Art By: Doug Mahnke
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 3, 2014
Powering Down
Last time in Justice League, we watched as the new Doom Patrol took on Jessica Cruz and the entity that controlled her "Power Ring". At first I was so happy to see this team in the New 52 kicking ass and taking names, but as I read further I was horrified to find that this version of Chief is reminiscent to Grant Morrison's where he's just a big bag of dicks. So much for my joy. Eventually in the issue, the Justice League showed up and now it looks like both teams will be fighting to see who takes down Power Ring. But I don't think it will be as easy as they intend it to be, because this girl is no pushover. Let's check it out.
Explain It!:
The issue begins where last month's left off with Chief being subdued by Lex Luthor. By the information that Lex provides it seems that Chief is an even bigger bag of dicks than I thought. It turns out that one of Chief's greatest achievements is when he cured a town of a mysterious virus, but Lex has apparently found out that Chief was the creator of the virus, so......... not such a good guy. Chief also accuses Lex of setting that up so it's really neither here nor there........ You know what they are both pretty much dicks so choose your lesser of two evils here.
As the two banter about who's more of a genius, Jessica Cruz comes to and the Power Ring starts working it's mojo to get her afraid again until eventually a giant explosion of green light emits from her and as we pan back we see a caption that tells us that The Anti-Monitor has seen this beacon and it's time to consume this world as well. The DC Universe is lousy with bad news.
Okay now it's time to take down Jessica Cruz and Lex tells Batman to get the Justice League to keep The Doom Patrol off him as he tries to disrupt the emotional connection to the ring. Apparently that means he's going to shock the shit out of her until she's unconscious, but Chief is back and he has his own plan on how to retrieve the ring and that one involves brain surgery, so again choose your lesser of two evils. As the two battle it out again, Batman enters the frame and simply talks Jessica Cruz down by telling her not to be afraid and as crazy as it sounds, it works. So yeah just to get this through to you, Batman says a few sentences to Jessica and the danger is over. I know he's Batman and all, but what the hell? No way it can be that simple. Shenanigans. So after the ring is powered down due to Jessica's new "No Fear" mantra, Batman tells Lex that the Justice League was keeping the Doom Patrol busy so that he could take down Power Ring and that Lex wasn't needed, or wanted.
In the end Jessica is taken to the Watch Tower for observation and Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman discuss what they're going to due about Lex. As it turns out they're going to let him join the Justice League as a way to keep an eye on him and get information from LexCorp. The issue closes with Superman shaking Luthor's hand and welcoming him into the League, which is weird for me because every other title where we see Luthor in the League, it appears like Superman isn't there. Maybe Superman will leave later when he's had enough of Luthor's shit, I don't know.
That's it for this issue of Justice League and while it should of been some epic storytelling, it really just felt flat and only gave us information about The Doom Patrol belonging to ARGUS and that Chief is a dick. Make sure you're here next time as we continue the journey of the Justice League and begin preparing for the arrival of The Anti-Monitor.
Bits and Pieces:
I started this issue out all hyped to see the fate of Jessica Cruz and The New Doom Patrol, but by the end it just felt like a way to tell Luthor to suck it. Not much going on here, even though it finishes up the current plot line and gives us a new dimension to the Justice League stories. Mahnke's art this month didn't seem up to par with what he's been giving us and on top of the flat story, it just led to an uninteresting issue.
6.8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment