Justice League: Cry For Justice #4 – Review

By James Robinson (writer), Mauro Cascioli (artist), Eddie Berganza (editor)

The Story: Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Freddie Freeman, the Atom and Supergirl pull themselves out of the wreckage of last issue’s cliff-hanger explosion and decide to follow Prometheus’ trail through the torture of the other villains they’ve captured. Jay Garrick is running around the country, checking up on all sorts of people, while Congo Bill and Starman fight for their lives.

What’s Good: Mauro Cascioli continues to knock this book out of the park. In evaluating comic art, I always do a gut-test first: How long do I want to linger, looking at the pictures? Cascioli’s art really keeps the pages from turning because there’s so much in each panel. Every expression is brilliant. The clothes wrinkle, the lights shine, and the shadows are moody and real. And as I said in my review of issue #1, Casciolo’s rendition of Congo Bill is stunning.

Robinson kept me guessing throughout the story. Freddie’s analysis of Prometheus (using the patented wisdom of Solomon) was fun to watch in a Bourne Identity sort of way. And Jay Garrick’s mysterious investigation is drawing in some pretty interesting people, like Mon-El, the Shade, and a bunch of second string heroes. I’ve been following some of DC’s podcasts and in a couple, Robinson talks about how Cry for Justice is going to tee up his run as the writer for the JLA, a team he intends to refashion. I don’t know what he’s doing with these second-stringers now, but I would be interested in seeing him try to make some of them first-stringers. That, however, is just a bit of idle speculation on my part. Robinson is nonetheless using the large cast of the DCU to good effect.

What’s Not So Good: Cry for Justice is losing its way. It started with an effective bang in issue #1. Since then, it has started repeating itself. This is now the fourth issue where the Green Lantern orders the Atom to torture some (or many) hapless villain. The Atom, same as before, jumps out of some guy’s nostril, as if he’s put in a tiresome day’s work. Hal Jordan doesn’t flinch. And Freddie and Kara continue to be non-entities in the central debate of this series. There is some character growth in Green Arrow (“Torture is wrong”), but it comes off as contrived because it just begets more violence. I know Robinson is going for a ‘Now do you see what you’ve been doing?’ moment, but we’re talking about some of the most powerful and perceptive personalities in the DCU – they’ve taken bigger punishments than this without surrendering their values.

Conclusion: The story is suffering from a few missteps, but a powerhouse set of characters, a promised change in the status quo of the DCU and the art make this book worth the buy.

Grade: B-

DS Arsenault

Cable #14 (Messiah War Chapter 4) – Review

By Duane Swierczynski (Writer) and Ariel Olivetti (Artist)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: I’ve pretty much given up on any hope that Messiah War is going to end up being a truly worthy follow-up to the fantastic Messiah Complex event. While the crossover has been entertaining enough, it lacks the sense of urgency and intensity that made Messiah Complex one of my all time favorite “X” stories. Still, I know I’ll stick with the X-Force/Cable crossover regardless of my disappointment. And that’s because I’m genuinely interested in finding out what direction Hope takes following the War being fought because of her.

The Story: Warpath is stuck in a torture device designed by Stryfe. Hope is a captive of both Bishop and Stryfe. Cable, Deadpool, and most of X-Force try to work out a plan to get inside Stryfe’s citadel. On top of all that, Archangel answers the call and confronts Apocalypse…

What’s Good: I’ve been pretty hard on Duane Swierczynski in the past. Most recently, I thought he really dropped the ball when first handed the reigns of the Messiah War crossover (for chapter two). That said, I give credit where credit is due. And credit is definitely due in this case.

In Cable #14, Swierczynski does a really nice job of ramping up the tension of a storyline that definitely needed one more push to get to the next level. He effectively uses a mix of dialogue and internal monologue to bring out the best in a number of the characters. A few scenes in particular really stand out, like Warpath’s reaction to torture, Archangel’s reunion with Apocalypse, Cable’s battle with remorse, and Bishop’s reaction to the current situation. They feature character moments or bits of information that leave me thinking that the Cable/X-Force crossover might actually be able to overcome it’s rocky start.

What’s Not So Good: Unfortunately, there are two things holding Cable #14 from earning a higher grade. One of them is the artwork by Arial Olivetti. The other has to do with how Hope is handled.

The artwork looks either far too static or, in some cases, downright silly. I understand that it can be difficult to show pain or surprise, but a few of Olivetti’s character shots are just simply hilarious. Two choking scenes are the main offenders, but Warpath’s torture scene doesn’t exactly make a great visual impact either. Sure the device looks nasty, but the results are less than spectacular. I mean it looks as though Warpath is just having a particularly nasty visit to the dentist in one panel.

The problem with Hope (outside of looking really odd) is that she is written in a way that is really inconsistent. She is either sounds too much like an adult or too much like a dumb teenager. It’s like Swierczynski sort of dances around a desirable sweet spot for the character, but never really nails it.

Conclusion: Good, but still not great. That’s the best way to describe both the issue and the crossover that it is involved in. A lot of it works, but enough of it doesn’t to keep it from earning higher than a…

Grade: B-

-Kyle Posluszny