Justice League Odyssey #18 Review

*PING!*

Writer: Dan Abnett
Art: Cliff Richards
Colors: Rain Beredo
Letters: Andworld Design
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 5th, 2020

In the last issue Dex-Starr, Blackfire, and Hax defeated a group of mech robots while on a scavenging mission and meet Epoch, the Lord of Time. Meanwhile, Jessica and Orion were captured by the new New Gods Cyborg and Xotor, but freed by Gamma Knife and her drones, leading to a pretty awesome fight scene. But how can they beat the new New Gods and their para-angels?

While Jessica is fighting she appears to be just thinking to herself as if she was talking to Cyborg. Cyborg can talk to her but I'm not sure if he's listening in on her so who knows if he hears this. Basically, it's just a rundown of what's happening, and how it's breaking her heart that they have to fight each other. The fight ends though when the Eskaton finally smells New Gods, wakes up, smashes his way into the room, and rips Xotor in two. I love this Eskaton, man. He looks so cool and means business.

After Xotor is dead, the Eskaton starts to go after Cyborg but Jessica stands in his way. She reminds it of their deal: they will take it to Darkseid to feast on him but it cannot annihilate anything without permission. The Eskaton says that it regrets the pact but acknowledges the terms and goes back into being a big old block. Orion, of course, does not like this because Cyborg is trying to kill them. Jessica again tries to reason with Cyborg, saying that she knows he's in there trying to fight Darkseid's control and that he can beat this, but Cyborg Boom Tubes away.

Now Orion is pissed, having let Cyborg go back to Darkseid with full data on location, defense capabilities, and knowledge that they have an Eskaton. Jessica tells him that she will save her friends or die trying, to which Orion lets her know that she will die trying. We do see Darkseid get all of that information, and he wants this Odyssey team to be eradicated before they become an immediate threat. But he wants a recon done for a more stealthy and tactical evaluation. So he calls upon Starfire, Azrael, Shadowheart, and Psykot to perform this task.

Back to Jess and Orion, attention is brought over to Gamma Knife and how she was told by her boss to save them. Who's her boss? Epoch, the Lord of Time! While they're on their way to meet him (with the drones pulling the Eskaton block), Orion says that the Lord of Time that he knows is "a suspicious being. A temporal manipulator who--" and Jessica interrupts him with "Good to know, Orion" like yeah whatever and continues to ask Gamma Knife Questions. When they get to Epoch's ship they're greeted by... Jessica Cruz? Apparently, it's a Jessica from the future sent there by Epoch to welcome them in. Future Jessica lets present Jessica know it's going to get really weird, and as she leads them to Epoch she disappears as "the time flows stop overlapping".

While all this previous stuff is happening we're also seeing what's going on with the other half of the crew as they talk to Epoch. At first, he seems out of control as he switches between different clothes and time and saying things as if they weren't there and he was somewhere else. He even mentions Jessica Cruz when his original armor looks to be torn apart and beaten. So a hint of things to come? Dex-Starr has enough when Epoch turns into a Minuteman so he zaps him with his Red Lantern ring, and Epoch snaps out of it. Now he goes from being completely out of control to being very Dr. Manhattan like. Like he's experiencing all of the time at once as a non-linear being. He says that this Justice League lineup is not one that he's familiar but he does remember meeting them. He also tells Blackfire that he remembers sororicide (murdering your own sister), so more hints of things to come?

Jessica and Orion do meet Epoch and we learn a bit of what Epoch is trying to do out here so deep into space, but I'm really trying not to spoil endings unless I absolutely have to.

Bits and Pieces

More space adventuring and more of what I expected this book to be like 18 issues ago! By putting together a new unlikely team with a far better dynamic than the original, Abnett has found a way to get JLO into the swing of things and it's quickly becoming one of my favorite titles. There is a lot of talking here and the only action is at the very beginning, but there are no wasted conversations and I liked it a lot. The most important thing about this issue: we finally see (in that thing I'm not spoiling for you) how this Justice League title ties into the main Justice League title and other things going on in the DC Universe. The inking kinda throws the art off a little bit in some spots but overall it was still pretty good.

8/10