Justice League of America #2 Review and *SPOILERS*

International Incident 

Written By: Steve Orlando

Art By: Felipe Watanabe, Scott Hanna, Hi-Fi, Clayton Cowles

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: March 8, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

The new Justice League of America is formed and now it's up to a bunch of people who have never worked together before to take down the Earth-8 Extremists, who in the previous issue entered this world after their own was lost to nuclear fire to bring order and in their mind save Earth-0.  Yeah, the JLA isn't about to let that stand, especially since the Extremists seem to be willing to go to some brutal routes to get the job done.  Like I said though, this team hasn't worked together that long yet and because of this, they get their asses handed to them and we ended the previous issue with Batman surrendering his life to the Extremist leader, Lord Havok in order to save Ryan Choi's life.  Let's jump into this issue and see if Batman has a bigger plan in mind than simple surrender.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue picks up right where we left off previously with Batman surrendering to Lord Havok and offering up his services so that the Extremists can truly save this world and while we all know that the Dark Knight is buying some time for our team to get away, initially it looks like they're pissed about Batman's decision and that he was acting too rashly.  Yeah, it all comes down to trust, which we get as Batman's response when Black Canary calls him out on it later, but the team seems a bit fractured right away in this issue.......... well, except for Frost, who seems willing to die to protect Batman for all he's done for her.  Things don't get that far though because seeing Lord Havok accept Batman as one of them causes Dr. Diehard to see this as a weakness that he won't let go and he tries to use his magnetic abilities to kill Havok, only he didn't finish the job and Havok ends up killing him for his treachery.  With that, the Extremists simply teleport away and the fight is over for now.

We see that the Extremists have teleported to the country of Kravia, where on Earth-8 Lord Havok was once the heir to the King of this country and plans on making his once home the first place that he saves.  After the JLA regroups, Ryan tracks the Extremists to that country and when our team makes their way there and stops Deathbat from killing a bunch of Kravians from fleeing the country for fear of their lives............. We find out that the JLA isn't welcome and that the government of Kravia has fully excepted the Extremists and what they're doing.  Yeah, it's crazy as hell, but as we leave this issue it seems that Lord Havok has been properly and genuinely appointed the King of the country and now it's up to our heroes to somehow stop the Extremists while also avoiding an all out war for invading foreign soil. 

That's it for this issue of JLA and while I thought that the art was a step down this issue and that the bickering between the team was a bit much, by the end of this book I was actually interested in what was going on.  Mostly though, I found it funny that a Justice League of America was trying to invade a country that didn't want them there because they were going to do what's right in their minds, but it's because of this aspect of not knowing what the right protocol should be for this situation that I found myself thinking that I didn't mind this story because it got me thinking about the right course of action since this is now more than a simple black and white, hero vs. villain story now that we have international politics involved.  Yeah, it's not a place or a thing that I usually gravitate towards, but I'm interested to see what Steve Orlando does with this story and whether or not America is seen as monsters because of the actions of these heroes.  Like I said though, the art was a step down, but the colors of this book were vibrant and popped right off the page.

Bits and Pieces:

While this issue starts out kind of weak in my mind, it eventually got to a place that actually made me stop and think about what the right choice would be for our heroes to make in the situation they're in.  Yeah, that's not much and the art was a bit of a step down from what we got previously, but overall, I look forward to see what are heroes will do moving on.

7/10