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Saturday, April 06, 2013

Injustice: Gods Among Us #s 10-12 - 2013

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Injustice: Gods Among Us is a digital-first series that serves as a prequel to the upcoming video game. Its existence was completely off my radar (when I read something that starts with "From the makers of Mortal Kombat...", I tend to go zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz), but thanks to faithful Fire and Water Podcast listener Oscar Olalde, I was alerted to the fact that Aquaman showed up in issue #10 for a multi-issue arc, and that was good enough for me!

The series is written by Tom Taylor, with art for this issue by Mike S. Miller. Coming into it late, I wasn't really sure what was going on, other than Superman and Batman really, really don't like one another. Several pages of issue #10 are devoted to them screaming at one another, cutting away only to show a whale get harpooned, which draws the ire of everyone's favorite Sea King:
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Aquaman attacks the Japanese whaling ship, grabbing it's massive chains and trying to tip it over. The Justice League--or whatever version of the team exists in this universe--gets wind of this, and converge on the area--but before any of them can arrive, Aquaman declares war:
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Wonder Woman arrives first, and tries to talk some sense into Aquaman. But a trigger-happy Atlantean, supposedly concerned that Diana was attacking, fires at her, hitting the Amazing Amazon squarely in the face! This pisses Wonder Woman off, and she backhands Aquaman. Right at this moment, Green Lantern and Captain Marvel arrive, ready to fight! To be continued!


In issue #11 (drawn by Tom Derenick), the JLA and the Atlanteans battle, giving Aquaman time to recover from Wonder Woman's blow. At the right moment, he reaches up out of the water and drags Diana to the depths of the ocean:
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There's more pages of Superman and Batman gnashing their teeth at one another, and then we're back to the action. Captain Marvel grabs Aquaman and drags him into the sky, telling him to issue the command for his troops to back off.

Aquaman is barely concerned, telling the Big Red Cheese that he has more up his sleeve than the Atlantean army. As his men depart, Captain Marvel watches a creature that he thought was only a myth show itself:
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...the Kraken! Excuse me, but f**k yeah! To be continued!


In issue #12 (again drawn by Miller), Batman and Superman stop their Hate Watch long enough to notice that Aquaman is currently wiping the (ocean) floor with their teammates, thanks to the assistance of the very real, very angry Kraken:
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Superman arrives, punches a hole in one of the Kraken's tentacles (ew), and orders Aquaman to draw down. He does--sort of.

Superman thinks he's talked sense into Aquaman, but he's really just moved into Plan B (otherwise known as "Throne of Atlantis")--across the world, Atlantean armies are taking over every coastal nation, telling the JLA to "Get the hell out of my ocean."

Leaving Hawkgirl behind to rescue any civilians, Supes and the other powerhouses of the League decide to have a show of force of their own: crawling beneath the domed city of Atlantis, they lift the entire nation out of the sea, depositing it in the Sahara Desert! Naturally, this gets Aquaman to see things differently, and he talks with Wonder Woman:

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Aquaman expresses sorrow this has all gotten so far out of hand, and tells Diana to specifically tell Superman that he's sorry for what happened to Lois Lane. Wonder Woman returns, telling Superman about Aquaman's decision...but choosing to leave out the part about Lois.

I have to say, I enjoyed these three issues of Injustice: Gods Among Us. They're big dumb fun, drawn well (by both Miller and Derenick) and quickly paced. I'm not sure why so much space is wasted on Superman and Batman having a talking like this contest, but other than that I thought the series was a blast.

That said, I probably won't continue with I:GAU post-Aquaman's involvement, but for a series designed as a piece of tie-in merchandising it's a lot better than anyone has the right to expect.

Thanks to Oscar for the heads up!
 
 

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was wondering when yiu guys would get around to cover this. Injustice has been awesome. Hope a review the game too Aquaman is all over it.

themonkey said...

This entire series is worth reading, it's been great. The backdrop of Superman and Batman arguing is Superman has declared that he will stop all fighting. Batman feels that this puts Superman on the way to becoming a dictator. I'm happy that this series has Aquaman acting like a strong king, something that's been missing in his character for a while.

Ryan said...

Check this out. It will be running on TV "Aquaman Gots Mad Sharks!"
http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/kevin-smith-creates-injustice-game-spot-best-justice-013454885.html

BlUsKrEEm said...

I get that Supes is supposed to be the baddest mamjama in the DCU, but I can't help but get frustrated when he challenges Atlantis. He has two weaknesses, kryptonite and MAGIC, and we got the second one in spades. What is tempest taking a vacation?

Designer Daddy said...

And Rob, in case you didn't know, Joker was responsible for the deaths of both Jimmy and Lois, and then Superman essentially punched a hole through Joker (his M.O. in this series). It's been pretty cool so far — this coming from someone who hasn't played a video game since Frogger.

Joe Slab said...

@Ryan -- THAT is awesome. Thanks for the tip!

Anonymous said...

Injustice is going to be sick. April 16 cant get here soon enuff. MK is one of the best selling top grossing video games of all time guys

Oscar Olalde said...

Really struggling with this game, I have it for pre-order, it was a knee jerk reaction to have DC heroes, namely Aquaman and Green Arrow on the cast... but after playing the demo, I'm not sold, it takes from both MK animations and gameplay from Marvel vs Capcom 3... which is good and the storyline is entertaining, but I rather stick to just downloading the Aquaman/GA avatar costumes and watch the storyline in full on youtube come release day, maybe the occasional tournament on the weekend streams... just can't will myself pay $60 after playing the demo