Throwback Thursday: Justice League #40 Review (2015)

Not With A Whimper

Written By: Geoff Johns
Art By: Kevin Maguire, Phil Jimenez, Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Scott Kolins, Jason Fabok, Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Brad Anderson, Alex Sinclair
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 29, 2015
Review by: Eric Shea

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Holy shit it's taken forever but today it's finally here Justice League #40 and with it the prologue to the Darkseid War.  Not a puny ass war like in the first issues of this title but the real deal...... So I guess that means it will last like ten issues right?  Yeah, I doubt it but this feels bigger than those first six issues right?  All I know is when you toss around concepts like Darkseid Vs. The Anti-Monitor, you're going to get people excited and I know that I'm one of those people.  So let's belt up our shoes, 2015 style and jump into this story that is going to go above and beyond to Explain It! all to you.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our story begins....... and continues most of the way through with Metron giving us a history lesson about Earth, The Multiverse, alternate timelines........ Pretty much everything that DC has done since it started printing out funny books with people dressed in capes and long underwear.  Everything that is born, dies and everything that dies is reborn and so on and so forth, just like the world, our heroes inhabit.  The problem is, the Multiverse has been destroyed, reborn and altered so many times that it's becoming fragile......... and it's at this point in the story when I realized that Geoff Johns was talking for all of us about how we feel about the constant changes and reboots to the Universe we've decided to become fanboys and fangirls over and it speaks volumes about how Dan Didio has come out and said that the New 52 is ending........ Shit's fragile, it could break at any time....... So let's stop remaking the Universe and Multiverse and stick with things the way they are..... or were.....whatever.  

Metron goes on and says how he's sworn not to interfere with the events of the Multiverse, but in certain situations where the destruction of all things that he observes come into jeopardy, he's used his knowledge to prevent total annihilation.  Like, when Apokolips and New Genesis would go to war whenever their planet's orbit would come close to the other and knowing that shit could get real and destroy all of creation, Metron decided to show himself and pitched a solution for peace.  You know like Darkseid giving his son Orion to Highfather and Highfather giving his son Scot to Darkseid.  So yeah, a good example for when Metron was able to go outside his comfort zone and broker a little peace deal by parents abandoning children.  It's weird for me though because Orion and Scot Free seem a little old here to forget that they were once children of opposing worlds...... but oh well.

In the end, even though Metron was able to stop the destruction of the Universe, another destruction....... which some would call a "Crisis" happened, catching our observer totally off guard.  Metron runs through the big DC events where the Universe, Multiverse, and timelines have changed and ends by going to Earth-3 to confront the Anti-Monitor to try and talk him out of continuing his quest for total destruction because the New 52 is just too weak to take it...... Especially with Brainiac Converging all the old timelines.  We find out here that Metron and The Anti-Monitor are old acquaintances and that the A-M is actually named Mobius........ So that means that Metron's Mobius chair once belonged to the big bad himself.  After the behind the scenes info, Metron offers to find a way to make the Anti-Monitor the way he once was......... Which I guess was less Anti-Monitory, but the offer is denied as we find out that Mobius has found a way to end his obsession with destruction on his own and apparently it has to do with destroying Darkseid........ So I guess the war is on and as we leave this issue Metron is blasted off his chair by a mysterious woman that is called Darkseid's daughter and I don't know if this will tie-in to that Vibe issue where ARGUS apparently had Darkseid's daughter captive in The Circus or if that will be relegated to shit DC wants us to forget about.  Time will tell, but Johns certainly has my interest peaked.

That's it for this issue of Justice League and the prologue to The Darkseid War and while the majority of this issue is simply exposition about the ins and outs of the DC Universe timeline and altered timeline and the Multiverses that encompass it.......... I had a really good time because this is the shit that I want to know about.  This issue also sports a great tongue in cheek look at how a lot of DC readers felt about the rebooted New 52 Universe...... I could just be reading too much into it but that's how it came off to me.  So yeah, a lot of exposition, but I plead with you not to give up until the action starts, you'll want to read this issue and even though there are a bunch of artists on this book it still managed to come together pretty well and I think it's due to the embracing story that Johns was telling us through Metron.  

Bits and Pieces:

Exposition heavy is usually a dirty word when it comes to comics because too much usually drives readers away and even though this issue is packed to the gills with it, it should have you running to your comic shops to pick up this issue.  Just a fantastic set up to the Darkseid War in June and even though I hate sweating, I can't wait for the summer to get here because I need to read more of this.  Go get it and dive into the history of the DCU and ponder with the rest of us about what the future of our heroes' Universe holds

9/10