Earth Two #25 – Review

By: Tom Taylor (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: If you’re going to break your father’s heart, you might as well kill him.

The Review: As I read through this issue, it suddenly occurred to me that for a big, gushy superhero series that’s been around for over two years, we’ve had surprisingly few displays of superheroic power. A couple come to mind—Alan’s duel with Solomon Grundy, Marella’s airborne whirlpool—but for the most part, it’s the enemy that’s done most of the showboating. No wonder morale has been so low; it’s hard to hold out hope when all the major moves come from the other side.

And no wonder that as our heroes get bolder, more aggressive with their powers, the more you think Earth Two may stand a fighting chance after all. I’m not just talking about the war against Apokolips; I’m talking about the chances of these characters rising to the same level as their peers on Prime Earth. It’s easy to think of Earth-2’s Wonders as cheap riffs and knock-offs of more famous characters, and thus inferior product. The only way to break out of that perception is to stand tall and proud on their own laurels, and they weren’t going to do it by constantly fleeing Darkseid’s forces.

Earth Two #24 – Review

By: Tom Taylor (story), Eddy Barrows (pencils), Eber Ferreira (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: Jimmy Olsen considers the possibility of being Batman’s best pal.

The Review: Of the several improvements Taylor brought when he took over Earth Two, the best has to be where the character work is concerned. For all of James Robinson’s talents with solo characters, he struggled with the ensemble nature of this series, rarely writing a scene of two or more characters that wasn’t plot-driven or totally cheesy. Despite his sizable expansion of the cast, Taylor has shown greater mastery over them, whether on their own or in groups.

Only recently, though, has Taylor done sustained interactions among the characters, and in this issue he seems to have found his groove through two-person scenes. Improvisers and actors may agree when I say that two-person scenes are probably the purest kind there are; any more characters require a lot of choreography and rehearsal to pull off. Of all the various pairings, Jimmy Olsen and Thomas Wayne strike the best balance of personality and drama,* which both characters have parts in generating. At Thomas’ surprise that Jimmy knows his true identity, Jimmy declares, “I can hack any system. I can basically breathe information. No one can hide from me.”

Thomas cuts to the chase. “Lois told you.”

“Yes, she did.”

Earth Two #23 – Review

By: Tom Taylor (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: Even for a perpetrator of mass genocide, there’s no place like home.

The Review: From the moment Superman made his reappearance on Earth-2, many of us instantly assumed that either he was some evil doppelganger created by Steppenwolf to demoralize the world, or that, at worst, this was a Superman under some kind of psychic control. But only in our least serious imaginings did we consider that the Superman brutally tearing soldiers, ships full of innocents, and whole countries apart, could be doing so rationally.

That’s a scary thought, but one that seems very plausible after he takes a good look at Lois and says uncertainly, “You weren’t supposed to see me like this.” That very line suggests a sense of shame, which in turn implies a conscience, which means this Superman still has a sense of self. Twist! Even worse, the discovery that Lois is still alive doesn’t magically bring him back to his senses; even with her and his parents present, he unhesitatingly orders an attack on Gotham and the remaining wonders.

Earth Two #22 – Review

By: Tom Taylor (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: In this case, Val flies before he runs.

The Review: Look, we all know this endless crisis on Earth-2 will end sometime; it’d be a pretty lousy superhero book if it didn’t. And certainly there’s no time limit on how long Taylor chooses to drag out the grimness. But if he expects us to endure one Apokolips-inflicted atrocity after another, month in and month out, for this long, he’s got to give us hope that when the storm finally passes, the world left behind will be one worth living in.

We’ve had a few sporadic bright spots, but nothing like the sustained luminescence of Lois teaching Val to fly. It is literally uplifting, pure and joyful in ways that the series hasn’t been in a long, long time. After all the death and ruin that’s pervaded every issue since #15, watching the two soar through the blue sky is a terribly welcome relief. The sequence only lasts a few pages, but it restores confidence that not all is lost and the world is not yet doomed.

Earth Two #14 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: Our heroes ignore the first lesson of invasion—watch out for Hounds.

The Review: If I can be Real here for a sec, we all know the main reason—if not the only reason—we all hopped on board this title in the first place was to see the Justice Society live on, right?  Unceremoniously dumped from primary DCU continuity, the least DC could do to honor its first superhero team was to give them a title, universe, continuity, and standing of their own.  And for most of Robinson’s run thus far, he has frustrated our wishes.

Instead, he has spent a lot of time individually introducing all the characters who will eventually end up in the Society, rarely allowing them to gather in a group.  This wouldn’t seem like such a waste of time had Robinson managed to offer us more than a brief glimpse into more than a few of these would-be Wonders and had he done more with the Wonders he did explore.  Nearly a year’s worth of lackluster issues seems a long wait to see your favorite team come together.

Earth Two #12 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Barbara Ciardo & Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: Up in the sky!  It’s a bird—it’s a plane—it’s—a green man in a fur-collared robe!

The Review: If you ever get into this reviewing business, you’re going to learn in a hurry that calling something “good” or “bad” just won’t cut it.  Like almost any other quality in the world, “good” and “bad” come in all kinds of different shades, each with its own unique effect on the person experiencing it.  The hardest part of this gig is trying to figure out how to describe those effects as accurately as possible.  That’s where experience comes in.

In my experience, I’ve read a lot of bad writing (quite as much and even more good writing as well, but that, unfortunately, is not relevant here), so over time, I’ve come to recognize some of the most common types.  Now, I’ve had plenty of complaints about Robinson’s work on this series before, but this issue really takes the cake as it possesses nearly every kind of bad writing I’ve ever run into.

Earth Two #10 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors)

The Story: Khalid and Jay find their world turned upside down and inside out—literally.

The Review: Robinson may have bitten off more than he can chew.  Earth Two doesn’t simply purport to establish a new super-team, which is already daunting in itself.  This title establishes an entire world, which includes not only the superheroes, but their respective villains, supporting casts, bases of operation, and back stories.  And we haven’t even touched upon Earth Two’s unique qualities that have nothing to do with superheroes.

No wonder, then, that the series has been so uneven and scattered.  Sometime after that first arc, perhaps around the zero issue, we’ve lost quite a bit of focus from the plot.  With every character doing his or her own thing and not in concert with each other, Robinson is forced to jump from one scene to another, often with little transition, either tonally or substantively.  This results in a fairly muddled read overall, but worse still, each plot thread gets cut a little short to make room for the others, leaving you dissatisfied with all of them.

Earth Two #7 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Yildiray Cinar (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Alex Sinclair, Dave McCaig, Allen Passalaqua, Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: What a waste of a beautiful woman with wings suddenly appearing on the balcony.

The Review: I’ve never understood the superheroes who go out with their heads uncovered or their faces exposed.  It’s just begging to draw the readers’ attention to unexplainable narrative gaps.  Take Alan Scott.  What?  Like no one’s going to get a good look at that lustrous blond hair, the chiseled jaw, and his hoarse whispers of “Sam, oh, my Sam,” and not make the connection?  But this, of course, is one of the basic indulgences we give to comics.

So usually, I would never spend a moment nitpicking at such a contrivance because once you start pulling at that loose thread, suddenly the entire world of the superhero comic starts coming apart at the seams.  That’s why I find it puzzling that Robinson would actually point out how easy it is to figure out the identity of this newest Green Lantern.  It’s not as if it took Kendra a series of mental gymnastics to figure it out:

Earth Two #6 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors)

The Story: If you want to know how the man of the moon got there, ask Green Lantern.

The Review: Even though now I look back on my inglorious days as a college fiction writer with a lot of fondness, when I focus the lens a little tighter on those individual days, mostly I recall a lot of flop sweat.  I think history will say that I was a much greater appreciator of writing than a writer, because I remember nothing I wrote satisfied me.  Truth be told, I was probably harder on myself than anyone, which meant I was more sensitive to the missteps of others.

And that’s why when Green Lantern scoffs at the Grey, “You honestly thought my sadness at my lover’s death would be the opiate of my defeat?” it’s hard for me to resist a shudder.  It has all the marks of—let’s not call it bad writing, but rather, overexcited.  If you’re a new writer, it’s the kind of thing you’d put to paper, thinking in your head it’s lovely and dramatic, without once saying it out loud and hearing how awkward and so very, very lame it is.

Earth Two #5 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors)

The Story: Hiring a perpetrator of genocide as crisis consultant?  Desperate times…

The Review: The more I read this title, the more I admire Robinson’s approach to making Earth Two a true parallel world.  This Earth clearly has elements inspired by the one bearing most of the current DC features, but they don’t have any direct counterparts to each other.  In some cases, Robinson amalgamates concepts together (Alan Scott as both Green Lantern and a Superman-type figure); in others, Robinson puts in so much of his own ideas, they’re only barely familiar.

The Grey and the Green obviously fall in the amalgam category, being fusions of Green Lantern and Animal Man/Swamp Thing mythology.  Coincidentally (or not), the Grey is making a play for the whole planet just as the Rot is doing in “Rotworld.”  The big difference is the Grey isn’t letting the grass grow under its feet—so to speak—in the process; Earth Two faces its demise at the hands of Grundy in less than a day.

Earth Two #4 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Nicola Scott & Eduardo Pansica (pencils), Trevor Scott & Sean Parsons (inks), Alex Sinclair & Tony Avina (colors)

The Story: For the size-challenged dude who dreams of a major growth spurt.

The Review: On a team book, the moment that sets the tone for the whole series has to be when the various characters finally come together.  The recent Stormwatch and the original New Avengers (Cap, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Luke Cage, and Daredevil) are examples of team get-togethers that really sold the series for me.  The current Justice League, in contrast, nearly ruined my enjoyment of their entire book with their pointless, obnoxious interaction.

So now you might well wonder how the de facto Justice Society rates.  Honestly, it still seems too early to tell, even though you have four of them all in the same page at once by the end of the issue.  Flash and Hawkgirl have a charming working relationship, and Green Lantern’s ability to remain polite in a crisis sets him up for future leadership, but otherwise these folks haven’t really had a chance to size each other up yet.  As far as these people as a team go, you like what you see, but you want to wait it out a little longer before deciding if they’re worth following or not.

Earth Two #3 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Alex Sinclair & Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: The White House gardener isn’t going to be too happy when he sees the lawn.

The Review: For any writer, crafting a whole world from scratch is one of the most exciting things you can do.  It really goes to the heart of what makes storytelling as much a spiritual act as a visceral one.  You get to determine what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s normal and abnormal, and everything in between.  But all that can also be quite frightening; you can’t ever tell if people will appreciate or fall in love with your world the way you do.

James Robinson has it harder than the rest of his peers at DC because he and he alone gets to decide the overall shape of Earth Two, regardless of who else may join his efforts down the line.  Maybe the multitude of different creators makes the primary DCU disjointed and inconsistent, but it also offers rich choices and far more opportunities for readers to claim a spot of their own.  With Earth Two, you either have to take it as Robinson presents it to you, or turn your back.

Earth Two #2 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Alex Sinclair & Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: Getting rejected is apparently not the worst thing to happen when you propose.

The Review: You’ve all heard me talk about how much I love parallel universe stuff before, so this time around, let me tell you about the more disappointing aspects of those stories.  Many times, writers either go too big or too little with their changes, either giving you completely devastated, apocalyptic dystopias (which all tend to look the same) or worlds that have a few aesthetic differences, but otherwise resemble their original counterpart in every way.

If Robinson manages to pull off Earth Two as an immersive universe all its own, it’ll be because he’s made specific alterations to the planet’s history and let them develop in both subtle and unsubtle ways.  Obviously, the devastation left behind by the Apokolips invasion and the death of the Trinity are major changes, but Robinson doesn’t make the case that these events alone made Earth Two what it is.  The essential differences between it and the primary DCU run deeper than that, and may be a little harder to put your finger on: the pointed lack of superhuman activity post-Apokolips invasion, a perpetual sense of fear and wariness scarring the global consciousness, the slight differences in technology and lifestyle.

Earth Two #1 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors)

The Story: With some stories, it’s better to start at the end.

The Review: I can hardly believe this, but pretty close to a year ago, I talked about how much I liked parallel-universe ridiculousness in all its forms.  I’m such a sucker for that kind of stuff that if you told me there’d be an episode of Glee where for some musical-related reason, everything went the opposite of how it should be (read: watchable), I’d probably show up.  So obviously, I really like DC’s Multiverse concept, and was excited to see its return, starting with Earth Two.

And for most people, you can’t hear “Earth Two” without associating it with the Justice Society.  I imagine the purists will be frothing at the mouth once I mention the Society doesn’t appear for even a moment in this issue—at least, not as such.  But have faith and remember who’s writing this thing: Robinson, the man who brought the Society back to prominence for the new millennium, so his track record is pretty good here.

Justice Society of America #49 – Review

By: Marc Guggenheim (writer), Scott Kolins (artist), Mike Atiyeh (colorist)

The Story: What’s better than the JSA?  Double the JSA.

The Review: As the short-lived Heroes demonstrated, a massive cast can be a great thing for a series to have: the mix of personalities and storylines do a lot to grab and sustain your interest.  But cross a certain threshold, and an inflated cast quickly becomes a burden: the difficulty of giving each character enough attention or a sizable role to play easily dilutes the pace and substance of the overall plot, leaving little for you to be invested in.

The return of the JSA All-Stars to the fold will likely do precisely the latter.  You can see the warning signs in this issue’s action sequences alone.  Rather than creating order to how the teamwork use their various abilities in tandem, Guggenheim tosses them almost randomly in Dr. Chaos’ and Scythe’s paths.  With the JSA lacking serious firepower, it feels like the All-Stars had to be brought in to get the job done—it’s not as if they contribute to the story any other way.

With all the action being so aimless, it serves only to distract from the core element of the story arc, which is Guggenheim’s concept of an actual city-society dedicated to justice.  It’s a potentially interesting idea that he’s not even begun to describe or execute in any way, but is still trying to convince you it’s this great idea.  He has characters like Red Beetle saying things like, “What you guys’re doing here, fixing things…that’s holy work,” as if by having it said, it’ll convince you it’s so.

But then there’s a lot of empty talk to this series.  Most of the conversations between the characters are very roundabout, where they’re just hammering the same talking points (Lightning’s comatose state, Green Lantern’s trauma, Mr. Terrific’s degrading intelligence, etc.) to death.  It takes up more than half the issue, and none of it shows character or develops relationships.  Despite their interaction, they all remain a little flat and one-track-minded.

Justice Society of America #47 – Review

By: Marc Guggenheim (writer), Scott Kolins (artist), Mike Ativeh (colorist)

The Story: Green Lantern in space!  Dr. Fate wrestles for Lightning’s soul!  Mr. Terrific experiences Flowers for Algernon firsthand!

The Review: When DC announced that it’d be holding the price line at $2.99 at the cost of cutting some pages from its titles, there was certainly a mix of emotions.  The jubilance over the savings was marred by the concern that each issue would have less substance to be engaging.  So far, most titles have taken the impact pretty easily, some even improving from the compression.  Others, however, have suffered from being forced to squeeze their stories into the more limited space.

Among the suffering seems to be Marc Guggenheim’s Justice Society of America.  This issue sees the team split up across literally cosmic distances, each with their own particular conflict to handle.  On the one hand, this sets things up so there’s no short supply of storylines filling up the pages.  On the other hand, with less page-time devoted to each, you’re left unsatisfied by all of them.  There’s just a strong sense that crucial parts of each plotline have been sacrificed at some point to fit them all in.

So instead of showing what’s going on, Guggenheim has to tell it to you instead.  Take Dr. Fate and Lightning in the spirit realm.  You don’t get to see how they get there; Jay Garrick catches Dr. Midnight up to speed and then Fate himself gives a thoroughly unsatisfying explanation of his work (“I took a few shortcuts, acted on instinct mostly.  I sort of…pushed things along…”).  And once all that talk is done, you get cut away to the next storyline, leaving you to wonder what the point of it all is.

Then you have Mr. Terrific’s supposedly degrading intelligence.  Instead of seeing symptoms of his dire situation, you get treated to two solid pages of Dr. Chaos’ obnoxious, know-it-all gloating.  Without actually seeing real signs of Mr. Terrific losing his smarts, the emotional impact of it is lost, making you feel as if he’s in no real danger.  But the worst handling has to be Alan Scott’s sudden jump into space.  Not only does it come out of nowhere, but it gets exactly one page to vaguely hint at the reason why it happens (the Starheart is in trouble—or something).

Justice Society of America #46 – Review

By: Marc Guggenheim (writer), Mike Norton (artist), Mike Atiyeh (colorist)

The Story: The disorder in Monument Point spirals further out of control as the Justice Society tries to contain the aftermath of Scythe’s attack.  With the mayor’s life at stake, the team’s great social experiment seems already on the verge of collapse.

The Review: One of the trademarks that most endears the Justice Society of America to readers is the sense of family among all the legacy heroes.  This team takes pride in its history and ideals.  Their battles do less to show off their formidability as fighters and more to display their teamwork and heroic values.  For those reasons, even with the Justice League as the premier team in the DCU, the Justice Society gets treated with the most reverence.

The current fragmented state of the team comes across as very uncomfortable and a little artificial.  There was some practical value to splitting up the ever-inflating cast into two titles, but ultimately the move damaged both.  With most of the older heroes staying on in Justice Society, and the younger, newer ones moving on to JSA All-Stars, the sense of legacy degraded.  What you ended up with was a team of antiquated old-fogeys and another of next-gen wannabes.

That’s also why the current storyline, of the Justice Society’s attempt to rebuild a ruined city into an actual society based on patriotism, just doesn’t sell.  It’s essentially a team led by old white men (with the exception of token black guy Mr. Terrific) trying to return some good ol’ American values to urban sprawl.  By itself, this story has a lot of doubtful ambitions.

Had Marc Guggenheim generated some debate or at least information on how this “society” is going to work, the issue would have been used well.  He instead glosses over these logistics in favor of re-emphasizing the strife currently plaguing even the longtime friends and partners on the team.  This gives them the most unflattering characterizations, from Alan Scott’s bitter ramblings on his paralysis, to Jay Garrick’s prickly, even crusty attitude (“This is France after WWII,” he says in reference to the disorder around the devastated city).  And now there are no younger heroes to offer some freshness to these grim outlooks—certainly not after the end of the issue.

Reading through the issue feels like a visit to an elderly, cantankerous great-uncle.  You sort of just sit patiently through his repetitive tirades on how the world is going to ruin and how things were like back in his day, then you say goodbye with pointed politeness.  With the exception of some melodramatic twists at the end, nothing in the story really moves forward, and even the twists leave you feeling unaffected and dispassionate.  Mostly it’s just characters saying the same things about what’s already happened over and over.  Taken individually, each scene plays credibly, but there’s no unifying thread throughout, nor any sense that the story is heading someplace bigger.

Justice Society of America #39 – Review

by Bill Willingham (writer), Jesus Merino (art)

The Story: Mr. Terrific and his band of imprisoned heroes make a daring attempt to stop the Darkness Engine…

What’s Good: Of all the JSA characters, Willingham has by far the best handle of Mr. Terrific.  Thus, the fact that this issue is heavily narrated by him is definitely a strength.  Hearing Mr. Terrific outline his tactics, strategy, and team composition is pretty cool and adds a sense of desperation.

Also, I’m really glad that most of this issue was spent in action sequences, what with the entire book’s focusing on the execution of the heroes’ big escape plan.  It makes the book feel a lot more fluid and organic, steering clear of the stilted dialogue and empty depression that this arc has often been rife with.  The action keeps the book rolling and makes it far more palatable, if only because it’s a breezier read.  Essentially, it’s harder to screw up.  That said, there is fun to be had here:  Green Arrow’s last stand, Slade Wilson’s heroic self-sacrifice, Superman’s commandeering a battle suit are all fairly cool highlights.

Magog #1 – Review

By Keith Giffen (writer), Howard Porter (artist), John Dell (inks)

The Story: A quick 1-page summary of Magog’s origin opens the book, but segues into a gruesome splash page that opens the book with a bang in Sudan. Magog is tracking illicit meta-tech that’s being used for nefarious ends. A mystery is in play. When he calls for Green Lantern (Alan Scott), he appears quick enough that Magog realizes he’s being kept on a pretty short leash by the JSA. Roots of a fracture begin appear…

What’s Good: Giffen, a long-time comic veteran, starts big with Magog in Sudan and keeps the tension rising. Some readers who don’t know much about Sudan might consider some of the gory images a bit over the top. The fact that some of this stuff is really happening in Sudan gave this opening sequence an added resonance.

Giffen also opened an interesting pandora’s box. Magog editorializes about how superheroes do not involve themselves in foreign situations. The logical inconsistency is as old as superheroes themselves. If you had the power of Superman, why not go stop the holocaust? Sudan is a very clear, modern example of a genocide no superhero is taking on, except Magog. Cool theme. I look forward to seeing where Giffen takes it, because he posed the question, but certainly didn’t answer it.

What’s Not So Good: Magog as a character is not very original or interesting. He’s just the Wolverine, Rambo, Punisher (take your pick) cliche, just in a different set of tights. He’s a lethal, sardonic, grim avenger we’ve all seen before. This isn’t Giffen’s fault, but he’s stuck with Magog now, so he’s going to have to figure out soon what makes him worth watching instead of any of the other clones out there. There are signs that Giffen is moving that way, but it will take time to see if the promise pays off.

In the exposition, we need to understand that Magog is brutal, but the level of violence he delivers in this issue is well into the gratuitous. Many stories have shown brutality without having to resort to slasher imagery. It unfortunately detracts from the quality of the book when something more subtle might have made a better point.

On the art, I’m not sold. It does an adequate job, but the faces and poses were a bit still and even generic (check out the panel with Green Lantern and Magog in the hotel room – they look like twins). Also, the skin tones in Africa bugged me. What on Earth was going on? The severed limbs clearly had caucasian skin, despite the fact that on the next page, the victims are clearly African. The skin tones of the brutal oppressors were also white, but with vaguely Asiatic features. That didn’t make a lot of sense, considering the Janjaweed of Sudan are also black. Given the courage Giffen had in locating the opening scene in the brutality of Sudan, I was disappointed that the art team held back on showing it more realistically.

Conclusion: I wasn’t wowed by this book and I can’t recommend it.

Grade: C-

-DS Arsenault

Justice Society of America #30 – Review

by Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges (writers), Jesus Merino (art), Allen Passalaqua (colors), and Rob Leigh (letters)

The Story: The JSA fight back, getting a little extra help from a new member, before returning to the Brownstone to discover the wounded Mr. Terrific.  Meanwhile, cracks are beginning to develop in the team that may reach their boiling point sooner rather than later.

What’s Good: I certainly felt that this issue got better as it went along. The last scene, an argument possibly turning into a brawl between Magog and Wildcat, was miles above the rest of the book. The dialogue was solid and Willingham and Sturges had a good grip on the voices of both these characters. This scene is by far the best written in the entire book, as entertaining infighting over age and tactics reaches its boiling point.

Also, as you can probably tell by the issue’s cover, this month sees the entry of Dr. Fate into the JSA. The central issue here is that this is a new and significantly less powerful/experienced version of the hero, and it really is handled very, very well. At first I felt that Fate’s menacing dialogue felt a little stilted, but apparently this was cleverly intentional, as the new Dr. Fate was essentially putting on an act and bluffing to seem more powerful than he was. Already, this younger Fate is a worried but likable character, and it’s rather fun seeing a hero like Dr. Fate suddenly being taken under the wing of the JSA as a student of sorts.

The action scenes are also fun and explosive in the way you’d expect from a JSA comic. Plus there’s a lot of Stargirl love going on here.  The issue of the bad guys refusing to target her, even at their own expense, is certainly intriguing.

Jesus Merino meanwhile continues to do an admirable job.  Continuing to make order from chaos with an old school vibe, Merino also draws a nice Power Girl and Dr. Fate. There’s also one particularly outstanding splash of the Flash.

What’s Not So Good: Willingham and Sturges are still finding their feet and so some of the dialogue feels a little awkward.  Magog in particular is cringe-inducingly bad, with the forced pseudo-military language feeling ridiculous to the point of self-satire. Interestingly, Magog is written perfectly in the final scene with Wildcat, yet in everything prior, he’s terribly written. It’s as though the writing team was learning on the job.

Also, there are some rather sloppy bits of storytelling here. As an example, all of the downed JSA members, save two, suddenly and inexplicably recovering at the same time, with perfect timing, was just ludicrous. We literally go from the heroes lying on the ground, to an image of all them posing and looking perfectly healthy  in the space of one page.

Also, one can’t help but criticize the lack of imagination behind this whole “every member of the enemy team is designed to counter a specific JSA member” schtick.  It’s been done a million times, and sure enough, we get the no-brainer solution, which is for the heroes to switch enemies.  It’s just way too obvious as it’s been done many times enough for you to know.

Conclusion: Not a bad issue, but there’s still some growing pains and lazy storytelling.

Grade: C+

-Alex Evans