Justice League #25 Review

You Can't Stop Shirak

Written by: Bryan Hitch
Art by: Tom Derenick, Andy Owens, Scott Hanna, Trevor Scott, Hi-Fi and Richard Starkings
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 19, 2017

Well, Bryan Hitch is back just in time for the extra sized anniversary issue of Justice League.  Maybe I should have put "anniversary" because for the life of me, I'm not sure what it's an anniversary of, especially since we started off Rebirth with two #1 issues.  I guess I am too naive to see this is just a way to tack on a few extra pages and up the price by a dollar...or am I???  Oh well, after not getting any Hitch for almost two months, he is back and he is bringing all his Timeless, Kindred, World Breakers (do I need to go on?!?) baggage with him.  Does he use the extra pages given to him here to actually tie up one of his stories and make the future of the Justice League look bright?  Let's find out, but I'm guessing you won't need to wear shades...


The issue opens with yet another threat...Shirak.  What's different about him?  Well, he's ancient and he's a virus and he fought the Green Lantern Corps and...okay, he's just as generic as all the other big threats we've gotten in this series.  The problem is, each one we get is supposed to be the biggest baddest mofo to hit the universe, until the next one pops up.  We get the 411 on Shirak from Molly... I guess.  For all the things we get thrown at us this issue, Molly is never mentioned by name.  I know it's not totally Hitch's fault for the scheduling of the book and the fact that it's been months since we last saw her, but just have Batman say her name ONE TIME!!!  It's not that hard, just repeat after me, "Molly".

Things pick up a little as we head off to Vic and Simon helping out Cyborg's High School field trip.  I like these two together, but of course, things go wrong quick.  No, I don't mean the art where Simon is concerned (yes I do), but a teacher going crazy and the entire city being infected...maybe.

Back with Batman and Molly, Hitch gives us hypertime and multiverse talk and it just feels so unearned.  We are waiting for the next big things from DC (Metal, Doomsday Clock) and Hitch really acts like a child who can't wait for Christmas and wants to open his presents in July.  The thing is...his presents suck!  By the time Molly throws out "Crisis", "Flashpoint" and "Rebirths", I was rolling my eyes so much I think my kids thought I was having a seizure.  I told them I was!

We then see the resurrection of Shirak and his immediate attack on Simon followed by Bruce and Molly talking the big questions...is there a God?  Is there a Devil?  I have a few questions myself, but I will keep quiet for once.

Shirak continues to taunt Simon allowing the Justice League to jump into action.  Kudos to Hitch and company for including Mera, by the way.  The battle is a bit quick and a little confusing as the League tries to contain Shirak's innocent allies and then suddenly are captured.  That's the best part, however, because it all continues and Hitch gets preachy over choice versus predestiny and while that's all well and good for the academics out there, it doesn't work here.  Here it is just a quick way to force an ending to a very mediocre story...but hey, at least we got an ending.  Until the cliffhanger that promises yet another end of the world scenario.

As a one shot, this isn't the worst issue of the series.  We do get a beginning, middle and end which is not as common as you'd think around these parts, but the sum of it all doesn't amount to much.  In fact, Shirak never feels like a threat mainly because his converting normal people to fight for him is never given enough time to sink in.  By the time Simon figures out how to take him down, he feels like a joke.

I also want to point out the biggest flaw of Hitch's entire run...he can never get everyone involved. This issue pretty much is all Batman, Cyborg and Simon and when the rest do show up, it's more like a cameo than anything else.

I am usually a fan of Tom Derenick, but this issue felt off.  I mentioned Simon earlier, but it's all the character models and the basic backgrounds don't give the book the epic feel that the writing also fails to give us.

Bits and Pieces:

In a series that has more misses than hits, this one-shot goes in the miss category.  The villain is barely set up before being defeated and afterward I was left wondering how and why.  How was he defeated and why do I bother with this book anymore.  Everything about this issue screamed mediocrity and the fact that it's a dollar more than usual is icing on the cake.  Avoid this book and this series until DC makes the change that Justice League fans deserve.  Shout out to the Get Fresh Crew who know what this score truly means!

5.0/10