Art by: Pete Woods
Cover Price: $0.99
Release Date: February 10, 2015
You've Gotta Fight...
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Last issue ended with a cool cliffhanger, Swamp Thing doing his thing. By "thing" I mean wrapping Team Batman in vines and looking all badass. This week continues right from there, but it quickly feels like a missed opportunity. Constantine and Swamp Thing have some history and their back-and-forth is very good...until Constantine creates a portal and zips away. Really? He does end up with Doctor Fate and Dick Grayson, but I wanted more of him and Swamp Thing.
The issue then becomes a big fight scene. I mentioned last week that I hate when this happens and that I have to mention it again is another problem in and of itself. I hate these big fights because the tension that usually comes with them is gone by knowing most of the characters won't die. I also find them to be a bit lazy in the storytelling department, but that's just me.
Of all the fights, I did enjoy Harley and Shazam the most. Harley's crush on Shazam is full on...until he crushes her. Actually, I think it gets even bigger. I love Harley and she never fails to make me smile. The other fights are okay and we do get a reappearance of Ares before Batman and Superman square off again. They continue to agree to disagree until Shazam ends the fight. I wish I could say that the cliffhanger had me excited for next week, but it was just meh.
I said it in the introduction and I'll repeat it again, I wasn't a big fan of this issue. It started out promising with Swamp Thing and Constantine, but that just lead to another big fight...without Swamp Thing and Constantine. Boo! Year Three may have already been the weakest of the Years already, but at least it had the magical thing going for it. It seems that the magic has taken second fiddle to big fight scenes. Boo again.
Pete Woods does a good job on art this week. Sure, I didn't like his Wonder Woman, but everything else looks spot on. The fight scenes had the right amount of zing to them, I just wish there wasn't so many of them.
Bits and Pieces:
Injustice: Year Three #20 was one big fight scene and because of that, I couldn't get behind it or even recommend it. I hope we eventually get back to Constantine facing Swamp Thing because what we got here is a big tease. Pete Woods art was pretty good, but in the end, this was a pretty unnecessary issue and my least favorite in a long time.
5.0/10
I actually liked this issue a lot because of the fighting. The series is based on a Mortal Kombat-esque fighting video game after all. Also I feel like Year 3 has not really been big on all out brawls like Year 1 and Year 2 were so I was happy with this one. The standout for me was when Injustice Hal was fighting Renee Montoya and he used a construct of a turbine to KO an opponent just like in the game (the move is called Turbine Smash). You can tell that Buccellato has a lot of love for this franchise.
ReplyDeleteFair enough, I do see your point. The "Year of Magic" really has been back door battles rather than all out brawls...then again Magic really never has been a topic of all out brawls
DeleteMaybe it's just me, but I was drawn to the book because it didn't feel like a video game tie-in. It concentrated so much on character development and story that it rose above the whole video game thing.
DeleteThat said, I like a good brawl, but there is little to no tension when the major characters fight each other because we already know when/how/if most of them die.
I started reading this with no knowledge of the video game at all (and I still know almost nothing). I assume if you've played the game, you can see all the characters getting lined up for it. How close is the plot progression getting to the time frame of the game? I assume it will end at that point?
ReplyDeleteYear 5 is the ending...so we have a while yet. I didn't play the game either, though I did watch my one son play it a bit. That hasn't stopped me from loving the comic, though.
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