Thursday, November 14, 2013

Justice League of America #9 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Matt Kindt
Art By: Tom Derenick, Tom Nguyen, Allen Martinez
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: November 13, 2013



Stargirl: Down The Rabbit Hole.


When last we left the only two heroes that remain in the JLA, Martian Manhunter was exploring the prison that holds various members of the three Justice Leagues, and Stargirl found that she was able to just walk out of it. Yep last panel of last issue, we go through the whole thing, and Stargirl can just walk out.  Shenanigans!  But being the heroic young lady she is,she came back to get J'onn out too.  At this point of the Forever Evil story if this is the first thing you're reading, then you have a lot of catching up to do.  Unless you're only interested in Martian Manhunter, and Stargirl which is kinda weird, but hey what do I know?  JLA here we come.

Explain It!:

Stargirl makes her way down the multiple levels of the prison, which should be according to Forever Evil #3 the Deathstorm Matrix within him.  But for this issue we only see it as a multi leveled prison which each level is it's own dimension that acts against the hero it's containing to drive them mad, lose all hope, or to simply keep them amused with where they are.  So with all that aside, Stargirl descends the prison in search of J'onn.

Throughout this issue we get glimpses of how Stargirl became Stargirl.  We first see her watching a cartoon program where Yankee Poodle is the central character.  First glimpse of the stars and stripes.  It's kinda funny, we get a whole re-imaged Captain Carrot in the form of a crazy one eyed, robot legged Captain K'Rot.  This Threshold version also came with Pig Iron, who was pretty much the same with a more serious art style.  But here we get a spot on Earth C Yankee Poodle.  The Zoo Crew if ever reintroduced is going to be a weird book.  But back to Stargirl, Courtney goes snooping around her step father's stuff and finds the costume, and star rod of the Star Spangled Kid.  So what would a young teenage girl do in this instance?  Well obviously suit up, and make the costume a little sexier by tying up the front exposing her stomach.  Now I kinda feel weird describing a teenager as getting sexy.  Let's forget this part of the synopsis ever happened, okay?  Because you're into some weird shit and I don't want to have to tell you're friends and family about what you keep in that foot locker of yours.  Wow, we are getting real off base here.  Courtney goes down all the levels of the prison that we saw in the last issue.

Back to Martian Manhunter.  J'onn has now found Aqua Man, and his prison is a ocean that is all dried up, and all the sea life lay dead around him.  J'onn tries to explain the situation to Arthur but the anger takes over and we get a really strange panel where it looks like Aqua Man flies away.  Or does that super Aqua jump that he's famous for.  In the end J'onn finally finds his own prison where he must fight himself.  He's not doing so well, but luckily Courtney found her way down, and turns the tide of the fight.  And we see her real strength.  The reason that there isn't a prison for her.  It's because of her youth, and her undying optimism, that this prison can't find a way to beat her down.  She grabs J'onn and makes her way out of the prison, but when she opens her eyes, J'onn isn't there, but who is is the real upsetting part.  Stargirl awakens in a cemetery surrounded by the Secret Society.

Bits and Pieces:

Sadly this issue doesn't do anything to continue the story until the very last page.  What we do get is a rehash of everything that happened in the last issue, with a small bit added to give us some background on Stargirl.  It's really small.  But the artwork of Tom Derenick is able to come through and give us a reason to still enjoy this book a bit, but it isn't enough to save it from being dull.  So if you're anything like me you'll get the issue because you're a completist, but you won't enjoy it as much as other tie-ins to this event.

6/10

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