Throwback Thursday: Justice League #50 Review and *SPOILERS*

Birth, Death and Everything In Between

Written By: Geoff Johns
Art By: Jason Fabok, Brad Anderson, Rob Leigh

Cover Price: $5.99

Release Date: May 25, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Let's get down to brass tacks here, we've got ourselves the ending to a story arc, that to my surprise is Part 10 of the Darkseid War story.......... and that's just crazy to me.  I know we've been reading this story for awhile and I don't know if that's a credit to the writer, but it certainly didn't feel like ten parts to me....... That's right, I'm going to start phelating Geoff Johns right away because that boy knows how to tickle my comics bone and boy do I mean bone.  In our previous issue we saw the end of times begin as Super Woman gave birth to what the Crime Syndicate believe to be their ultimate weapon against Mobius, but by the end of the issue it didn't really matter because Grail came a callin' with Steve Trevor sporting the Anti-Life Equation in tow and blew Mobius the hell away.  Yeah, our main big bads are out of play now, but it looks like things have never been darker for our heroes.  Let's jump into this issue and see how the Justice League plan to overcome this evil and if they'll all survive the battle.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Right off the bat we start out with some bad shit....... and when I say bad, I mean some 80's Michael Jackson style bad because we've got Steve Trevor infused with the Anti-Life Equation going after Wonder Woman....... and when he's done with her, he's going after the world and then the Universe.  It's weird though because even though it's really bad ass to see Steve Trevor becoming a menace to society, while also asking Wonder Woman to kill him because he's afraid of what he'll do if she doesn't, I just don't understand why Steve is after Wonder Woman in the first place.  Yeah, the Anti-Life Equation gives you control over people, but since Grail put it deep inside Steve, he should just be destroying indiscriminately or controlling others himself.  This is nothing to get too worried about though because while Steve takes on Wonder Woman, Grail plans on ending everyone else.  It's a good thing that the Crime Syndicate have their secret baby weapon and we find out here the reason this child is so dangerous is because its father was MAZAHS and like his daddy, this baby has the ability to steal people's powers.  We see this first hand when Super Woman yells out "MAZAHS!" and steals Lex's Omega Effect and whatever Superman had going on with him with the whole "God of Strength" bit, but this part is a bit confusing to me because it really seemed like Superman solar flared that power out of him in the previous issue and if the baby somehow took his Kryptonian abilities....... which would be weird, we never see anything in this issue that would make you think that he got them back.  So yeah, baby's all powered up and while Super Woman is all boasting about how nothing can stop them now........... BLAM, Grail kills her in one shot.  Goddamn, our Crime Syndicate are just getting wiped out left and right.  

So now Grail has the baby and even though I think it's a bit ridiculous that Super Woman and now Grail can point the baby like a gun and simply make it go off by yelling "MAZAHS!", we've got Grail wiping out the playing field by hitting Flash with the baby ray and then Shazam.  I don't know what that means for Shazam's powers in the long run..... probably nothing but back to a status quo type situation, but for Flash....... Well, for Flash things are totally different.  Since the Black Racer isn't simply energy to be absorbed, the baby ray separates the two and because the Black Racer is then stuck until somebody dies, it's time to out run death.  Shit's getting crazy here and using that crazy as a distraction, Cyborg hacks into Volthoom, allowing Jessica Cruz to gain control of her body for a few seconds and with that time she gets in between Flash and the Black Racer, causing our Power Ring to fall down dead and the Black Racer to leave our Universe.  Don't worry all you gloomy Gusses, as it turns out in the end, Jessica Cruz is fine and the thing that the Black Racer killed was Volthoom...... like I said earlier, our Crime Syndicate is going down!

In the end, Grail realizes that Steve Trevor wasn't the first man to step foot on Paradise Island since he's able to fight against the Anti-Life Equation and since he isn't the chosen one, she takes her baby ray and converts Super Woman's child into Darkseid reborn with the Anti-Life Equation. Yeah, it seems weird, but it's explained away that this is some Amazon ritual, where you can bring back someone you've killed.  Seems kind of out there, but we'll go with it.  As our battle closes though, Myrina realizes that her daughter has to be stopped and she gets her daughter to hit her with the omega beams..... that go through her and into Darkseid.  With a big explosion, both Grail and Darkseid are gone since they were connected to one another and our heroes save the day....... Oh and Hal Jordan gets Batman out of the Mobius Chair by putting his ring on our Caped Crusader........ which somehow gives him the will to overcome it..... or some nonsense like that.  As our issue closes, Jessica Cruz is turned into a Green Lantern, which through the dialog it seems that even Geoff Johns thinks that another Earth Green Lantern is silly.  It's a whole run down here with Lex returning to Apocalypse to find that the people there have made him a Superman suit and Wonder Woman finding out from a dying Myrina that she has a twin brother named Jason.  Yeah, we're getting some crazy shit on our way to Rebirth and the hits just keep on coming because Batman found out from the chair that there are actually three Jokers in existence and after Owlman takes control of the Mobius Chair and gets Grid to download itself into it, they leave Earth and meet up with Metron.  This meeting doesn't last long though because out of nowhere the two are vaporized by a mysterious figure....... and from what we've seen of Rebirth, it looks like it's Dr. Manhattan.  We leave this issue with the Mobius Chair just left empty..... except for Grid inside of it and us just salivating for what's to come this summer........ I miss the Crime Syndicate.

That's it for the Darkseid War and goddamn a lot of shit went down in this issue to get us to our conclusion and even though it was pretty epic, I think because of all this shit being thrown at us and the fact that the story needed to wrap up as quick as it could, some of the explanations and even things that were never explained came off a little weak.  Even with that complaint though, there were only a few instances that left me scratching my head, but overall this was a really enjoyable issue and just set the stage for more epic-ness in the future....... With the exception that we'll never see the Crime Syndicate again because all those fools were smoked........ Which is a shame because I really liked them as villains.  There is a ton of stuff in this book and it would take me forever to run down all of them, but overall I really dug this story because it really feels like the culmination of everything that Geoff Johns has brought us through his Justice League run and he's really upped the ante for events and the type of stories that can be told in the future of this title.  As for the art...... well, the art's freaking fantastic and I love this team together so much that it actually pains me to see this series coming to a close because we'll be left without the joy that they bring us on a monthly basis.  Hell, we don't even know what Jason Fabok is doing after this..... with the exception of covers, but I can't wait to find out because he has become my favorite artist from his time on Detective Comics to this run on Justice League.

Bits and Pieces:

The epic conclusion to the Darkseid War comes at us fast and heavy with everything that it throws at us and even though I found myself pondering if all of it made sense, since this is trying to cram everything it can into this ending, I found myself enjoying it nonetheless and even craving for more.  Really though, with Geoff Johns spinning a yarn the way only he does, accompanied with Jason Fabok and Brad Anderson on art and color detail........ you really can't go wrong.  This is a really awesome issue overall that really gets me excited for what Rebirth will bring in June.

8.5/10