Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Five Chapter #13 Review

Be Yourself

Written by: Brian Buccellato
Art by: Mike S. Miller, J. Nanjan and Wes Abbott
Cover Price: $0.99
Release Date: March 15, 2016


Last week's Injustice is pretty easy to sum up...Superman, Bizarro and Solomon Grundy in a heavy hitter threesome that may not have been as sexy as it sounds, but was still pretty damn awesome to see.  The slugfest didn't push the overall narrative forward much, but it was fun and there is always room for that, right?  Right!  Of course, after an issue like that, I was hoping for a more story heavy issue this week.  Is this one of the first times in my life that I got what I hoped for?  Let's find out...



This week opens in the Batcave, but instead of the Dark Knight, we get a little Damian Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth action.  Actually, it's more of a debate and if you didn't know what you were reading, you might think that someone slipped you a Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice advertisement.  While it felt a little forced and made me hate Damian even more than I already did, I liked everything Alfred says here.  Here's a spoiler...Alfred is on Team Batman.

We then head off to Gotham's Diamond District and it's easy to guess who this scene will feature.  Yep, it's Catwoman and it's good to see that quitting the Insurgency hasn't changed her world view.  In fact, it feels like this is her trying to get back to her roots and while Catwoman is a great character, my all-time favorite Injustice gal is there with her.  That would be Harley Quinn and she is in all her A.D.D. glory and trying her hand at jewelry theft, but I get the idea that this will be the last time that Selina lets her tag along.

I will tell you that while Harley kind of feels forced into this issue, Buccellato does a good job giving us one of his best versions of her to date.  If she is only here for comedy relief, it worked because I had a smile on my face for her brief visit before it got cut short by Damian Wayne.  Man, for being ignored for most of this series, Damian is stepping up his game this week.

The rest of the issue is filled with Damian and Catwoman battling and talking.  With the actually psychiatrist of the group down for the count, Selina gets inside Damian's head and really touches on something.  It's a brief, but really good moment that hints at why the former pumpkin headed Robin is doing what he's doing.  The same thing goes for Selina and even though she says she has no interest in fighting in the war, fans of the Injustice game know better.

This is another issue that doesn't push the overall story forward much, but unlike last weeks slugfest, this issue was more of a character study.  The often neglected Damian gets his time to shine and while I still hate his guts, I loved seeing him more vulnerable and human then he has ever been in this series.  Catwoman really knocked the bluster out of him revealing a young man struggling to find himself in a world gone crazy.

Mike S. Miller is on art duty this week and I didn't like it was not his best issue.  He only gets a couple of characters to play with, but they all seem a bit off.  It's the facial work that is disappointing and threw me out of the story a couple times.

Bits and Pieces:

After last week's fists of fury issue, we get a character study of Damian Wayne and while I am still hoping for some story development one of these weeks, I liked this issue enough.  Damian hasn't gotten much attention in the series and this makes him less two dimensional and a lot more human.  The art was off this week and while I can't recommend this issue for newcomers, regular readers should enjoy it.

7.0/10