Justice League #37 Review

Someone's Cryin', Lord, Kumbaya

Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sanchez, and Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 4, 2019

It's time once again for the Justice League and the last issue ended with Apex Lex arriving on Earth ready to give the Justice League a once over.  Actually, Lex never half-asses it so I'm expecting about a thrice over and it's bound to be cool.  Cool if you are rooting for #TeamDoom that is.  Does #TeamJustice get anything to cheer about in this issue and whether that happens or not, is it still good?  Let's jump in and find out...



The issue opens up with Lex adding up the odds and it looks like the scales are fully tipped to the side of Doom, but if Lex thought Batman would just roll over and play dead, he certainly doesn't know Bats.  It's a quick and clever way to sneak in a little recap, but the scene is stolen by Jarro.  He may not be on Baby Yoda's level, but I would love to have a shit-talking little Jarro all my own!

It leads to two full spread pages of each team coming out of the locker room, ready to clash!  I am not the biggest fan of Jorge Jimenez, but he does a good job here and I loved the juxtaposition of each team's battle cry.  And yea, Guy Gardner looks crazed and fully insane!!!

We then cut to inside the Hall of Justice and see the team members not acting like they are in Braveheart forming a Kumbaya Circle and if you cringed thinking of the "wishes" they did the last time they did this, you are right there with me.  It seems that the seven here are connected to the positive forces and while I really like the idea of the negative/positive forces of the Universe going head-to-head in this story, I have to admit, I'm still not on solid ground when it comes to explaining the complete what's what here.  I am a dummy, though, so don't blame me if it is all obvious to you.

Since nothing seems to go right for the good guys and gals lately, they fail at neutralizing the Doom Sigil and go back to the idea they had for an issue now...they need Kendra and Shayne.  After Farris Knight has a bit of a typo, we head off to see where those two crazy kids are and what they are up too.

They are up to their necks in trouble, is what they are up too!  The Anti-Monitor wants Kendra's wings (another thing I can't truly say I really understand), but John Stewart's horn honking arrival stops that.  It also separates the Brothers Three (my new rap group, by the way) which is very, very convenient since the only way home now that John has wrecked the Flash Buggy (Barry is going to be so pissed!), but unfortunately, the Forger is too weak to make a portal.  He does have enough power to kill his brother, Mobius, though.

I was not a huge fan of getting rid of Earth-19 earlier and it has nothing to do with me being a big Gaslight fan because I'm not.  Sweet, sweet electricity for this guy, I tells ya!  No, I just don't like taking any potential stories off the table and I have this one with a string of lamplighter murders in Paris that lead right to... Hey, get your own story ideas!  

In this issue, it really did look like Earth-44 was going to bite the dust, but a whining and crying Anti-Monitor distracted Perpetua and saved Will 'Doc' Tornado and the Metal League for a few seconds at least.  By the way, Doc Tornado is a straight-up badass!!!  A straight-up dead badass. 

The issue continues with the Forger stepping up to the plate to sacrifice himself for #TeamJustice while we get some pretty cool Justice League teamups back on Earth.  We then end with the final blow to Justice that isn't the final blow at all and while it makes for a cool cliffhanger, I hope what happened is explained next issue or I will be right onery.

I already said I am not a big fan of Jorge Jimenez's art, but I can't complain here.  Everything looked good and the action was presented nicely and flowed well through the action scenes.  The story was a bunch of really big moments put together and because of that, some of the scenes felt a bit underexplained, but it keeps feeling like a summer blockbuster and I can deal with that as the weather gets colder and colder.  I kind of wish we would get a little quiet time to process everything, but Snyder said he was going to go big and he is doing just that.

Bits and Pieces:

Justice League #37 was a big, bombastic issue with over-the-top action, the death of another world and a scene that would make Abner Doubleday smile if he was alive and actually invented baseball.  Overall, the issue finally gives the Justice League a win, but for how long and at what cost? I am looking forward to finding out in two weeks and it's one of the few DC books nowadays that I can actually say that about.

8.2/10