Magic Missile!
The final battle between our JLD team and the Upside Down Man wages on and in our previous issue we learned that the magic of our heroes is juiced up in the dimension that spawned it and not only that, but the belief that their magic is stronger is also juicing it up. So there we go, we're in a battle where our heroes have never been stronger, it's just too bad that Constantine seemed to have gone down in the end. Let's jump into this issue and see if magic can continue to build up and overcome a foe who has constantly kicked our heroes' asses throughout this run. Let's check it out.
As I said in my opener, the fight continues here, except for Constantine because he seems to be down for the count. That's not too bad though because it appears that everyone has their secret weapons to pull out here with Wonder Woman magically communicating with Circe to transfer the power of Hecate from Circe's prison to Wonder Woman, which she does, Man-Bat having that vile of green stuff that just helps Swamp Thing grow some plants in this Upside Down world, which fundamentally changes it to help our heroes....... I guess and Khalid stepping up as the new Doctor Fate and magically binding The Upside Down Man while everyone gets their licks in.
Like every other time our heroes have gone up against this threat though, it's all for not....... Which kind of sucks because we're supposed to be showing the strength of this team, convoluted or not and Nabu actually puts Khalid on the bench and magically teleports Kent Nelson into this other dimension so that he can be the stronger, wearer of the Helm of Fate so we can continue to kick some ass....... and in doing so showing people that Khalid will never be their Doctor Fate. I guess it's okay though because in the end Kent can't even get the job done and it's up to Zatanna to remember what her father taught her about the cost of magic........ even though she's been doing magic her whole life and shouldn't have to think about this moment..... and also, she thinks about the strength of her belief...... she then makes herself into John Carpenter's The Thing.
All in all, the art was great this issue, but the dynamic of the team and the over the top use of magic just kind of takes me out of this book. Yeah, it's a book about magic and I shouldn't complain when I see it here, but it's used in a way that both makes it ridiculous and overpowered and also, nothing at all because in the end the use of magic here just seems to be people running around and saying things, while their enemy just says....... "not-uh!" The final battle wages on though and this was just another chapter of an overblown fight that while it was fun to look at, didn't do much for me overall.
Bits and Pieces:
The magic is being thrown around this issue and while that might initially pique someone's interest, it doesn't ultimately do anything here and it's just characters running around and failing over and over again. Just an over the top fight scene here which while it looked good, kind of left me bored.
Thanks for the review. Sadly, this fight has no momentum for me. Tynion wasted any chance of really exploring the Upside Down Man and the Otherkind and now he's trying to quickly wrap everything up. The whole power of belief angle felt so forced and while people might say magic is hard to write, it is if you don't know your own rules for it. Tynion keeps breaking and adding new rules for magic it's clear he doesn't remember his own rules for magic, if he had any to begin with.
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