Justice League Odyssey #24 Review

Writer: Dan Abnett
Art: Cliff Richards, Rain Beredo, Andworld Design
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 8th, 2020

Issue #24! Has it really been two years that I've been reviewing this book? My goodness! After a really rocky start, it has turned into one of the best books being made by DC right now and I'm sad that it's ending next month at #25. With this issue and only one more after it, it's time to get down to the nitty-gritty and for our JLO team to stop messing around take on Darkseid face to face.

But we won't even get to that until the final issue. Most of this is our team gathering themselves and Darkseid talking to Hax, who betrayed our heroes in a quite surprising flip in the last issue. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing because it's still a good read.

What's NOT good is that cover though. I really do not like to slam art because, well, it's art! However, that is probably the worst cover that I've ever seen. Seriously, look at it! What the heck? But I digress... and the art in the book is great, though.

While Hex admits to Darkseid that she thought about betraying him and begs for her life, the JLO needs to huddle and act as fast as possible to put a plan together. Cyborg is still connected to the other New Gods, and since Darkseid has put his trust in him, he contacts them and commands them to go to other portions of the area to buy them some time.

They end up hooking Cyborg up to the newly deceased Epoch's time technology and bringing back Starfire and Azrael from a specific time before they were controlled by Darkseid (as they refer to it a "save" like in a video game) as well as Cyborg and Jess from that time. So now we have two Jess's and two Cyborgs. And, uuuuugh..... You know I love Jess but she's really annoying about this issue, especially when there are two of them.

One person who is usually annoying (in an endearing way) but isn't here is Gamma Knife. We saw Jess go back in time before and meet Gamma Knife in the past, and she and her partner helped Jess return to the present before they both died. It just seemed like an alternate timeline, though. Hax explains to Gamma Knife that it wasn't an alternate timeline and Gamma Knife is actually dead, but was brought back by Epoch, kinda like a summoned ghost for the lack of a better comparison, and her drones are her partner. So if time is reset the way the JLO wants it to be instead of the way Darkseid wants it to be, Gamma Knife will just go back to being dead.

From there Hax is able to convince Gamma Knife to do what she feels is right and help Darkseid, and I gotta be honest... even with the original JLO team and the new JLO team together at last and coming to take on Darkseid... I think I'm on Darkseid's "seid" here.

Bits and Pieces

Most of this issue is very good and gets you pumped up for the last issue, but there are a few spots that just bring it to a plateau and are honestly a disappointing use of panels that could have been better utilized. Orion pipes up on it when that starts to happen though, so awareness of that is appreciated. The art, especially when it comes to Darkseid and Hex using Epoch's time manipulator, is awesome.

7.3/10