Written by James Tynion IV
Art by Daniel Sampere, Mark Buckingham
Published by DC Comics
“Just leave the bottle, love. I’ve sinned some mighty sins, and need to relieve myself of the burden.”
James Tynion has been pulling double shifts lately with his Justice League duties.
This week it’s his latest issue of Justice League Dark, which has just seen the downfall and narrow defeat of one of DC’s oldest forces for good, the first Lord of Order, (and possibly the last), the ancient wizard Nabu. So, there’s a little cleaning up that needs to happen.
With several burning plot threads still in need of resolution, Tynion opts to script us three separate stories, back to back, with the able assistance of artists Mark Buckingham and Daniel Sampere, and inker Juan Albarran, all of whom turn in fine work for this issue.
So, some matters to resolve. First up, is the Helmet of Fate.
Given the early effort made to establish Doom as the countervailing force to the world’s premiere league for Justice over in the flagship title, I’m surprised that more has not been made of the connection between the words ‘Doom’ and ‘Fate’ in this book. Though perhaps that tenuous connection goes some way to explaining the decision to make Lord Nabu a first-class whack-job DC villain in the first place.
Nothing else really explains it. Tynion generally does a fine job of clarifying believable motivations for his characters, and there was a good deal of that here with Nabu and his fellow Lords of Order over the last few issues. But there is still a level of insanity to Nabu’s actions that has never been entirely explained, and at this point I’m not sure that it’s going to be. Bigger fish to fry, and all.
Still, given that Nabu is currently locked away within his own helmet, there’s still a chance we’ll get more of that story at some point. All we need, is someone to don the helmet and wield the power of Doctor Fate once more. But who?
Khalid doesn’t want it. Given his sober, humble, attitude about the dangers of wearing the helmet, maybe he’s the one who should have it. And maybe one day he will. But not now.
And Kent Nelson, the original Doctor Fate himself? Surprisingly Kent also turns the helmet down. His reason – that he is too closely connected to Nabu and therefore too easily influenced by him – is reasonable enough to lay the matter to rest.
But Wonder Woman needs a Doctor Fate for her Justice League Dark. Who could possibly step up to wield that kind of power, without being corrupted by the powerful entity trapped within?
Cut to the Oblivion Bar, and an awkward confrontation between Zatanna and John Constantine. Zatanna is understandably angry that Constantine has all along been part of her father’s long-range plans to defeat the Otherkind, a plan that landed Zatara in their clutches for an endless time of torture at their hands. She’s angry, and not surprisingly, she wants to know everything.
Only problem is, Constantine can’t tell her. He’s been bound, magically, from talking or sharing what he knows about the old Magician’s plans. Presumably for a good reason, but that doesn’t prevent the off-again, on-again romantic tension between Zatanna and Constantine from taking a hit. That’ll happen when the man who’s helped your father consign himself to hell, turns out to know a whole lot more about what needs to happen to get him out… but can’t tell you.
Oh well. They’ll work it out.
Final cut, to my favorite vignette of the month, with a starring cameo from DC’s ostensible Villain of the Year, Lex Luthor. Tynion of course knows what’s coming next, both for Luthor, and for the Justice League, so it’s particularly satisfying to have Luthor (or one of Luthor’s little floating Doom-drones) show up in Circe’s cave, with an offer that actually gets the attention of the old enchantress.
And given everything she’s been up to alrwady, to set the Otherkind and the Magical world against one another, you know that can’t be good.
But I can’t wait to see it.
Next Issue: Legion of the Dark.
