Justice League United #15 Review

Absolutely Nothing

Written by: Jeff Parker
Art by: Paul Pelletier, Rob Hunter, Jeromy Cox and Steve Wands
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: November 11, 2015

When the Justice League United (kind of) reboot was announced, my reaction was somewhere between "What the Fuck" and "That is so awesome" and it really hasn't changed since.  Anomalies?  Breakers? Zeta Beam?  I'll take it all if it means that we get crazy teams of popular and obscure characters thrown into crazy situations month after month.  Throw in the idea that this book was leading to something bigger and better for the entire DCU and it seemed like a step up to the plate home run (ask Eric what that means because I still don't know) to me.  Yes, I said "was leading" because unfortunately, this book has been canceled.  While it hasn't been perfect since the new direction in June, it has been fun, but the fun ends next month.  This month finishes the second and last anomaly story and Jeff Parker has thrown more players on stage than a Chicago/Earth, Wind & Fire double bill which is crazy, but does it make it good?  Let's find out...




The issue starts out with Enemy Ace and Stargirl looking for her cosmic rod while Robotman uses it to hit OMAC over the head with Steel looking on.  Yes, like I said above, Jeff Parker is surely giving readers a lot of bang for their buck.  The rod may not have done much damage to OMAC, but right after Enemy Ace hits the mohawked (sort of) villain, Steel and Robotman double punch him in the face for a knock out.

This issue doesn't slow down for anybody and we quickly run into Batgirl and Vandal Savage fresh from last issues prison break as they run into a full out crossover extravaganza.  Creature Commandos, Sgt. Rock and Easy Company and just about everyone else oh my!  It's no surprise that Sgt Rock hates Germans and shows it when he fires on Enemy Ace and his plane and just when it looks like him and Stargirl are going down, Robotman throws her the rod and she saves both of them.

I would call what follows a Mexican Standoff, but the only thing it doesn't seem to have are any Mexicans.  It does have just about everything else which includes Vandal Savage spouting off about the Geneva Convention even as he plans perfidy.  In case you thought this issue wasn't crazy enough already, the mysterious Unknown Soldier shows up to throw a grenade into the crowd and everyone is saved by Robotman.

That's enough for Sgt. Rock to declare a truce and I guess everyone agrees because they are then seen figuring out what to do next.  They all decide that the abbey (it's not a church, Stargirl!) and the Unknown Soldier are the keys to the anomaly and in a really cool full page spread, head off to kick some ass.

They make pretty easy work of the defenses and find themselves face-to-bandaged face with the Unknown Soldier.  After pretending to surrender (which Vandal Savage proudly declares he learned from him), Sgt Rock runs him through with his bayonet and wallah...anomaly gone.  After a forced and unnecessary epilogue with Sgt Rock and Enemy Ace where we all ask War...Huh!  What is it good for?  We head off to next month and the series finale.

I liked this issue as a balls out crazy bunch of fun, but unfortunately, I can't lie and say it was a great comic book.  If anything, Jeff Parker seemed to be channeling some Golden Age goodness by giving the reader a ton of characters and throwing them into a crazy battle.  While I liked every character we got, not enough happens and after a two issue setup, the ending was very lackluster.

I did really like Paul Pelletier's art.  He takes every character that Jeff Parker throws at him and comes out smelling like a rose.  In fact, the whole art team should take a victory lap for this issue.

Bits and Pieces:

This issue was a guilty pleasure that looked great, but unfortunately ends this last full JLU arc with a whimper.  After so much setup, the ending was too quick and just lackluster.  However, I can still recommend it to anyone who likes a fun romp and can overlook things like story and plot.

6.8/10