The Lord Of The Lords Of Chaos Is Back!
Hey, remember that two-issue arc that Bendis did in his Superman run about the Lord of the Lords of Chaos, Xanadoth? Well, like most things that happen in Bendis' run of Justice League, he's bringing back one of his characters and while normally the idea that he'll only try to hype the characters that he's created during his Superman, Naomi, and Checkmate runs, this is probably the one character that could probably use it because she was destroyed.... while briefly, so unceremoniously. Let's jump into this issue and see if this magical big bad can be more of a threat than she appeared previously. Let's check it out.
With this issue, it looks like... and this could just be me speculating since Bendis rarely... if ever... plays with what anyone else is doing at DC, but it looks like we're on the path this issue to see what happened to the Justice League during the said title's Future State, where the new league of that future has strict rules because a member in the past betrayed everyone. Now again, this could just be speculation but a select few of the magical uses in the DC Universe are given visions of Black Adam betraying them and we discover in this issue it's because of the return of Brian Michael Bendis' Lord of Chaos, Xanadoth. There's not much fanfare with the return of this character though and it doesn't feel like it picks up where Superman left off with this character's story..... since Xanadoth seems to have a new host and even wants a newer host.
While there are the usual Bendis trappings in this book that I usually can't stand, there is something that feels different about his approach with this story that allows me to look past what I usually don't like and see something that could be bigger and while I'll probably kick myself later for allowing myself to trust again, there is a grandness to this issue of the Justice League that the previous ones have lacked and I find myself looking forward to what comes next.
All in all, the art in this issue is a definite improvement over what we've previously gotten out of this series, even though the beginning and ending art with Zatanna throws me off a lot but ultimately the book looked better this issue than it has previously. As for the story, if there was one Bendis villain that could have used more storytime, it was Xanadoth so I'm not upset with Bendis only using his characters here, I just hope that with the time remaining that he can pull something off better than where he left the character in his Superman series. Not to mention that I'm really interested in how Xanadoth's new host will be affected in the long term of the DC Universe and how our heroes will battle against it. There are definitely still Bendis problems in this book but this is probably one of the best that he's done on this run.
Bits and Pieces:
The art and storytelling feel like an improvement this issue but there are still Bendis problems overall. That being said though, there's something interesting going on with the villain of this story and how this will affect the rest of the Justice League before they die in issue #75. So yeah, not great but still better than it's been through the majority of this run.
Where did you get a copy of this issue?! It wasn't released on Comixology and it's not supposed to be released til next week from what I've seen.
ReplyDeleteDC had this embargoed for this week's books and I guess they didn't update its delay.
DeleteHence my question how did you guys get a copy?
DeleteOh, I get an early review copy.
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