Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Five Chapter #25 Review

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Written by: Brian Buccellato
Art by: Mike S. Miller, J. Nanjan and Wes Abbott
Cover Price: $0.99
Release Date: June 7, 2016

I don't know what the heck happened last week with Injustice.  It didn't come out on it's usually day (Tuesday), then missed a Saturday release and finally came out sometime on Sunday...possibly.  All I know is that I didn't see it until Monday and that's when I read a reviewed it.  Now, less than twenty four hours later, the next chapter is out and I'm back again to give you my half a cent opinion on it.  Let's get right to it before the next chapter suddenly drops and I fall way behind.


We pick right up from where we left off last and Buccellato gets right down to it...Damian wants Zsasz dead, but Batman don't play that.  It's not a shock as killing Zsasz would go against everything Batman has spent five years fighting against.  Damian still wants his ounce of flesh and for a brief moment, it looks like he doesn't care if it's from Zsasz or Batman.  Of course, Batman teaches his son a little lesson in beat downs and it looks like they may come to an agreement when...Superman shows up!

Holy crap, I did not see that coming.  Sure, I thought Clark was using Zsasz as bait, but this is way sooner than I was expecting him to show up.  Once the shock settled, I was hoping Bruce would mash the holier-than-thou look right off Superman's face, but after Bruce calls him out on what has happened, Clark flicks him aside like a gnat.

A couple of things went through my mind.  Superman needing Zsasz dead is almost exactly like when Lex had to cover his tracks with Bizarro and the way he turns to Damian to do it for him immediately made me think of  Anakin killing Count Dooku.  It doesn't go that far, however, because Batman jumps back into the fray after taking a certain colored pill.  It's now on like Kenji Kong...or Kenan Kong!

If you have been waiting to see Superman get what's coming to him, this is the chapter for you.  Batman beats the living shit out of the Man of Steel and just keeps going.  Honestly, if I didn't know that it couldn't happen, I would have thought that Batman might end it all right here, right now.  Of course, that is not happening, but that doesn't stop Batman from knocking Superman out cold and holding his life in his hands.

The issue ends with Batman giving his son a choice and no, I don't mean if Superman lives or dies. This isn't the Roman Coliseum, folks.  Sometimes it's easy to pick sides when you aren't face-to-face with what is really at stake and it ends with Damian possibly finding that out.  I say "possibly" because all we get here is the former Robin with his jaw to the ground.

This issue was action packed and while we still only see the rage from what happened, Batman showed that he is way above what a normal man (and even a super man) would do in this situation.  Damian wants Zsasz's blood, but Bruce knows that solves nothing, especially when he's sure that Superman put him up to it anyway.  It looks like Superman's plan to get either Bruce or Damian to kill Zsasz (either would have benefited him) was an epic fail and may even have backfired beyond that.  I guess we will have to wait and see what Damian does going forward.

Mike S. Miller is back on art and everything looked good.  He gave us some really cool panels including the amalgam Batman/Superman which was the highlight,  but he seemed to struggle a bit with Superman on his own.  The fight scenes were as brutal as you'd expect and he nailed the emotion and shock on Damian's face as the chapter ended.

Bits and Pieces:

Brian Buccellato shows up this week and out of nowhere, gives fans a fight they've been waiting years to see.  Batman v Superman is in full effect and it's bloody, brutal and ends with one of their lives hanging by a thread.  I still want to see some emotion other than red hot rage from Batman over Alfred's death, but this was pretty fun to see in the meantime.

8.3/10