This is it: the final year of Injustice: Gods Among Us, leading into the storyline of the hit videogame! Having defeated the Green Lantern Corps, the forces of magic, and now the gods themselves, the Regime seems to have eliminated all threats. Yet uneasy lies the crown on the head of Emperor Superman. Still obsessed with the outlaw Batman and worried about having enough troops to police his world, The Man of Steel begins to recruit some of Earth’s deadliest villains to his side. Does the Dark Knight have any chance of ending the Man of Steel’s rule?

I played the game when it first came out, and vaguely know the general story, but I came in to Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Five #1 without really knowing what happened in the previous four years, just the basics of the first.

Writer Brian Buccellato has done a decent job of making it so you don’t need to know much going in. Batman is on one side, Superman is a fascist and on the other. That’s basically it, and the story works well as an Elseworlds type tale mixed with the depth of video game narrative. We’re not talking deep things here, but there’s lots of punching as if you can picture the players off page mashing buttons. And, the comic is split in a way with the first half playing catch up for new readers and the latter half getting to the punching.

That latter half has some entertainment to it thanks to the art by Mike S. Miller and Iban Coello. Compared to the video game (from what I remember) the comic doesn’t quite hold up, but the style is decent and I especially like the design of the various costumes, Superman’s especially. There’s a decent mix of quiet moments and action, but there’s some minor quibbles here and there for me. It’s passable art, not great, and as the series is originally a digital one, maybe it works better there.

Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Five #1 is a fun, though not deep, first issue that’s worthy picking up if you want to see Batman versus Superman where anything can happen. I wasn’t expecting much depth going in, and it doesn’t try to sell itself as. As far as a video game to comic adaptation, it’s actually good, and the first issue has me wanting to see what comes next at least, if nothing else to just see this take on these characters.

Story: Brian Buccellato Art: Mike S. Miller, Iban Coello
Story: 6.8 Art: 6.8 Overall: 6.8 Recommendation: Read

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review