Justice League of America #16 Review

Microsense

Written by: Steve Orlando
Art by: Felipe Wantanabe, Ruy Jose, Marcelo, Maiolo and Clayton Cowles
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 11, 2017

It's back tot he Microverse this week and I hope we finally see what Dr. Aut did because I'm sick and tired of Ray screaming about it and blaming Ryan for messing everything up.  Now, I know that Steve Orlando seems to be having trouble keeping straight the story of what Ray did or didn't tell Ryan at the start of Rebirth, but at no time was it "Don't trust Aut".  It really would have been that easy, bit no.  So do we get a good issue this week or another boring trip towards a non cliffhanger?  Let's find out...




We start the issue with narration from Dr. Aut's nanojournal.  Am I the only one that doesn't have one of these?  Where do you even go to get one?  Oh well, the questions of life.  We learn from it all that Aut liked to study numbers, but the null set was his jam.  Okay, we've already had the Null attack everyone in the Microverse and Aut was obsessed with the null set...I wonder if there is any connection there!

We then get to see Ray and Aut finding the Ignition point, set up camp (somehow with vehicles) and then go toe-to-toe in what kind of looked like a wrestling match.  Yea, Aut put Ray in a sleeper hold after he figured out that Aut was there to cause more destruction.  It ends with Ray in a prison and Aut now dressed up in some new duds and going by the name...Null.  Shocking (said in a very sarcastic voice).

After Null leaves, we get to see a pretty accurate version of Ray's call to Ryan, but why not just say "Don't trust Aut"?!?  It really would have solved a whole lot of trouble.  That's when Null returns, stops the transmission and fights Ray again.  Ray uses the fail safe in the belt to teleport Null away (why do these Bio Belts teleport people???) leaving him to find his way back to the Ignition Point...which we have already seen.  Talk about anticlimactic! 

Speaking of that, we end the issue with a cliffhanger that doesn't move the story forward more than a few inches, but does have the change of clothes for Aut to now be Null.  

Steve Orlando really needs to take a class on comic book pacing.  This issue continues that problem as we spend the entire issue showing us extraneous details about Aut/Null and I didn't care much...because it was boring as shit!  This whole issue was boring!  This arc is boring!  This series is boring!  Please DC, put it and all of us out of it's misery.  Also, why not get the entire team involved in at least one issue!

The art was decent enough, but all that Felipe Wantanabe can hope to accomplish is making a crap book look good.  He does do it, but who really cares?  I know I don't.

Bits and Pieces:

Justice League of America is a complete waste of time and money and I suggest staying far from it.  This arc should have been something special, but it's just like everything Steve Orlando has given us since the series started...an uninteresting story with huge pacing issues, bad dialogue and poor characterizations.  I want Ray Palmer back in the DCU, but if Orlando will be writing him, I'd rather he hang tight in the Microverse for someone better to take care of him.

3.5/10