If you know me, you know that there are few pieces of media that I love more than Rooster Teeth’s RWBY and DC Comics. So when I found out last year that there was going to be a crossover comic where versions of Justice League members teamed up with Team RWBY, I was ecstatic.
Once I ended up reading the comic though, my opinion ended up being mixed at best.
The Good
We’ll start with the things I liked about the comic.
For once, I really liked the basic concept. I love getting to see characters from different franchises I like interact, and the idea of Team RWBY working with people like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman is awesome.
And, even cooler, the members of the Justice League were made to be versions of them in the universe of RWBY. It’s a small thing, but shaping the members of the Justice League to be from Remnant allows for some great new designs in line with the show’s fashions, as well as some inventive spins on the DC characters.
Take how they made some members of the Justice League Faunus. For those of you who might not be acquainted with the lore of RWBY, Faunus are a humanoid species that are easily identifiable by their sharing some physical traits with animals.
Batman being a bat Faunus with bat ears was a fantastic choice, and same for Aquaman being a fish Faunus with fins. The Flash being a tortoise Faunus is also a great choice— you’ve got the irony of a speedster having the scales of a slow animal, but you also have the reference to the Tortoise and the Hare fable.
Even for the non-Faunus League members, I think the designs were all fantastic. Jessica Cruz’s design in particular is gorgeous, and I like it more than a lot of her mainline comics looks.
Outside of design choices, I think the choice in villain for this comic was great. It allowed for some fun ideas, and I’m always a fan of the more colorful DC villains getting a chance to shine. Plus, since he was the first villain to fight the original Justice League, it makes sense that he’d be the big threat leading to their formation in this universe too.
The story’s enjoyable as well, with them bringing in each of the Justice League members one by way through their interactions with Team RWBY. It’s limited by its nature as a seven issue series, but it makes the most of what time it has to tell a fun story.
The Bad
The major gripe I had with this series was that the writing for a lot of the RWBY characters felt off to me. This is especially strange considering that the writer of this series, Marguerite Bennett, wrote the RWBY comics DC released a couple of years ago too. I don’t remember characters feeling off there, but maybe it’s something I forgot in the time since I read that run.
A lot of the time, it felt like there was a surface level understanding of RWBY and its characters, but not the kind of knowledge that comes from having watched the show. This means that character voices sometimes felt off, with them saying things that didn’t seem like something they’d say in character.
There are also some details that felt highly out of character. These next two paragraphs are gonna be talking about some spoilers for the comics, so scroll on past them if you haven’t read them yet.
In issue 5, Jessica shows the rest of the group that the disappearances of people with powerful Semblances the group have been investigating have been because of Starro, with him basically possessing these people to take over the planet. He’s also used some of these people to get control of some new, advanced technologies. Jessica shows how one of Starro’s possessed subjects– none other than Atlas’ leader, General Ironwood– made a deal with a business man for some of these technologies. Weiss, however, assumes that Ironwood’s an alien invader.
Considering that Weiss is from Atlas, Ironwood has canonly been to her family’s house several times, and her older sister is practically his right hand woman, her of all characters not recognizing him makes no sense. I could see any of the other characters, like Ruby or Yang, not knowing who he is because they aren’t from Atlas, so it’s not like there was any reason why Weiss specifically had to be the one given this line. That the one character who would without question recognize Ironwood indicates the problem to me.
Basically, it just seems like there’s a cursory knowledge of the world and cast of RWBY. Almost like the wiki was read, but that was about the most of it.
Maybe I’m just being overly strict, though. I’ve been a major fan of RWBY practically since the show’s beginning, and I’ve engaged a lot with the fandom over the years. Still, this did take me out of the story from time to time, making it harder for me to enjoy the content I was presented with. If you’re a hardcore RWBY fan like I am, you may have a similar experience.
Conclusions
Despite how this comic left me personally wanting, I still do like it. It’s not perfect, but I could put aside my own issues with some of the characterizations here to enjoy the story for what it is– a fun crossover with a bunch of characters I like fighting against a giant monster. The concept is fun enough to carry it, and the character designs are fantastic.
Plus, while this series might not be all that fulfilling for fans of RWBY, it’s a great opportunity to introduce people who may be less familiar with the series to it. You can get a feel for the world of Remnant, as well as the characters– even if the characters aren’t necessarily completely in line with their portrayals in the show. For comic fans that see the gorgeous covers by Mirka Andolfo and Simone Di Meo featuring some of their favorite DC heroes and decide to pick an issue up, this could be their first taste of what RWBY has to offer.
All in all, I don’t think that this series is necessarily bad. However, if you’re a big fan of both RWBY and DC, this comic may be a little disappointing. The understanding of RWBY’s characters can at times feel very surface level, though the translation of DC’s characters in this new universe is well done and enjoyable.