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LUKE CAGE Season 1, Netflix Series Review
FUTURE QUEST #6
REBORN #1
CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #1
SKYBOURNE #2
BRITANNIA #2
LUKE CAGE Season 1, Netflix Series Review
Starring Mike Colter, Simone Missick, Theo Rossi, Alfre Woodward, and many, many moreProduced by Marvel Studios
Aired by Netflix
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee
Reminding a world that had gone a whole four months (!!!) without a live action Marvel property that they still exist, the third figure in the Netflix DEFENDERS stable, Luke Cage, finally aired on his own show just a couple weeks back. Now that some time has gone by and I don’t feel obligated to remain spoiler free (and because I just haven’t been inside a comic shop in forever to talk about actual comics) I figured I’d it was worth a thousand words or so discussing the program, the progress of this super group, and the importance of such a prominent minority character in the superhero coming to the masses like this in a lead role. Because this is 2016 after all and, quite frankly to ramp right into it, it has been kind of a shit year, and a banner one for people consistently blaming their ills and the ills of society as a whole on people who look different than them or have ideological differences for them. And that might be a bit simplistic summation of how our society is running and an in your face jump to the subject matter, but if you know anything about the history of Luke Cage, you know subtle social commentary has never really be the gist of the character. So, going into this program, I was curious to say the fucking least how the confluence of events of a very outspoken (at least in the comics) lead character in a time of very heated sociopolitical fervor but also being produced by a multi-billion dollar company with their own agenda and sort of “line drawn in the sand’ when it comes to pleasing everyone and managing their licenses would actually turn out.
The answer, I found, was a TV program that in many ways actually had a lot more teeth to it than I ever expected, but at the same time kind of ducked some of the more contentious debates springing up in modern society. The show starts off exactly as one would hope it would, very humble and proud of itself and its backdrop in the heart of a Harlem that looks both soulful and artistic but that is also hurting. A big helping of culture is the first dish served up as the main establishments we are inducted into at the beginning are the somewhat crumbled but homey Pop’s Barbershop where Cage is remaining incognito and then the very stylish and soulful nightclub being ran by power-playing gangster Cornell Cottonmouth. The atmosphere being projected in the opening few sequences of the pilot episode immediately envelop you and let you know that Harlem is every bit of a character in this show as any of the ones the actors and actresses are portraying. From the music and the clothing and just the working class swagger of it all, it’s easy to fall in love with this creative yet tumultuous section of NYC.
Obviously, this heartfelt love letter to these city blocks is done to be both a reflection of the actual characters in the show and the battles they are about to wage on each other and the inner turmoil some of the actions inflicted by and on them are about to kick up. Luke Cage, in the wake of his experiences in the JESSICA JONES series, is just trying to keep is head down, do what he has to in order to pay the rent and live in obscurity, and reflect on the life he used to have. The barbershop banter he finds himself enveloped in from the jump of the show is a great play on the ideals of living humble but having to acknowledge responsibility to the community, as Pops himself is shown to be a pillar of the community and teaching impressionable young men the perils of growing up greedy and angry; two traits Pops reveled in during his youth spent working over the streets. And the dialogue and tone of all this is very much in a maturely handled light that, on the one hand, I probably should not be surprised by given how forerunning programs DAREDEVIL and JESSICA JONES pushed their PG-13’s, but LUKE CAGE very much has a viciousness to it at times and a willingness to be right in your face with the dialogue and subject matter, as well it should. If there was anything this show needed to be it was authentic and LUKE CAGE the show and Luke Cage the character pass that test.
Moving beyond the flavor of the show, LUKE CAGE presents itself less a superhero show as a crime drama featuring a Wire-esque power push by “bad dudes” like Cottonmouth, a vicious, stylish “entrepreneur” tired of playing second fiddle to big fish in the pond, Diamondback, willing to shed as much blood as he has to in order to take what he wants though insisting he’ll keep the community whole in his own way. While he angles to grab more and more, buoyed in support by his Councilwoman of a sister in “Black” Mariah Dillard, Cage can’t help but be drawn into this world while watching the community establishments around him be hassled by Cottonmouth’s grunts. And this is where the show shines. Cage has a quiet swagger about him as he waffles on getting involved in the process of easing the pain of the community until some really brutal (and, sadly, somewhat predictable) circumstances bring him off the sidelines and into war with Cottonmouth. And all of this really does play very strongly because, as the episodes roll on, we get some good thematic exploration with most of the cast. We get a nice exploration of Cage’s troubled past and why he has the reservations he has to be a productive force with the powers he now possesses, we see how a vicious upbringing formed a man like Cottonmouth, who still believed in the code of the Harlem streets but figures it would be better carried out under his hand, and that how a somewhat timid though ambitious woman like Black Mariah could turn into something much more menacing. Pushing these figments of the characters and making them reflections of the principles Harlem itself represents makes for some very thoughtful crime fiction with a superhero slant, but unfortunately things flip to be a little more on the superhero side in the second half of the series and things take a tumble.
Why the whole, y’know, he’s an actual superhero with powers and everything side of Cage really starts to tear at the seems of the show in the back half is simply because of how good of a grounded work of crime fiction it is in the front end. When your main villain is a street level waging turf wars and your protagonist can shrug off fucking rocket launchers, the battle becomes lop-sided and you need to change the way the war is fought. And this basically leads to a shift from Luke Cage fighting a war on Cottonmouth one drop house at a time to Luke Cage fighting a much more exciting war on public perception as the media is orchestrated against him in a kind of slapdash way. Sadly, this is also kind of where the show, at least I feel, makes its main push at social commentary at our current turmoil in the black community and the Black Lives Matter movement by having the unassuming black man usually doing his business in a hoodie become a scapegoat for actual wrongdoings and a stop on sight target by the police. It’s not that it is wrong and I get the point in play of how easy public perception is to get riled up and how Cage is being labeled as the guilty party with very little prodding since he is a minority in a minority and so on and so forth. The commentary is apt it is just so on the nose in its transparency on the one hand and on the other it is kind of just mediocrily executed in a how just some sketchy evidence and hearsay takes him from folk hero to public menace in basically the span of an episode. It does, though, help build up Black Mariah as a much needed presence in the second half of the season and going forward into a potential second season of the show because villainy is very much the second weakness the third act of LUKE CAGE suffers from.
When DAREDEVIL season two hit and I ate that up as eagerly as I have every one of these Marvel on Netflix shows, I immediately left that feeling a little unfulfilled because I thought it had a very Kingpin sized hole in it. Vincent D’Onofrio brought a monster of a menace to life to face off against the protector of Hell’s Kitchen and was a big part of making that season of television arguably one of the top three things Marvel studios has produced to date. Likewise, David Tennant’s horrifically amoral yet somehow charming turn as The Purple Man in JESSICA JONES carried a ton of weight in that show’s success. Unfortunately, in LUKE CAGE there are essentially three primary villains we are introduced to throughout the season, the most fully developed of which is disposed of halfway through, the one with the biggest potential just starts to reach it as the show ends, and the one that ends up being the powerhouse presence that goes toe-to-toe with Cage himself in the third act is just, well, boring.
Diamondback as a foil, coming in to do what Cottonmouth couldn’t, ends up becoming just an intimidating guy with a somewhat tacked on feeling history with Cage in order to personalize his motives. And none of it ever feels organic and he doesn’t have any particular charisma to grab you as a villainous personality nor does he really have stand out personality traits to make an impact as an antagonist. He comes in, he wants to make Luke suffer, because he’s a normal guy and this has to shift into superhero mode as the third act plays out because, well, Cage is a superhero, Diamondback just happens to have the ability to access high grade military weaponry from Roxxon (to tie the DEFENDERS stuff together a little more) that he can now use to have an expected fisticuffs showdown at the end. And considering how good a street level crime drama this show was until then, it’s just kind of a shame. Not that things end in a slugfest in a street so much, obviously these things happen, but more in how awkwardly these aspects kind of rip the heart of the story out while trying to build itself up as a “fight for the soul of Harlem” it kind of loses the script on. It’s a stumble of a finish to a TV season that spent two-thirds of its time swaggering all about without tripping over itself.
If I haven’t made it clear by now, though, when LUKE CAGE succeeds it does so resoundingly. Mike Colter is the embodiment of the character, or at least this take on the character that sheds a lot of the exploitative nature of his origins and focuses on being a man with an easily stoked fire under a calm, man on a mission exterior. He speaks volumes with his actions when finally called to them and they are especially sold because of his cool but kind of cheesy demeanor in between bouts of slamming hoods through walls. Really, almost every actor with a moderate to great amount of screen time brings a good turn in what they’re doing. Simone Cook is a force of nature as a overly possessed NYPD detective version of Misty Knight, Mahershala Ali is the villain this first season deserved and needed to stick with as Cottonmouth, Alfre Woodward really does a great job in slowly shifting the psychological makeup of her Black Mariah as events play out over the season, and on and on. Much like the other two Marvel on Netflix shows up to this point you really cannot find many flaws in what the cast brings forward from a talent standpoint, but some of what the scripting calls for them to do or in how it develops them or the screen time it gives them is suspect. This kind of reared its head in Daredevil season two, as I said before, when the show basically became “DD fights some ninjas and their lackluster figurehead” for the last handful of episodes, and it happens here with Diamondback’s manufactured background and motivations leading to a generic deus ex super suit and uninspired fisticuffs wrap-up.
And of course there is that culture again. Look, I am by no means any sort of soulful human being. I am thirty-five years of the whitest human being a person can be. I grew up in a small town suburb in a middle class family and was more bored than “at risk” while growing up. There was no struggle for me beyond finding an identity and learning how to talk to girls without getting laughed at and shattered. But I understand a need and longing for community as some of the ones I fell into in my life – like a youth spent in many a punk rock show mosh pit – helped put a fire in my belly fighting life tedium and looking for direction. While the type of community shown off here in this rendition of Harlem, which is very soulful and congregational, is kind of foreign to me in actual activity with the Barbershops bullshitting, the potlucks and Church practice and so on, it very much speaks to me in what it attempts to foster. And speaking as someone from outside that cultural window looking in, it seems to me this community really needed some potent representation of the day-to-day grind within its street borders given how much flame fanning is going on outside in the real world. Basically, this show really needed to wear its black on its sleeve and be proud of it, because that is who Luke Cage is as a character and that’s the sense of pride the black community deserves to have shown off. It is a shame that the superhero part of the makeup of Luke Cage didn’t quite come together and mesh better with the more ground level figment of the character but there should be a great sense of accomplishment in this show’s representation of Cage and the way of life he defends.
Humphrey Lee has been an avid comic book reader going on fifteen years now and a contributor to Ain't It Cool comics for quite a few as well. In fact, reading comics is about all he does in his free time and where all the money from his day job wages goes to - funding his comic book habit so he can talk about them to you, our loyal readers (lucky you). He's a bit of a social networking whore, so you can find him all over the Interwebs on sites like Twitter, The MySpaces, Facebookand a blog where he also mostly talks about comics with his free time because he hasn't the slightest semblance of a life. Sad but true, and he gladly encourages you to add, read, and comment as you will.
FUTURE QUEST #6
Writer: Jeff ParkerArtist: Evan Shaner and Ron Randall, with Craig Rousseau
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man
Since I have yet to be impressed by the two Kid Flashes, two Superwomen, three Supermen, the super children, the mystery that is once again who the hell is Wonder Woman, the geezer heroes and the promise of the Justice League fighting a blue naked man – FUTURE QUEST is the best superhero book DC has right now.
Ever since issue one, this has been a roller-coaster of action and characters. Parker is showing us that pretty much no one does adventure better than he does these days. By working all of the classic Hanna-Barbera action / superheroes together, he has been giving us a parade of evil spies, space monsters, and dinosaurs. And for the social justice warriors out there who get (to steal the phrase) butt-numb over everyone being white, Parker has updated Mightor into the 21st century as an African American hero. Failing to suffer from a case of the 'look at us, aren't we progressive and sensitive', the update is just fine and fitting. Although with cat, instead of a dinosaur pet, Mightor's new side-kick is a saber-tooth tiger (aka a Smilodon). Getting back to the plot, Team Quest manages to chase off and escape the agents of F.E.A.R. Dino-Boy even has time to gives us a lecture about Velociraptors vs Deinonychus. Unfortunately though, Jade managed to kidnap Dr. Quest in the chaos. Meanwhile, in the outer space future, Space Ghost still can't make any headway against the main threat, Omikron. As the two travel to yet a another dimension.
So this book is just a big fun epic adventure. While I still say a scorecard would be handy for the non-Hanna-Barbera fans, Parker does a good job preventing the reader from getting lost. Actually, this mad adventuring is moving along so well and the characters are weaving into each other so well, I'm curious if Parker has any plans for after the dust settles, and this Omikron adventure is over.
Evan Shaner aka Doc, really has pitch perfect pages. From all the characters to the action, it all looks great. The Space Ghost pages are the highlight. I wish he could draw all the pages, but Ron Randall does a decent job pitching in. And his style doesn't break the flow of the book.
Lastly, there's a back-up feature continuing the introducing of Hanna-Barbera's funny cartoon heroes, The Impossibles! Parker works on bringing them into the real world, and again for the butt-numb SJW out there, he's added a fourth non-white female member to the trio (I only point it out, because it seems to be so important these days to do so). While I like the addition of the girl (if I may), her non-body related powers seem out of place. Here, which one doesn't fit to you: one turns into fluid (Fluid-Man), one turns into a coil (Coil-Man), one can multiply themselves (Multi-Man) and one can control magnetic waves (Cobalt). She even has a 'c' on her chest- like Coil-Man already does!? How about a size changing power Parker? 'G' on the chest and call her Grow-Woman. Anyway, it's a cute story as the Impossibles are complete newbies, and their silly pop band / movie star cover. Craig Rousseau's Walt Simonson-ish artwork looks pretty great on it too.
Seriously, if you like adventure comic books, you should totally be buying this. Everyone else (aside from all the “I only read dark stuff'”) should give it a try too.
You can pick up this comic at TFAW by clicking this link!
REBORN #1
Writer: Mark MillarArtist: Greg Capullo
Publisher: Image Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man
Comic's wonderboy Mark Millar is back with another new mini-series: REBORN (Oh, he was so close to getting sued by DC) and it's another original concept for his MillarWorld. For the first time he is joined by Greg Capullo, who is fresh off his popular run on BATMAN.
So let's just jump right into the spoilers of this first issue. Well it all starts with a bang, or rather a blam, as a sniper is picking off people at a coffee shop. Not sure, if we'll ever see the sniper again, as those pages of senseless violence merely set-up the plot. You see, everyone kill wakes up in the afterlife, which is nothing you've seen before (so to speak). As it's a Lord of the Rings type fantasy place, with a fair amount of sci-fi tech as well. And the newly dead are 'reborn' in bodies similar to their physical prime (as in, old people are young again). Before we can get too into that, we meet our main character, an elderly woman named Bonnie Black. Bonnie is in the process of dying and recalls all the important moments of her life. Soon, she passes on and enters the fantasy afterlife. Although not quite like everyone else, as she seems to be the savior of Adystria (which is either the afterlife or one country in the afterlife). Of course, she has no idea what the heck is going on, but her father and her old dog (Roy-Boy, now as big as a horse) are there to greet her. Are you not intrigued?
Let's talk Capullo, shall we? Well just like his work on BATMAN, this is a great looking stuff. Though I feel it's a bit tighter than his BATMAN work (as you can get away with rougher looking art on characters like Batman). These pages also remind me of Scott Cambell's work. Not as flashy as Campbell's work, but more than Capullo's art has looked before. Either way, his visual storytelling of the old woman's story, as well as the fantasy world are both expertly done. Any Capullo fan must pick this up.
As to the story, nothing really impressed me plot-wise (though I am hard to impress), despite the inventiveness of the concept. While yes, it's an interesting twist to the afterlife, I'm more just wondering if there is a grand design or is it just back-story. On the plus side, is how Millar tells his main characters' human story. On one level you can dismiss it as something we've seen a lot of, another character dwelling on their life and purpose. But Millar writes it all down defy to not be boring and have an decent emotional cord.
Without a doubt, this is a nice kick-off to a new tale. Again, I just hope that since the so-called 'twist' of the story was in the first issue, the rest of the series won't be just on auto-pilot. Though, I guessing Millar is too clever a writer to just abandon the first act as mere set-up.
You can pick up this comic at TFAW by clicking this link!
CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #1
Writers: Gerard Way and Jon RiveraArtist: Michael Avon Oeming
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man
Rock star turned comic book writer, Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance) launches his second DC series (the first being the latest DOOM PATROL). (See how easy it is to writer for DC and Marvel, just get famous- I kid). One interesting thing about this new series, it's the first Cave Carson comic book- ever! Carson and his Silver Age team of adventurous spelunkers first appeared in SHOWCASE (as did many DC characters), then in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD and then in other various comic books. Sometimes even as a member of the 'superhero' team, the Forgotten Heroes. But the man never got his own comic book until now, 56 years later.
Now while I like the music of My Chemical Romance, I never cared enough to know who Gerard Way was. So what drew me to this comic is Cave Carson himself. The older I get, the more curious I'm about failed adventure characters from the Silver Age (dare I say, Way probably feels the same way).
Getting into the spoilers of this issue, Way and company adds a little pathos to our man Cave (FYI- his real name is Calvin Carson), by making him a widower (apparently, he married the underworld Princess Eileen) and the father of a college aged daughter. Aside from that all the more recent additions to Cave Carson remains- His Doctor Who like origin of stealing the mole machine, having a loose relationship with the company he helped develop it for, and his Cybernetic Eye. Old school readers will know that Cave didn't always have it, and it may surprise everyone, that it's never been explained how he got it. Maybe that will be one of the mysteries Way tackles, now that Cave has his own series.
Getting back to the spoilers, so Cave is dealing with the loss of his wife, and his daughter Chloe is dealing with being a teenager in college, losing her mom, and coming from a once famous family. While wondering what to do with himself, Cave meets with the next generation 'super' spelunkers and Dr. Will Magnus, creator of the Metal Men (I'm a little unsure if this is the latest version of the Metal Men, last seen in Geof Johns' FOREVER EVIL, or another update). Then things get crazy, as a visit from one his wife Eileen's people turns into a monster attack. Lastly, Way and company bring back an old character, who's been running around on TV these day in ARROW: Wild Dog. Though seriously Max Allan Collins, a dork in a hockey mask with a machine gun isn't a superhero, he's Punisher light, very light.
Quickly I'll mention CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE is part of DC latest imprint line “Young Animal”, which is usually a good indicator of something about to be canceled soon. Makes me wonder why DC even bothers doing that. Vertigo was the only one to really succeed.
Now, I wouldn't say this was a smash hit, but it was still an interesting read. The characters are all multifaceted enough and the action seems crazy enough to make for a good book. The addition of so many other Silver Age concepts makes me wonder if this maybe Way trying to do a NEW FRONTIER. If so Michael Avon Oeming is perfect artist for the job. You probably love or hate his style, but either way he's a good artist and it shows in this book. With some inventive layouts, he has nice quiet scenes as well as action scenes. And hey, you even get two naked male butts in here as well. I also love his dot patterns, as a throw back to old Silver Age printing. CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #1 is a nice kick-off to an old school adventure book, with some modern introspective characters.
You can pick up this comic at TFAW by clicking this link!
SKYBOURNE #2
Writer / Artist: Frank ChoColored: Marcio Menyz
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Reviewer: Masked Man
Getting tired of being told how to draw women at DC, superstar creator Frank Cho has decided to do his own thing at Boom Studio. And I think some of you might be surprised that there's not one 'hot chick' in the whole book.
So Cho is creating a new mythology, out of the old, in a five issue mini-series (it's even printed on the cover! So nice!) at Boom Studio. Getting into the spoilers of it, it appears to be a clash of two religious mythology view points, paganism vs Christianity. Our main characters, the Skybourne, are the immortal supermen (and lady) children of the Christ resurrected Lazarus. They have worked with the Catholic Church for centuries, keeping magical items and beings at bay. Well now stepping into the ring is the resurrected Merlin, who is looking to 'reclaim' stuff. In the first issue, he had a knock down drag out fight with Grace (the lady) and even managed to kill her (Ok, start blogging about women in refrigerators, we knew Cho was evil). So this issue, Father Swiggy convinces Thomas to rejoin The Mountain Top, by telling him his sister has been killed. Thomas had given up on living and has just been looking for a way to die. He pretty much hopes this will be his the 'final' mission.
As I often like to say, there's nothing too original about this series, or in Cho's writing in general. His writing always re-uses the same video game like plot devices and characters. What he does right, is to never make it boring or trite. Like, if you can't be Hickman or Morrison, at least be fun, and that he is. Then of course there's his art, which always seals the deal. Everything is always so clean and so expertly rendered. The dragon and the fight with the minotaur a especially nice. He also tosses in a bunch of Ray Harryhausen Easter eggs, for us to enjoy.
If you are a Frank Cho fan (and not just a cheesecake fan), you should totally be picking this up. I'd also recommend it to any general comic book fan. It probably won't get an Esiner nomination, but it looks to be a very good read.
BRITANNIA #2
Writer: Peter MilliganArtist: Juan Jose Ryp
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment
Reviewer: Masked Man
Valiant's magnum opus BRITANNIA, which seems to be their bid to be more like IMAGE, rolls out it's second ,of four, issues. The 'out of typical' Valiant continuity tale is written by former 'British Invasion' writer Peter Milligan, who has written SHADE, THE CHANGING MAN for DC and X-STATIX for Marvel. He's joined by Spanish artist Juan Jose Ryp, who is known for many Avatar comics and a few Marvel books.
So what's it all about (i.e. - spoilers)? Well in 60 A.D., under the reign on Nero, strange things are afoot in Britannia. Guided by the Vestal Virgins, Antonius Axia and his British slave Bran, are sent to the island territory to see what is going on. As you might expect from an occult type adventure, they run into mangled bodies and demons. Armed with arcane knowledge from the Vestals, Antonius feels empowered and up to the task. Which is good, since this issue deals mostly with a frontier fort, where things are not right. As Antonius investigates the fort, he turns just about all the amped up soldiers against him. In another plotline, he also discovers a Druidic woman, Bodmall, who will undoubtedly help him in his mission. Back in Rome, Nero is being Nero, and it's revealed that Antonius has been tricked by the Vestals. While they hope he succeeds against the demonic forces he is up against (which they fear could destroy Rome), they don't expect his survive either.
As intended, Milligan's tale comes across like MASTERPIECE THEATRE meets HELLBLAZER (which Milligan spent some time writing as well). Everything is a bit broad, engrossing and bit plodding as well. It reminds me a bit of the old Sean Connery movie OUTLAND as well. As our hero Antonius is out on his own and in a bit over his head. Now, since it's rather heavy and operatic, I feel it well probably read better as a trade. Not that these issues are inferior by themselves, like some mini-series. Just that you should probably eat this steak whole.
Ryp's art fits Milligan's classic old world tale, and adds to it as well. His style is very much like an old CLASSIC ILLUSTRATED comic. Which was often trying to be more storybook than comic. His figures are all well rendered and highly detailed. Occasional they can be a bit clumsy, but overall impressive. Jordie Bellaire's coloring really adds to the overall feel and tone as well: Very heavy, storybook like and subdued.
Valiant and team are really swinging for the fence with this one. And as we've reached the half way point, I think they've reached their goal. While it's not as elegant as say TWLIGHT CHILDREN (another four part, out there, mini-series), if Milligan can stick the landing, BRITANNIA will be a very worth while series.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #7
Writer: Bryan HitchArtist: Jesus Merino
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man
Super-star artist turned writer (can I stop saying that now?) Bryan Hitch, wraps up his second JUSTICE LEAGUE story arc in just two issues! The League had to deal with being infected with fear, which manifested itself in different ways. I might have said this was a refreshing brief adventure for the League, if Hitch crafted a good story, but he didn't.
Just like with his last story, Hitch seems to have no interest in explaining anything about his stories. They are just happenings. Getting into the spoilers, the League manages to defeat some black fear causing 'space worms'. As they slip back into their normal lives, they become over whelmed with fear. Superman becomes engaged that the League is not trusting of him, Cyborg sees himself as a monster, Batman is over whelmed with survivor's guilt, etc. In the end, just as she did to defeat the 'space worms' in issue #6, Green (Jessica Cruz) Lantern, raises her power ring and says something like, I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore and poof, bad guys gone. She then quits. So what was this 'space worm'? Where did it come from, why was it doing this- no idea (and the League didn't seem to care either). And since Jessica's first power ring blast failed to stop the bad guys completely, why does everyone just accept the second blast did? Also, why did some Justice Leaguers manage to fight off the fear effect and not others- no idea. Seriously, the whole two-part breaks down to, well this $h!t just happened.
What you do get in the story is a lot of dialog of the characters dealing with their personal demons. And when they get clear of the effects of the 'space worms', we get their thoughts on their actions. The repercussions of those actions to themselves and to their relationships. And I gotta say, to my discredit, it was so boring I skipped a lot of it. After I understood the point Hitch was making in the first two panels, I just couldn't bring myself to read the other six in the scene.
Jesus Merino steps into the penciller position again. It's decent enough work, but not as impressive as his last issue. Maybe he was rushed or uninspired (we all saw how Hitch's own pencils deteriorated as the painfully pointless AGE OF ULTRON rolled along). Well whatever was at play, it's too bad because he is a very talented artist.
I didn't think it was possible, but Hitch's JUSTICE LEAGUE is becoming less worthwhile than his JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA. The only thing I can think, is that he's so focused on playing a very long game and therefore not focused enough on the smaller story arcs. Which in turn could corrode his whole grand scheme.
You can pick up this comic at TFAW by clicking this link!
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