How To Turn A Gang Into A League
The Justice League and Checkmate have had to team up to take on their newest threat, which they are deeming Leviathan 2.0. The only thing about that is... it doesn't make much sense because what we got out of that was a bunch of dudes running around in Deathstroke costumes going after Leonardo Lane and in the previous issue we learned that it was all a distraction by the Royal Flush Gang...... who then steal the Fortress of Solitude..... somehow. Let's jump into this issue and see the makeover the Royal Flush Gang have given themselves and in the backup, find out how the Justice League Dark will handle Merlin. Let's check it out.
The Royal Flush Gang has stolen the Fortress of Solitude.... from the Bermuda Triangle.... because I guess Bendis didn't read Endless Winter or just denies its continuity and with this heist, we see..... absolutely nothing. The gang is just able to teleport the Fortress Away, know where everything is and how everything works and all the explanation we get is.... they have a guy. Now, while I do like the idea of elevating the Royal Flush Gang into a threat that suits their status, this storyline just isn't really doing it because things just happen for no reason or no explanation because Bendis is writing it. The catalyst for all of this going down is even sillier to me because the plans for this all started at the beginning of Event Leviathan where Mark Shaw came to the group because he thought that they would make a good Justice League in his new world order. I hope that someone, somewhere after all of this is said and done continues to try and elevate the Royal Flush Gang because it could be really cool.... just not here.
As for our Justice League Dark backup, I found myself initially confused because I forgot that this takes place before the Justice League Dark Annual that came out weeks ago and we're still dealing with the Upside-Down Man. That being said, we're just containing the Upside-Down Man and not really accomplishing much else and ultimately this backup just gives us a reveal that isn't much of a reveal since we got the Annual before this.
All in all, Justice League continues to be a mess of a series where Bendis is running roughshod through the World's Greatest Superheroes and instead of writing a story that makes sense and is well thought out, he just says a character does such and such and the way that they do it..... Well, they know a guy. There isn't much here, our heroes sound ridiculous in the way that their dialog is written and even the saving grace for most fans, the Justice League Dark backup doesn't offer much since it takes place before the latest thing we've already read. I'm not a fan of what Phil Hester does on this book, but I can admit that I like what he did here more than in previous issues and the backup art is as decent as it has always been. Thankfully, there's a change coming to this series, but before that maybe for all the things that I've complained about this issue, maybe Bendis has a plan and this Royal Flush Gang story will come together somewhere...... it just isn't ready yet to take that sensical plunge.
Bits and Pieces:
While the idea of elevating the Royal Flush Gang to be a Justice League level threat is something that I can get totally behind, this storyline so far isn't doing the job and actually making me think that the gang should be forgotten about for how they are written here. Nothing really makes sense and things just happen to happen and sadly the Justice League Dark backup doesn't offer much up either.
So where have these issues been taking place? I assume before Infinite Frontier since Barry is still on the team and before the events in current issues of Action Comics since Superman is still on Earth? Does Bendis even know? Or care? That last part is rhetorical obviously.
ReplyDeleteI like to think that it's taking place in some small pocket of Hypertime. Bendis doesn't play with what anyone else has written and only does his own stuff and sadly, that's not what a Justice League book needs right now.
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