Justice League of America: Killer Frost Rebirth #1 (2017) Review

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Written By: Steve Orlando, Jody Houser

Art By: Mirka Andolfo, Arif Prianto, Clayton Cowles

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: January 25, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Killer Frost's redemption continues in this Rebirth issue, but after seeing it begin with the Suicide Squad backup and then seeing it throughout the Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad event, I don't know if it's really needed at this point.  Hell, if you want to get technical, we started seeing this change in the character back in the Forever Evil: ARGUS.  Yeah, Killer Frost has come a long way since trying to suck off Firestorm's heat and I guess we'll see the final leg of that redemption here before she joins the ranks of other heroes as a member of the Justice League of America.  Let's jump into this issue and check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins on the supposed day of Killer Frost's release from Belle Reve, but even though Amanda Waller agreed to let Frost go with Batman, it doesn't seem like she's going to make it easy.  Yeah, Amanda really hates the idea of letting one of her monsters out and to try and prove a point to Batman about how none of her Suicide Squad could ever be reformed, Amanda loses one of the papers for her release, which will push things back a couple of days.......... and with this and the fact that they're not feeding Caitlin any heat, Amanda is certain that Killer Frost will break and end up killing someone when the heat hunger gets too intense.  

On top of losing the paper work, Amanda is fucking with Killer Frost hardcore by putting her out in the yard with the rest of the inmates, changing her cell so that she has to bunk with a pyrokinetic and even making the guards leave so some disgruntled former associates of the pyrokinetic Heatstroke can enter their cell and kill her.  While Killer Frost still fights the urge to feed, she uses what little energy she has left to subdue Heatstroke's attackers and after getting a blood transfusion from her roommate, Killer Frost awakens in the infirmary days later, believing that she finally beat Amanda Waller.  Which she kind of does, but Waller lets her know that the real test begins once she leaves the prison and has to fight the urge to feed everyday that she's on the outside.

In the end, Batman finally arranges for Killer Frost to be released and when he asks her if her hunger is under control, our title character assures him it is, but we also see that throughout the last couple of days in Belle Reve how she'd been taking little bits of heat from people who she encountered........ I don't know if this means she's able to take without harming or if it means that feeding on people will always be something that she does whether she wants to or not.  It's not very clear to me.  I'm going to go with it being her using her power to feed herself, but doing it without harming.

That's it for this Rebirth issue of Killer Frost and I found myself really liking this final one-shot before JLA next month more than I thought I would because where I thought we'd been Killer Frosted to death with how featured her redemption has been, it turned out that we actually had one more decent story to really lock in how much this character wants to change and become a hero.  Yeah, Amanda Waller was a little over the top in this issue and the ending was kind of ambiguous, but with that aside I found myself really digging this depiction of our title character and really want to see more of her and how she'll fight off the urge to feed in the future.  The art in this issue was really good and I think that out of all the one-shots that we got leading into JLA I like this one the most.

Bits and Pieces:

While you might be a jerk like me and initially think that this issue is just another of the many tales of Killer Frost's redemption....... Well, you'd be right, but change that dismissive mug of yours because this story is actually a great bridge from the Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad event leading into the JLA book next month and really shows the growth of the character, while depicting it with great art.  

7.5/10