Justice League #45 Review and *SPOILERS*

Goddamn!

Written By: Geoff Johns
Art By: Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato, Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 21, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Geoff Johns has really been rocking this Darkseid War story and as we saw in the previous issue, it looks like the war may be over.  That's right, it looks like Darkseid died after The Anti-Monitor fused Flash with the Black Racer and sent that agent of death on a path right through the Lord of Apokolips.  It was some serious shit and if you haven't read it yet, go and get on that.  So yeah, we had that and a little backstory from Mobius Chair Batman about how The Anti-Monitor actually has the Anti-Life Equation running through his veins........ hence the fusing of Flash and Black Racer and that poor monitor of the anti got that way by exploring the Anti-Matter Universe....... pretty much as far back as you can fathom.  Alright, that should be all you have to know going into this, so let's check out this issue and see what Johns has up his sleeve to keep us looking like slack jawed yokels.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

After a blinding red light, a piercing sound and the Earth literally shaken, all goes silent as Darkseid dies.  With Mother Box's confirmation that the god is actually dead, our heroes begin assessing the situation...... you know, like Flash being fused with death.  Yeah, that's some shit that's not going to be easy to come back from.  If that wasn't enough to deal with, it seems that Barry is wrestling for control over his body and after having an argument with himself about how great death really is, he speeds off trying to outrun death itself........ This is only the beginning of the fuckaroo that our Justice League finds themselves in.  

Throughout this book we see the effects of Darkseid's death on Earth and on Apokolips....... hell, they might be felt throughout the Multiverse for all I know, I'm just saying that shit has gotten real........real strange.  In the Anti-Matter Universe, Batman declares that Hal and his mission is over since The Anti-Monitor has disappeared after killing Darkseid and now that he has the time, he'll use the Mobius Chair to be the Batman that Gotham deserves........which seems a little short sighted in the long run and before Hal can really argue about Batman continuing to float around on a god chair, Batman tells him that since Darkseid is dead, the parademons are without leadership and are on their way to the greatest beacon of light in the Universe....... and for some reason that place is Oa, but I'd have to say Mogo since the Green Lanterns kind of abandoned Oa after the Guardian massacre, but it's all semantics, the point is Hal has to get back to the Corps and rally them against the new parademon threat.  Back on Earth, our remaining heroes don't even have time to deal with the Black Flash because out of nowhere Shazam begins freaking out and flies off after what appears to be the gods that Darkseid once killed to amass his own power find their new vessel in Billy Batson....... and not all of them seem pleased about their new housing situation. 

In the end, we head to Apokolips to see how Lex Luthor is fairing against a mad Superman energized with the power of the fire pits........ and let me tell you, it isn't good.  Superman beats the holy hell out of Lex before ripping his armor off and declaring that if Lex ever comes back to Earth, he'll wind up like his armor.  Superman flies off and Lex has himself a whole new problem.  

The former slaves of Apokolips find Lex, but before they do unspeakable things to his face, they ask him a line of questions like if he's human, if he's a great hero, if he's an orphan, if he grew up on a farm, etc, etc.  Yeah, they're asking Superman questions because one of them is a blind prophet who believes that when Darkseid dies, they'll be delivered into a new era by someone meeting all the qualifications that they asked Lex........ and of course Lex answered yes to all of them, but he didn't count on their being stipulations to the leadership job.  It turns out that since Darkseid is dead, his Omega Effect has been released and it's on it's way back to Apokolips and only this great hero that was prophesied is capable of containing it.  Well, even though Lex is full of shit, it turns out he can contain the Omega Effect and becomes the God of Apokolips........... which is a running thing for this issue.  Superman was titled the God of Strength, Shazam the God of Gods, Batman the God of Knowledge and Flash the God of Death.  People always complain how the heroes of DC Comics are terribly overpowered because they're basically gods.......... well, I guess they have something to actually complain about now.

That's it for this issue of Justice League and while I did enjoy this issue, it's all about throwing concepts at us without really explaining what the hell is actually going on.  Now, I expected to get blown away by the continuation of Darkseid's death, but man I never thought we'd see the God title thrown around all willy nilly, turning well known beloved characters into something that we can't recognize.  That's all figurative of course but really, we have no idea what's going on with our heroes at all by the end of this issue and besides for getting our world turned on it's head from what we know of it, nothing really goes down here.  Just a new status quo, which while cool, still can't be as huge as it should be because we know from other titles that none of this is going to stick in the long run......... or it will and continuity is just going to be shot to hell more than the DCYou has already tried.  All in all, this issue is full of cool looking stuff that will lead into a larger story, but as an issue itself, it feels like it's just saying "Look At Me" and that's about it.  I hope that the payoff is superb, but right now it's just some cool stuff to talk about at the comic shop.  Jason Fabok is taking a powder this issue and in his place we have Francis Manapul filling in and while I love Manapul's art, I found myself wishing that Fabok did it instead.......... but that's just me and Manapul does deliver a great looking issue....... it just wasn't the style I was looking for.

Bits and Pieces:

While we barely move in time from where we left off from the previous issue, this book turns the Justice League on it's head by introducing a new status quo for our heroes going into the Darkseid War one shots.  Besides for the setup to that series of books, nothing really goes down here except some cool visuals and how the aftermath of the Darkseid War will affect everything we know........ yeah, that sounds pretty big and I'm sure it will spark some serious debates, but as an individual issue, I just expected more.  Still a great book, but in the long run, it's little more than a bridge to you buying more comics.

6.8/10