Justice League #37 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Geoff Johns
Art By: Jason Fabok, Brad Anderson
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 17, 2014

Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired?

Welcome back everyone as we jump into Metropolis and get sick as hell.  If you aren't in the know about the events that have gone down in this title, our heroes are faced with a pathogen that's spreading throughout the country called The Amazo Virus.  Now this virus was created by Lex Luthor, apparently as a way to suppress a meta human's powers, but now that it's "accidentally out", it looks like the virus has mutated causing meta humans to go into a coma before their body's shut down and in regular folk like you and me, we'd get a superpower for a short time before we'd burn out and die.  So it's pretty bad all over and all we have is Superman and Batman out on the streets looking for Patient Zero and Luthor, Captain Cold and Wonder Woman holding down the fort waiting for a blood sample so Luthor can create a anti-virus and stop this bad day in it's bad day tracks.  When we last left Batman and Superman they seem to have found the Patient Zero, so let's see how that plays out.

Explain It!:

Our story begins with Batman and Superman catching up with Patient Zero and while normally the Amazo Virus will give you a select superpower, this dude is a biological form of the Amazo Android.  What I'm saying is, if he witnesses a superpower his body evolves to give him said power.  So since he saw Superman's eyes glowing and his ability to fly, Patient Zero develops heat vision and grows giant bat wings................  I know he's supposed to grow these to replicate Superman's flight, but I really think he saw Batman's cape and got confused.  So yeah, we start out strong here with Batman and Superman going after Patient Zero and Superman making fun of Batman because he actually called his Hazmat suit, the Haz-Bat suit.......... I really laughed for a long time at that one.

Back at Lexcorp, we see Lex talking to Lena, who has some questions about why he created such a devastating virus.  He gives her his normal spiel and she says she knows that he's lying and we go about our day not really thinking much about it, but later when Captain Cold questions him about the same thing, we begin to get the impression that there's a lot more to this virus being created and getting out than a mere accident.  Listen to what Lex says here when he pins Captain Cold against a wall.  "There are things you don't know.  Things the League doesn't know.  this is far worse than anyone could believe.............. People are afraid"  I don't know what Luthor is getting at here with the last bit about people being afraid, but I'm afraid for what Luthor could be talking about here.  He's certainly got that ominous thing going for him as he keeps the mystery going.

Let's get back to our heroes going after Patient Zero.  Batman and Superman lead the monster back to Lexcorp, where they hope to get him to Luthor so he can start working on the antidote.  That's too easy though, we find out that anyone who's immune to the virus is a potential target for Patient Zero to take out.  It's a good thing that Wonder Woman joins the fight, but even with our trinity's combined power it doesn't seem like they're able to stop the suped up sicky.  That's not even the end of the bad news here.

In the end, we see that whoever put a hit out on Luthor's life before has sent out another hit man named Bullet and it looks like this one is having a better go at it than Neutron.  We leave Luthor with what looks like Bullet shooting him in the head (off panel) and we leave our Trinity with Batman being thrown back while retrieving blood from the monster and the impact has broken the vial of blood that they need and it's also broken the Haz-Bat face mask.  It's bad times ahead boy and girls.

That's it for this issue of Justice League and while it's a shorter issue than we usually get, I have to say that it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time.  I wasn't really a fan of the first part of this story, but Geoff Johns has certainly ramped up the excitement here.  I fucked up last month and said Ivan Reis was on the title when it was really Jason Fabok and like last month, he does a hell of a job here and it's just a pleasure to look at his pretty pictures while I read this story........ Only this time I don't mean Ivan Reis.  A lot of great character interactions here and I actually felt the weight of the situation that our heroes are facing through Luthor's dialog, so this is really an impressive issue.  Make sure you go check it out because man am I on the Amazo Virus trolley now.  See you next month as we continue the sickness and have a great time with it.

Bits and Pieces:

This is a really great issue of Justice League.  I wasn't completely on board when this story line began last month, but this issue certainly made me a believer in Geoff Johns' fever dream that is the Amazo Virus.  The highlight for me was all the character work and dialog that Johns' used between Superman and Batman and with Luthor's monologues, but even if that isn't for you, there is plenty to like about this issue.  Go check it out and get your sick on as you continue this Amazo Virus adventure.

8.5/10