There is perhaps no better superhero team book than the Justice League, though that claim comes with a caveat.  While Marvel has the more approachable street level characters, DC is often said to have the characters that better resemble gods.  When it counts, for the biggest of the big events, DC tends to do them best, and with its premier superhero team, and mostly because that is how they are best employed, dealing with the big threats by throwing down fights with superpowered characters that are often considered to be overpowered.  While there were some drawbacks in the first issue of this series, that is pretty much what it did, taking a decent threat in the Parasite and throwing the League against him.

This second issue though is quite different.  After the events of the last issue, three of the seven members are missing, and without them the focus rests on those that remain.  More so this issue focuses on Rao, the Kryptonian sun god who has come to Earth.  The resulting story is broken more or less into three segments.  The first focuses on Batman and Cyborg trying to figure out what is up with the Infinity Corporation which was first seen in the first issue.  The second deals with Aquaman dealing with representatives of Rao who seem to want to proselytize his people, and the third focuses on the relationship between Superman and Rao as he ascertains why the sun god has returned to Earth.  The focus on Rao’s near omnipotence is the theme of this issue though even when other things are going on in the background.

While the first issue worked well enough in the classic Justice League framework, this second issue seems to have lost its focus.  The appearance of Rao will obviously play into the bigger story in the series, but at the moment it is pretty confusing after the new story points introduced in the first issue.  Although the feeling of grandeur is still here, it also kind of feels like the focus is lost as characters have gone their separate ways.  It is only with the reappearance of Wonder Woman later in the issue that there is a better sense once again of the grandeur, and of the supposed threat posed by Rao.  As it stands it is not the best entry for the second issue of this series which left readers a little puzzled to begin with, but it is probably at least enough to keep the readers interest until the next issue when hopefully some answers and some better direction are present.

Story: Bryan Hitch Art: Daniel Henriques, Andrew Currie and Bryan Hitch
Story: 7.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.5 Recommendation: Read