Written by Joshua Williamson
Illustrated by Stjepan Sejic
Published by DC Comics
“The multiverse needs you, and therefore so do I. But more importantly… you… will need me!”
Huh. Well something’s going on.
And it’s nothing small.
But it sure is strange.
Darkseid has “called” Cyborg, Starfire, and Azrael across space into the mysterious Ghost Sector of millions of newly embiggened worlds, to fulfill an ancient universal prophecy only he seems to know of, despite having been only recently reincarnated and… embiggened himself, apparently.
Oh, and the prophecy paints each one of them as ‘Old Gods’ returned. Which on the face of it would be ludicrous, except that apparently, it’s not.
As we learn this issue, with not one, not two, but three ancient statues of the ‘Goddess’ Koriand’r embedded in a culture that has worshipped her for millenia, with the very last of the statues holding a relic that dates back to before the creation of Fourth World.
Which is a long time ago.
Add to that the impression that the world of Koriand’r’s followers was deliberately chosen for micro-sized imprisonment by Brainiac himself, and the follow-up supposition that each of the other millions of Ghost Sector worlds were collected for the same reason, with countless civilizations devoted to the worship of one of the Four – civilizations and worlds which are now crowded around and atop one another in a cosmic emancipation event that was itself foretold by the very same prophecy that Darkseid Jr. is so attached to, and feels certain is a harbinger of the rebirth of the multiverse, (something he has previous experience with, after all) – given all of that, it really does look like…
…something is going on.
At the very least, some sort of time travel seems to be in the offing, but that in itself, may be a somewhat pedestrian device compared to full extent of what our heroes have waded into, all unknowingly.
And it’ll likely take some time before we get all our answers.
First, we have a whole galaxy of worlds to navigate, one in particular that still hold Cyborg’s manic life-or-death level focus for some reason, along with the confounding presence now of Darkseid himself, who seems far more inclined to demand the cooperation of our heroes than actually explain anything to them about what he knows, in addition to the questionable loyalties and motivations of our team’s very own Angel of Death, a mysterious phalanx of winged adversaries, the ominous drumbeats of war, and the mystery of Colu’s involvement with a cosmic design that spans countless millenia.
And again, whew. Talk about piling it all on.
But I like the premise so far, and the potentials. It’s clear Joshua Williamson’s had this all worked out since well before the summer’s No Justice event that kicked things off, by kicking all these worlds into normal space-time again. He’s been pretty patient since then, but I imagine he’s chomping at the bit to tell this story by now, and I’m looking forward to how he manages the scale of this project.
And this time out at least, the art co-storyteller Stjepan Sejic holds up well. There’s still a frustrating juxtaposition of the fine and the rough, but it helps that the scale of this issue is much more up close and personal. He really does do characters well – his facial expressions, body composition, and action framing are excellent, as are many of his designs.
I’m still not completely a fan of all his effect choices. I really don’t know what’s happening with Cyborg’s white noise blasts, but then that’s been confusing for more than Sejic for a little while now. I’ll admit though that Jessica Cruz looks pretty damn good, and all in all, Sejic’s choices are consistently unique and strong. I expect they’ll grow on me. This issue helped a lot.
So, hey, don’t stop now. There’s a lot of ground to cover if this title is really going to live up to its name. Bring it on.
Next Issue: One more thing…
