Written by Scott Snyderand James Tynion IV
Published by DC Comics
“The heroes have concocted a plan.. They believe they have the edge.”
“Then let’s show them how wrong they are. It’s about time this final war between Justice and Doom began… Don’t you think?”
Well, alright then.
Hey kids, don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?
That’s gotta be the feeling in the bullpen after the release of this month’s issue of the Justice League. There are more things of beauty in this book than you can shake a Cosmic Rod at. Much less three.
You’d almost be tempted to forgive them for taking 30 issues to get here, (certainly so, with the recognition that everyone’s been pulling double duty for most of the last year and half to pull it off) – but whatever your feeling on the subject, it sure looks like our creative team’s long-range machinations are about to pay off handsomely.
The promise of that has been with us since the first issue and the very first two-page spread of the Hall of Justice in Snyder & Tynion’s Justice League #1. An iconic symbol of hope and heroism instantly recognizable as the world’s premiere institutional force for Justice, the existence of which suddenly in these pages could only mean one thing – the inevitable return of the equally familiar Hall of Doom. And battle lines being drawn.
Well, those lines are near complete, and it’s been quite a tangled weave to get here, but here, finally, we are. The beginning of a war between the champions of Justice and the legions of Doom, that is set to span the breadth and depth of the DC Universe, uniting every hero against an onslaught of darkness and evil that aims to reshape the multiverse entire, with Lex Luthor and earth’s greatest supervillains right at the center of the maelstrom.
In other words, if you’ve been waiting for the right time to jump on board and get caught up with the action, this is the perfect issue to do it.
Be forewarned, though. The League, for once, just may be in over their heads.
Bad enough they’ve already lost one of their finest members, J’onn J’onzz, Martian Manhunter. Bad enough that Luthor engineered this very tragedy in order to remake himself into the darkest pinnacle of human evolution. Bad enough he holds the power of six dark, dormant universal powers in his hands. But the seventh will restore Perpetua, dark Mother of the Multiverse, fully to power. To power, and back on a path to reshape the multiverse once more in Her own image – an image of war, domination, conquest and malevolence. Or so it seems.
So it does seem. Worse, every single harbinger we’ve ever received of the future that is to come, suggests that there may be no escaping this fate. No matter what the League does to try.
But try they will. Try they must.
This issue sees the explanation of all these elements against the backdrop of a full roster Justice League call to arms – and a last-ditch effort to tilt the odds back in their favor.
Too bad the plan they’re following is Starman’s. I mean jeez, the guy tries hard, but it should be pretty clear by now that Starman’s plans just never quite work out…
It’s not really his fault though. I mean it’s hard to play chess with Lex Luthor on the best of days. Lately though it seems as if Lex is always more than just a few steps ahead of the good guys. While his own dark designs of universal power proceed unchecked…
Credit where credit is due. The set-up is fantastic. This book is finally ready to take off on the sort of multiversal crisis end-game action it was arguable designed to deliver from the get go. The scripting is excellent, the plot lines are queued up for some positively brutal consequences, and Jorge Jimenez and Alejandro Sanchez give us the sort of visuals you want to see for an unfolding epic in the making.
And then, just when you don’t think it can get any better, our storytellers throw a little team-splitting time travel action into the batter. And you know what that means…
New friends.
And maybe some old ones too..
And oh, that’s been a long time coming now. Time to kick it up a notch.
Jump on board everybody. Things are going to get real interesting, real fast.
Next Issue: Heroes for Justice, together again, for the very first time…
