Justice League Odyssey #3 Review

Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artists: Philippe Briones, Jeromy Cox, Deron Bennett
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: November 28, 2018

Review by: Joey Casco

Please go check out Joey's awesome site TheWineStalker.net

Cyborg, Starfire, and Azrael have been lured into the Ghost Sector by Darkeseid and are now stranded there with the sector's Green Lantern sentry Jessica Cruz. With no way out, they have to survive the dangerous Ghost Sector and discover the mystery of why the people of these planets have been worshipping them for thousands of years.

Aaaaaaand here is the art change! So from here on out this book is not following its original plan. Stjepan Sejic had drawn almost all of the first arc before he was pulled off the book and it was delayed months for rewrites. I really really really enjoyed the first two issues and I've been dreading this one.

It starts off with a flashback of Starfire and Cyborg stealing Brainiac's ship from the Hall of Justice. Starfire wants to find her home planet of Tamaran, which it turns out is an urge given to her by Darkseid. Cyborg has a voice in his head, which would also be revealed to be Darkseid, telling him to go to the Ghost Sector. But Cyborg says that he's never felt at home since he was fused with the Mother Box, so he might as well help Starfire find hers.

We then return to the present with Starfire freaking out, not able to control her powers after blessing the dying priest in the last issue. Since she absorbed the priest's language when she touched him, Cyborg gets her with a sonic blast "intended to disrupt the language center of her brain". Lame. Starfire drops to the ground and they hightail it out of the temple while Jess's ring is warning them to evacuate the planet.

With everything going to shit all around them, they get back to the ship with no time to actually fix it. Jess makes constructs of a launch pad and propulsion engines and screams "I REFUSE TO DIE THIS FAR FROM HOME!" Awesome. I just love Jess so much.

After they escape, Azrael takes a look at the Multiverse Key and ponders why Starfire's worshipers protected it with their lives, and questions if Darkseid wanted them to find it. Meanwhile, Starfire is weak and pretty much dying so they've got to find help somehow.

At this point, we're introduced to Rapture, who apparently is the brother of Cisco Ramon, AKA Vibe. He's on a Ghost Sector planet, and I won't spoil which one of the Odyssey team they worship there but he himself is a servant of Azrael. He's chasing a green dude down alleyways and they purposely made Rapture look like he was Batman until they actually show him. The green dude is a "seer" and Rapture wants to know if the rumors of the old god's return is true. Green dude doesn't know anything so he's killed, and Rapture says that only Azrael "can lead these worlds to their destiny".

Back to the Odyssey team who have followed a white noise signal to a cold ass planet covered in snow, or at least on the cold ass portion of a planet, and is also covered in old ships. It's a junk planet. Jessica and Azrael head out to find the parts they need while Cyborg stays behind to tend to Starfire. The two old friends have a nice old friend moment and then some turquoise dude stumbles onto the ship and says Starfire has a plague that broke out after their planet was freed and he can save her because he's a medic.

Now, I figured in the last issue that they were only assuming it was from the priest but it was actually an effect of the Multiverse Key, making her a force of destruction to complete the prophecies. Nooope. I guess it's just a disease or a virus or something. Lame. But it could still be an effect of the Multiverse Key since later we find out that turquoise dude is actually somebody else who really shouldn't be trusted.

Meanwhile, Jess and Azrael meet a worm with arms named Vulg who is willing to help them get the parts they need for the ship. Whelp, Vulg is leading a group that is searching for and enslaving refugee Coluans so of course, the two Odyssey teammates have got to do the right thing and free them. After briefly kicking some ass (I love Azrael's sword), they're cornered and call Cyborg and Starfire for help. But will help come?

Bits and Pieces

It's not a bad issue but it's a big step back, and I actually liked it better during the second reading than the first. It's really just to get them from Starfire's worshipers to another member's worshipers so I'll give it a pass. The art is good except there's something off about Starfire. In the story, it blew an opportunity to really have Starfire do some cool stuff in the beginning, which was a huge letdown. Really all the great moments in this series so far belong to Jessica and she has two in this one issue.  And moving forward I'm interested in seeing what's going on with this Rapture guy. Until next month, safe travels in the Cosmos!

6.0 / 10