Justice League Odyssey #11 Review

Writer: Dan Abnett

Artists: Will Conrad, Ivan Plascencia, Pete Pantazis, Andworld Design

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: July 10th, 2019

Review by Joey Casco of TheWineStalker.net

This issue is part of the whole "The Offer" thing in The Year of the Villain, only the offer can't be made. Lex wants to bring Darkseid into the deal but Brainiac insists that Darkseid is so weak that he's a nonfactor and that Brainiac himself has made sure that Darkseid can't rise again because he hid and protected all of the relics needed to bring Sepulkore (Darkseid's contingency plan and new Apocolips for when the source wall is destroyed) into fruition. Lex says that it's a shame because Darkseid would be useful. But Darkseid was watching in on their conversation whole time on Sepulkore. He swipes right to turn them off and returns to the Odyssey team.

The team has recovered ten relics while Darkseid has recovered fifty. And, honestly, it confuses the heck out of me. But it's also meant to confuse the heck out of all of us. But that's for later. Darkseid talks to them and actually shows them respect, and he even says that he's not a threat to them if they help him. But if they don't then everything is over. Everybody and everything dies. The team, after Darkseid leaves, discuss still wanting to go through with backstabbing him in the end.

Unsure that he can pull off Sepulkore after they turn on Darkseid, Cyborg goes to speak to Darkseid alone and begin their rebellion while his friends wait for his signal. From there Darkseid breaks down Cyborg's character and explains to him that Victor Stone died in the accident and he's really just been a machine since, only believing that there was a piece of human in him, and that is why he was one of the chosen by Darkseid for this whole deal. Cyborg then taps into the relics and gives a detailed explanation on how they work, proving Darkseid's point, because understanding what's going on there is beyond the human mind. 

But Darkseid also tells Cyborg, who has started randomly"pinging" during this issue, that he knows he re-coded the relics to be only in Cyborg's control. Cyborg kinda poops himself, thinking Darkseid didn't notice, and he lets his hand cannons loose and shoots the crap out of Darkseid. But, Darkseid being Darkseid, fights back and brings Cyborg to his knees. It's then that the Brainiac ship makes a crash landing right into Darkseid, taking him down. We see that Jessica is the pilot, who continues to be the best part of this book, but immediately the roof is ripped off of the cockpit. Hovering over her is an evil looking Cyborg saying "PING PING PING"

This is a really wordy issue (most of the issue is Darkseid talking, them talking about turning on him, and Cyborg talking to himself) and there's a lot that's said that needed to be said. Darkseid laying it all down in front of the team and alone with Cyborg was great, and I really like the idea of Cyborg just believing he's human because of his programming. But it's all long overdue. All of this should have been spread out and better written within the title instead of doing it all in one issue. 

Bits and Pieces

My like of the team and the story continues to be frustrated by the poor planning of it all, and the inconsistency of Darkseid's hold on Starfire and Azrael is pissing me off. I thought we turned a corner in the space adventure that was the last issue but I was wrong. Oh, the art is awesome, by the way.

6/10