] type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon'/>

Saturday, March 03, 2012

Justice League #6 - April 2012

sg
Comics Weekend "Part Six" by Geoff Johns, Jim Lee, and Scott Williams.

The last issue of Justice League ended with Batman abandoning his erstwhile teammates in search of the kidnapped Superman on Apokolips. This issue opens from the perspective of a normal citizen, who is in the middle of the melee between Darkseid and the Justice League.

An what a melee it is!:
Any book that opens with Aquaman sitting atop a bad guy shoving a trident into his chest had me at hello, if you know what I mean.

As Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and the rest try and stop Darkseid, Batman tries to find Superman. He finds him trussed up, undergoing what looks like experiments at the hands of the villainous DeSaad.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Wonder Woman and Aquaman decide to take the direct approach, daring the Overstreet Price Guide to mark this issue as an "Injury to Eye" book:
sg
sg
...I guess that's Injury to Eyes, actually.

Cyborg manages to patch into the technology behind the Mother Boxes, and uses them to open various Boom Tubes. This distracts DeSaad, giving Batman the chance he needs to rescue Superman. Having now had a moment to recover, the Man of Steel fires himself like a missile at Darkseid.

The rest of the JLAers gang up on him, and Batman instructs Cyborg to shut all the Boom Tubes down. After a monumental effort, he does, causing various explosions to go off
:
sg
Darkseid is sucked back to Apokolips, leaving in a flash of blinding light. All that's left are our heroes, and the stunned civilians who break into cheers and applause.

Cut to: a few days later, and the seven heroes are being honored in Washington D.C. by the President. The idea if suggested that they form some sort of permanent team, which most of them reject. But when news of another emergency arises, The Flash offers a name for this group of heroes: The Super Seven! Er...

The human observer we saw earlier, an author named David Graves, decides to write a book about these new heroes, who have since taken on a more appropriate name:
sg
...The Beginning!

This issue ends with a sort of Post Script, featuring two shadowy figures talking about all the new "super heroes" showing up. One of them responds, "I guess they'll call us super villains."


I've felt that Justice League, as a series, had to this point been hit or miss, mostly hit, but with some parts that definitely left me a bit cold. And while this issue is basically just one giant fight (the clever plan of the World's Greatest Superheroes is...beat up Darkseid a lot), but the fanboy in me didn't really care: I absolutely loved loved loved Aquaman being such a take-charge ass-kicker, scaling Darkseid with not a care in the world, wielding his trident like Wolverine's adamantium claws.

I definitely think I'm going to miss the core concept of the original Justice League--that it truly is The World's Greatest Superheroes, the senior class of the DCU. Here, they're basically the first seven heroes of the DCU, not the greatest seven. But I guess there would have been no way of establishing this entrenched hierarchy in the New 52, so the JLA had to be re-cast a bit. As a great man once said, the times, they are a-changin'.

I did love the final page (Pasko Publishing? Not Schwartz Publishing, or Fox Publishing?), and I dearly hope we get to see the new JL take on Starro. Like the Star Trek reboot, the creators of Justice League are now free to take these heroes any place they want to go, whether it be retelling classic JLA stories or charting their own course. And while it hasn't been smooth sailing the whole way, I have to admit, I'm pretty excited to see where this book goes.

6 comments:

Russell said...

I thought this was the worst issue yet. I couldn't follow the action. I thought at first that Bruce was Superman. I couldn't tell what was happening when Cyborg shut down the Mother Boxes, or why this would work to suck Darkseid back to Apokolips. I never understood what Darkseid was doing there in the first place. I hated that the culture that was portrayed/characterized as so ANTI super-hero suddenly burst into applause. For all these people knew these characters could have been the legion of doom! Worst of all, I *hated* that the heroes at the end say, "we're not even friends." I'm looking forward to this book getting much, MUCH better. (sigh)

Joe Slab said...

As much as I love this book being a part of Aquaman's resurgence, I have to agree with Russell --

Six issues & 7 months and THAT was the whole story?

The Phantom Stranger/Pandora back-up had more meat to it than the main story.

Oh well, no where to go but up!

Shellhead said...

I liked the GL/AM exchange during the ceremony.
"I don't mind the orange, but the necklace has got to go!"
LMAO

David J. Cutler said...

Echoing above statements. Adding that Darkseid was a little wasted here, defeated so easily, and showing up to do the dirty work himself the first time out? My introduction to Darkseid was the Superman animated series, where you saw his agents before you saw him, and once you did, it was in a BIG reveal on Apokalips itself, when Bruno Manheim is brought to him for punishment or whatever. I feel like he should have been replaced in this story with Kalibak, seed Darkseid for later.

Still, fun moments, fun art--just a little disappointed over all.

Russell said...

Also hated the comment, "This is gonna outsell the Bible." Holy Hyperbole, Batman! :-(

r duncan said...

"This is gonna outsell the Bible." Yeah, right.