Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year One - Cheap Thoughts

Injustice: Gods Among Us was a video game released in 2013, based around an alternate DC universe where Superman became a totalitarian leader of the world, long story short it was a great story with good gameplay behind it and was a lot of fun...but that's not the product we're talking about today. The game also had a tie-in comic building up to the videogame that despite the game being two years old, the comic is still being released on a regular basis and is going strong. The story behind why Superman becomes a dark and ruthless leader all starts with the Joker tricking him into killing Lois, their unborn baby and all 11 million people in Metropolis. This causes Superman to snap, kill the Joker and now we have Superman slowly being corrupted into becoming darker and creating his own dictatorship. Now for this review i've chosen to talk about the first two trades of the series that sum up the first of five years worth of stories. As i'm writing this i've only read the first three years and the fourth one is currently being released, but the reason why i'm only talking about the first year is because it's the one with the most story and character development, and is my personal favourite. I can honestly say that Injustice: Gods Among Us is the best comic book being published by DC currently.

What makes these comics so great is the analysis of it's characters, their morals, their roles and their relationships. Superman has always been the symbol for hope, he never kills and will always do the right thing, i've said before that one of Superman's many goals is to be seen as a human, and his relationship with Lois Lane is what made him more human than anything, with her death, by his hands no less, he loses his humanity, he becomes cold and unforgiving. What makes it work so well is that the transition doesn't happen instantly, he kills the Joker but that doesn't instantly mean he's going to kill all his problems and anyone who disagrees with him is instantly his enemy, but now he's not afraid to use that as an option, he will kill if he deems it necessary. More than that, he lost his reasoning to why he fights to save humanity, he did it because he believed they could be better, they deserved the chance to live and he was their beacon of hope so they could better themselves. Now he's much more controlling, instead of inspiring them to be better, he demands it and enforces his ways on them. All while still maintaining he is the hero that the world needs and he is the same person he is before.

This leads to the next great thing about this comic, the conversations. Usually characters just sat around talking about the difference between right and wrong can be incredibly boring, but here there are legitimate points to be made on both sides and a lot is at stake. Superman and Flash have a conversation about getting rid of all guns in the world and Flash points out not only how implausible an idea that is, but that it's impossible to make the world completely safe. Superman and Batman also have a great conversation where he tries to justify his killing of Joker, Superman argues that if Batman had done it sooner then literally millions of people would still be alive right now, that is a good point. While Batman states that if you can justify one death, then you can justify two, then three, then four, and so on, and so on. That's what makes these arguments so great, they both have legitimate reasons why they believe what they believe and neither is technically in the wrong, Superman has made the world safer, but he's also taken away their freedom and replaced it with fear.

Then there are all the other characters reactions to Superman's new regime. Most of the heroes are on Superman's side of course, mostly because they're still blinded by who Superman was and find it impossible to believe what he's doing is wrong because...well he's Superman, he's the embodiment of everything good. That is of course except for Flash, the heart of the Justice League and more than anyone else, the one who wants to do nothing but good, he above all else is conflicted on what is right and what is wrong. He doesn't want to believe Superman can be corrupted, but he's smart enough to understand that he's different. Despite it being in an alternate universe, the fact that all the characters still behave the way they would in the main universe is what makes the story so effective, everyone's opinions match what it would be in the main continuity, (minus Wonder Woman who is more aggressive in this version, but no major differences) and every action and plot point is shocking yet realistic.

There's also a great section of the book focusing on a boy named James, just an average kid that was saved from a biking accident by Superman a few years ago, no life threatening issue, just a kid about to fall off his bike. It shows one of the great things about Superman, that no issue is too small and all he wants is to help people in anyway possible, it also humanises the citizens of the Earth, showing what he meant to them personally and contrast that with how they've lost faith in him now. It's a small moment but incredibly effective and is one of the major highlights from this book. Another small thing is the unlikely friendship between Harley Quinn and Green Arrow, he keeps her hidden away from Superman for her own protection and the banter between the two is hilarious. "What do you have a boxing glove on your arrow for?" "incase I wanna punch something really far away" "I can relate". It's a unique relationship that I haven't seen before and would have liked to have seen more of, also the scenes between Harley and Lobo were also entertaining.

But then we get to the best moment in this comic and what may be the greatest panel in comic book history...Alfred headbutting Superman! After developing a special pill that gives people a portion of Superman's strength (A plot point introduced in the game), Alfred takes one after Superman just fought Batman and straight up headbutts him in the face. Not only is it funny as hell, but shows why Alfred is the coolest character ever, not only is he incredibly sassy yet charmingly polite and efficient at his job, but he has the gonads to headbutt Superman in the face! Damn I didn't think I could love Alfred more than I do already.

As for the artwork, it's great for the most part, there's a lot of dynamic shots and badass fight sequences, my only real issue is sometimes the facial expressions can be quite strange, but that's only on the odd occasion. But with that being said, i'm not exactly an expert on analysing artwork, story & character is where I have more experience in, so when I say I like the artwork here, that's coming at it from a more amateur view point. As for any other problems I have, I will say certain character deaths (which i will not spoil) i feel are unjust. For anyone who played the videogame, you knew these deaths were coming, but i don't think they all work. One character gets their neck broken accidentally, but i feel they would have been agile enough to not die such a clumsy death, though the emotions around the death are effective. Another has the character trying to reason with Superman and then a split second later decide to try and kill Wonder Woman so of course Superman vapourises them. The only one that works is the final death, a character who was so good hearted and pure that even Superman can't justify their death, showing how far he's fallen and leaving a hole in the world.

Overall, this comic was phenomenal from beginning to end, every character is written very well, the story was executed perfectly, the action and dialogue is excellent, the artwork is good and there are multiple stand out moments. The story remains strong in years two and three and maybe i'll get round to reviewing them one day, but as for now, Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year One is one of the best DC comics i've ever read. 10/10.

-Danny