In order to defeat Anton Arcane, the Justice League Dark must form an uneasy alliance with the current avatars for the Parliaments of Life. Spoilers for Justice League Dark #23 follow.
For the past couple of issues of Justice League Dark, there’s been something of a great re-establishment of Abby Arcane into the DC Universe, all while making the Parliaments of Life relevant again. As a fan of both of these things, it’s been wonderful to see after five years of both basically disappearing from DC Comics canon once DC Rebirth launched. Now, with the conclusion of this latest arc of Justice League Dark, it could’ve been easy for the status quo to reset, but luckily it seems like Abby, and the Parliaments, will be featured heavily moving forward.
While this arc, and this issue, have been about re-establishing the Swamp Thing and Animal Man mythos firmly into the DC Universe once again, this issue itself feels like an issue of Hellblazer. This is John Constantine’s issue and it’s great because of that. Constantine was the one to originally introduce Swamp Thing to the world outside of the Louisiana bayou in any real capacity, so it’s fitting that he’s the character who provides the perspective in this issue.
Because this is Constantine’s issue, it also forces you to question what’s actually the purpose of the things that certain characters are doing. Sometimes, it’s simply unclear as to what’s happening or why, but most of the time, because Constantine is being Constantine, there’s more than meets the, which makes for an enjoyable read. Plus, Constantine’s machinations bring Swamp Thing back from the seeming dead which is great.
Besides Constantine though, Wonder Woman and Abby Arcane have some great individual moments in this issue, as well as Swamp Thing too. They very much shine when given their moments and, because almost this entire issue is told from Constantine’s point-of-view, it helps bring out the best in these moments as well.
As for the art, Kyle Hotz does a phenomenal job with this issue. His ink-heavy style is absolutely perfect for a book like Justice League Dark as it helps set the tone incredibly well. It creates a dark atmosphere that is spot-on for the tone of the series, as well as helps accentuate the horror that this series consistently has in its pages.
Beyond just his inking style though, his penciling style is perfect for this series as well because of the almost unnatural anatomy he uses. It’s very stylized and consistent (which is what truly matters when it comes to anatomy) and it makes every character look almost monstrous, in a good way, to an extent. And then, when it comes to actual monsters, such as Anton Arcane and Swamp Thing, these qualities are accentuated even more so, which is perfect for the series and issue.