Justice League Dark #6 Review and **SPOILERS**

By the Power of Numbskull

Writer: James Tynion IV 

Pencils: Daniel Sampere 

Inks: Juan Albarran 

Colors: Adriano Lucas 

Letters: Rob Leigh 

Cover Price: $3.99 

On Sale Date: December 12, 2018

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Bobo’s left a mess of Myrra…hey, that word sort of sounds like “mirror!” I just got that. Anyway, Bobo’s screwed up that magical realm, and Blue Devil is about to skewer his chimpanzee guts out, so let’s dispense with the formalities and check out my review of Justice League Dark #6, below!

Explain It!

Myrra is a beautiful place. A lovely dimension. Wonderful people. Except at night, when hordes of skeleton soldiers and dragons storm the castle gates and threaten to usurp the throne—which is, currently, held by Blue Devil. No matter how many skeletons get splintered into bone meal, there are still scores of them rising from the ground the next night. And it’s been like this for months, really putting a damper on tourism. 

This problem began when Bobo the Chimp, given the Nightmaster’s sword after he died, felt he wasn’t worthy. He asked Blue Devil to come give him a hand, but still, Bobo felt unworthy. And drunk. And so he looked through the old Nightmaster Jim Rook’s magic books for a way out of this gig. He found a spell with which he could raise the dead, and hoped to bring Rook back to his rightful hilt—but he messed up, and instead brought back all the dead, over and over, forever. Then, he split the scene and vowed not to return. 

But, he did return. And after a couple of pep talks from his teammates, he decides to go back into the magic books and find a spell out of this, which is always a good idea. While Blue Devil and the other tough folks beat back the skully warriors, Bobo sips mead and pores through ancient tomes of weird Myrra-style magic, until he finds the proper spell, and just in the nick of time, enacts it! Whew. 

Elsewhere, Swamp Thing, John Constantine, and Phantom Stranger face off against Nabu for the fate of magic itself. Nabu sucks Phantom Stranger and Constantine into his Dr. Fate helmet, but not before John sends Zatanna a message that carves itself into her forearm to “find Mordru.” Before she can even digest this gross-out note from her ex-bf, Swamp Thing cracks through the ground and says it’s time to fight for their right to contain magic’s chaos! 

Wow! I had a really good time with this issue. One thing that struck me was that, towards the end of the issue, I really had the feeling that Detective Chimp might fail—that he might lose Myrra, and they’d have to escape through a portal or something, and the fact that this dimension was full of skeletons and dragons would come back to bite them in the ass someday. I think this is because he’s shown as being so human, and fallible…this chimpanzee endures more instrinsic human struggles than most of your favorite capes. What’s happening with Dr. Fate/Nabu is compelling as well, clearly setting us up for the next arc, and it was interspersed just enough to not become overbearing to the prime story. And another thing: this is a two-issue story arc! Oh, blessed day! Will this series break the “writing for the trade” curse? I’m definitely going to find out, because it’s quickly become one of my favorites on the stands today.

Bits and Pieces:

A high-quality, gripping comic book that is as emotional as it is bombastic. Perhaps this will not be to your liking if you aren't predisposed to these characters. But if you don't like the characters in this series, then you're probably a horrible person.

9/10

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