Justice League #16 - March 2013

Comics Weekend "Throne of Atlantis Chapter Three" by Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, and Rod Reis.

It was Aquaman vs. the Justice League this past Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday!

Aquaman then squares off against Wonder Woman, who promises she will not relent, even against the overwhelming odds. Batman gets zapped by Ocean Master, who is about to deliver a second, killing shot, but Aquaman stops him. While they argue, Wonder Woman sneaks up and prepares to pull a Maxwell Lord on Orm, but it's too late...the Atlantean army has arrived:

Meanwhile, Cyborg is on a mission to find Stephen Shin, since Vulko told him that Shin's expert knowledge of Atlantis is key to Orm's plan. A bunch of Atlantean agents arrive (one of them named Tula!) and attack, but Cyborg manages to grab Shin and teleport away.

Back in Boston, the fight is on! Orm uses a whirlpool to carry Wonder Woman away, and it's at this point that Superman. Has. Had. Enough:

The ocean starts to boil, but that doesn't even seem to phase Ocean Master. He uses his scepter to bring down a series of lightning bolts, zapping Superman, Wonder Woman, and his brother:

Across the country in Detroit, Cyborg and Shin appear at S.T.A.R. Labs, where a Dr. Morrow is working alongside Cyborg's father. Morrow talks about activating a weather machine android he's created (a-ha!), but Silas Stone warns him not to. Cyborg tells his father to equip him to fight underwater, a procedure that will take a few hours. In the meantime Cyborg, recognizing that his teammates have been captured, realizes he's going to need help, so he calls in reinforcements:

...to be continued in Aquaman #16!


After a gangbusters first chapter in Justice League #15, Johns, Reis, Prado, and Reis keep up the momentum with this issue, which I think I liked even more than the first installment. Mainly because there were so many great moments: Aquaman going toe-to-toe with the heavy hitters of the League, the reveal of the Atlantean army (a Reis/Prado/Reis Ka-Pow moment if there was ever was one), Aquaman's debate with Orm about his divided loyalties, the mention of the being that will surely became Red Tornado and, finally, the reveal of the new members, many of which are culled from the team's classic years. On top of that, the shot of Superman at the apogee of his rage recalls some of Neal Adams' best takes on the Man of Steel. It's a good story point made exceptional by the art team.

In the original Justice League of America series, writer Gerry Conway took over the book as of issue #151. By that point, the art team of Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin had been on the book for years, and they stayed on for years more. Along with Conway, they established a continuity of story and art that served the book (and the team) extremely well, for over half a decade. Are we seeing the beginnings of that type of book-defining era here? It sort of feels like it, because Geoff, Ivan, Joe, and Rod work so well together; and with the Throne of Atlantis storyline, and now the introduction of all the new members, makes me excited to read a Justice League comic that in a way I haven't felt in a long, long time.