It's well written by Geoff Johns, the art is quite good (with Tony Daniels doing his best to channel Jim Lee), it's loaded with some of DC's greatest characters - but it all feels... disconnected, somehow.
And perhaps that's the problem - even with Superman facing death, even with The Cheetah running wild and cutting chunks out of The Flash - it never feels like there's any real danger.
I get that the idea is to convey that this team is very formidable - but aside from the "romance" between Superman and Wonder Woman (which feels artificial, since it doesn't show up in either character's own titles), there's no emotional connection between the characters. You even get the sense that they don't much like each other.
You have to have conflict to spice up a team comic - but there needs to be some camaraderie, as well.
The Shazam backup story is also an odd beast, with great art by Gary Frank, but the story by Johns is grim and gritty - more horror than heroics. It seems an odd fit for that character, even if he's no longer named Captain Marvel.
The main problem is (hopefully) just that the creative teams are setting up story lines to come - but sometimes, as a reader, it's tough to be patient waiting for these things to pay off.
Grade: B
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