Written by Scott Snyder
Illustrated by Jorge Jimenez
Published by DC Comics
“With the cosmic membrane down, Umbrax’s energy is too strong, Cyborg! Sinestro is pulling half the damn population into his Corps!”
“It’s worse than that… Umbrax infects its target’s primal life forces – the Red , the Green – if we don’t act fast, John, Earth will become a living evil planet in its galaxy.”
Sounds about as bad as it can get, doesn’t it?
One thing about you can say about Scott Snyder, though – he likes to keep you guessing.
It wouldn’t be fair of me to go into too much detail about all of what I mean by that.
So, I’ll refrain.
Suffice to say, that after so much time focusing on the surprising bad-assery of the new Legion of Doom, it’s a welcome change to see our heroes come back with some of their own again.
Mind you, it’s all still coming at us at breakneck speed – well, almost all of it is – but even so, it’s gratifying to see just how adaptable the League can be when facing reversals of fortune at such a magnitude. Even if that requires a really surprisingly coordinated show of super-teamwork. Good thing J’onn’s up to the task.
But then they wouldn’t really be the Justice League if they weren’t able to tap into new sources of strength as the situation demands… even while they step up to accept the burdens of a new kind of justice at the same time.
Not that things will ever get back to normal after this.
Snyder, and my favorite JL artist Jorge Jimenez, have a lot of fun with the cinema of it all, and really the entire creative team delivers a book that’s chock full of golly whiz bang for your buck. It’s fun.
Worth noting too, that not only does the League make a forceful re-appearance, Snyder also gives some front stage time to both Batman and the Joker, a tip of his hat to a beloved creative relationship that he’s kept second fiddle to his treatments of Luthor and J’onn J’onnz for the run so far.
It’s a nice tonal shift and a sly opportunity for Snyder to insert some clever meta-commentary on his own story. A pretty good opportunity to demonstrate his skill with one-liners too.
All quite appropriate. Just in case you’ve been wondering about his 4 issue set-up.
And even if all those twists and turns have left you maybe a bit turned around, and still tending to look at things from upside down, I’ll confirm that by the end of this issue, the pay-off’s well worth it.
Mind you – this all ain’t over.
I mean, if there’s one thing you can say with certainty by now… Mr. Snyder sure does like to keep us guessing.
Next issue: Davy Jones’ ain’t got nothing on Black Manta.
