Justice League Of America’s Vibe #4 Review

Gypsy and Vibe finally meet.

Vibe #4

Sterling Gates’ second issue on the title is a more accomplished work. However it is just a mildly entertaining read. The new art team of Manuel Garcia and Fabiano Neves don’t exactly impress either.

This is an issue that seems to be geared towards clearing the current plot so that Gates can tell his own tale. It is nice to see the book move at a fast pace and it has moments of decent characterisation. Agent Gunn is humanized due to the first page, which allows the reader to realise he isn’t just an evil agent. Gypsy gets a lot of time here and her scenes at the street market is a great way of showing what she is about without an exposition dump. But this is Vibe’s title and Gates does attempt to flesh Cisco out a little more. However Gates isn’t as successful at presenting an interesting central protagonist as the previous writing team and Cisco comes off as a second fiddle in his own title.

The plot itself isn’t really a surprising read as the title had already telegraphed this outcome. It is a nice direction for the title to take and having the Suicide Squad pop up at the end is a solid cliff-hanger. However the A.R.G.U.S element is still problematic due to the fact that they are just a villainous organisation with no depth. Granted Gunn has a little depth to him and a change in conscious, but it isn’t enough to sell them as an antagonistic force.

On a side note the inclusion of Batman is a great piece of misdirection by Gates. The title gets to have Batman on the front cover, but doesn’t have to sacrifice its story for a guest appearance.

Manuel Garcia and Fabiano Neves’ art isn’t exactly eye catching. They get the job done, but the book is visually uninspired. The art isn’t very detailed and a lot of the work seems rushed. However it is clear and does a good job at telling the story. But this is an example of functional art, which doesn’t really help the title out.

Although this issue is better than last months, it still suffers from being a little too simple. It has some fun moments and on the whole entertains, but it is a throwaway read. The art doesn’t help due to its pedestrian presentation. There is nothing inherently wrong with this issue other than it being a middle of the road read.