That's The Power Of Belief!
Magic has changed and the Upside-Down Man wants to take back all the magic in the world because he believes that it belongs to him. Essentially you're caught up with what's been going on in this series, maybe a few Hecate things thrown in along the way, but basically you're all good. With that, we had Wonder Woman and Zatanna travel to the Upside-Down to confront their enemy and save Zatanna's father, but they wouldn't confront this monster alone. No, they had Swamp Thing use the Green to cross the magical landscapes and bought our heroes some time to wait for reinforcements. Hopefully, with the JLD getting together for this issue we can see our heroes come out with a win over this threat that's been looming over them since this series began. Let's check it out.
In the previous issue, we saw Detective Chimp find Constantine, who was wrapped up by Madame Xanadu which was a really exciting end, especially with the prospect of Xanadu joining the JLD team, but ultimately it doesn't lead to much here except for the idea that death will find Constantine and possibly the rest of our heroes in their fight against the Upside-Down Man. We don't have time for that though, we're getting the gang back together in a big fight to the finish as Doctor Fate, Detective Chimp and Constatine meet their friends in a battle that's already taking place......... The battle though becomes very Stephen King's IT in the idea that belief alone is the magic that is needed to defeat their enemy because what is magic if not belief?
Now don't get me wrong, I love Stephen King's IT and the way that the "magic" works in that book but because of all the build-up and the concepts of what the Upside-Down Man is and the threat that he poses, it comes off a little lackluster when it is revealed to us that everything we've dealt with was a plan to get our heroes here and that their biggest weapon against the Upside-Down Man is belief because it's that belief that makes their magic stronger now and makes their enemy weaker. I don't see all the paths that we took in this book as a way for our heroes to get here, but if that's what Ram V wants to go with, I'm down I just hope that it plays out a bit better than what we see at the end because for as smug as our heroes seem to be with their newfound belief, it appears that one of their own goes down in this fight.
All in all, I enjoyed the art in this book and liked our heroes coming together to take on the big bad not only on their terms but with the supposed power to do it, it just felt like it was kind of forced to get us to a way for our heroes to actually stand a chance for how built up the Upside-Down Man has been this entire time and how there hasn't been much of a change when it comes to our heroes. Belief it is I guess and I can get behind it, I just need something a bit more because with that idea being the striving force to take the big bad down, it might as well have just been a wishing machine for how forced the concept feels now. Yeah, it's magic and magic is always this strange thing that can do whatever you need it to do, but I was looking for a little something more for the way that our heroes would save the day, even if we might get more since this story isn't finished yet and the Upside-Down Man seems to be getting his second wind.
Bits and Pieces:
I like this issue in that it's getting the band back together and setting the stage for the final battle against the big bad that's been looming in the background since this series began, even if it uses a silly way to give our heroes the upper hand........ when magic is involved though, anything goes. The art is great here and by the end, I found myself excited for what's to come.
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