Strangers in a Strange Land
Written By: Joshua Williamson
Art By: Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona, Tomeu Morey
Letters By: Steve Wands
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 13, 2019
Release Date: February 13, 2019
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
We have now entered a crossover! It actually comes at a pretty good time for this book. The Force Quest storyline was at a close and while there are still threads that need to be followed up on, (Commander Cold *cough cough*) the book was at a transition and moves into this storyline very easily, much unlike the Batman book. The previous issue of this crossover was… let’s say… underwhelming. Not a lot happens, there are a ton of Heroes in Crisis recaps. It didn’t get off on the right foot. However, perhaps this book will prove differently. We may have stumbled at the starting line but that doesn’t mean we can’t recover in this race. Let’s jump into this book and see where it takes us.
So, it’s literally impossible to do a recap of this book without stating some MAJOR SPOILERS. So, please consider this to be your final warning. SPOILERS AHEAD! Okay? So we begin our issue with a familiar face. Gotham Girl is with what seems to be a version of her brother. He looks unnatural and has tubes going into his body and he looks very sick. He dies in her arms. There is a shadowed figure standing behind Gotham Girl that is clearly the one behind everything. Gotham Girl rants about her brother and how she is going to become the greatest superhero of all time. Back at the Flash Museum, Bruce and Barry are investigating the crime scene. Batman finds that Gotham Girl is definitely using her powers and Flash finds an unfamiliar leaf at the scene. The two are able to trace the leaf to the Caribbean and the two race off to its location.
The two begin to investigate the jungle while making small talk. Even a couple of jokes between them. Barry is able to find footprints and a giant castle that has been built on this island. Clearly things between the two aren’t great but they are doing their best to make it work. Barry asks about Selina because he is unaware of what happened between those two but he is interrupted before Bruce can answer. He receives a call from Iris. She’s clearly still in mourning but she is being strong because she needs to be there for the other Wally. When she finds out Barry is with Batman, she gives him some very strong words for him before hanging up. Inside the castle, they find a room full of papers and articles about all the Justice League members. Barry finds a costume drawing on the wall and it reminds him of a memory that he had with Wally. This leads him to ask Bruce where Gotham Girl was able to get her costume. Barry has found an avenue that Bruce never went down but before they can continue, they are interrupted by a noise.
Inside the next room, the two find the lab with all the tubes filled with clones. Barry discovers that the chemical being used is Venom and Batman knows that this is a trap. Barry then finds Psycho Pirate’s mask and asks Batman if he ever sent Gotham Girl to Sanctuary. Before he is able to get his answer, the two are interrupted by Gotham Girl. She has another dose of Venom and she is able to fend off The Flash in order to place it into the machine, bringing all the clones back to life. They attack our heroes. During the fight Gotham Girl does a classic super villain monologue and reveals her next target is Central City Police Department, before she flies away, leaving Flash and Batman to deal with their attackers. This is where the issue leaves us.
YAWN. Talk about a snooze-fest. This crossover isn’t doing anything! The reveal at the end of the previous issue was cool but we only got a small part of it to follow up and the rest was Flash and Batman talking about the crime scene, Flash and Batman talking about the island, Flash and Batman talking about Sanctuary, Flash and Batman talking about the room they found. Now, I’m not someone who thinks that you can’t have an engaging story with simply dialogue alone. You can! However, having two heroes who are awkward around each other because of Heroes in Crisis make glorified small-talk for two-thirds of an issue? That’s boring, not engaging. The two heroes then get caught in a trap and while the art is very good, that’s basically the entire issue. It’s a really pretty book that has no substance. This is such a letdown.
Bits and Pieces
This new crossover continues to fall on its face at every given moment. Two heroes engage in small-talk for the majority of this issue without finding out a whole and then they spring a trap. That’s it. That’s the whole book. Sure, there are some small reveals and one that I think was interesting at least but I can’t in good faith give this book any real credit because while the art is very nice to look at, the rest of the book is very bland.
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