegration has slowly taken over the League as they both decay from within
Pete Woods makes his return to the title on pencils, allowing Priest to flesh out the story, fitting smaller panels in each page. While this technique helps to add to the overall story, the pencils are left by the wayside as detail is thrown out for these smaller panels. Luckily the issue is mostly exposition and dialogue, affording Woods the ability to draw the magnifying glass back and cover the whole of the teams.
Chris Sotomayor's colors are by far the best part of this issue. With a larger cast to work with, each of Sotomayor’s pages come to life displaying all the diverse cast in bright colors. The scenes in space aboard The Watchtower allow Sotomayor his metaphorical “guitar solo" as he displays the stars and Earth in all is colorful glory. His ability to make even subtle scenes stick out are graciously welcomed.
Priest’s long form storytelling drags in this issue as it seems to just spin its wheels, accomplishing very little in the process. While both of the teams manage to finally work together right at the very end, this particular issue leaves a lot to be desired. Being only the second part to this story, more has yet to happen although leaving this issue slightly lacking. This issue lacked importance and felt unnecessarily stretched out. However, Priest's run thus far has been a fresh take on The Justice League and still seems very promising with this new story leading into No Justice within the coming weeks.
