Thursday, May 21, 2015

Convergence: Justice League of America #2 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Fabian Nicieza
Art By: ChrisCross, Snakebite Cortez
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: May 20, 2015


The Other Guys


*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

It's time to go back to Pre-Crisis Gotham and see what those wacky heroes of the Justice League Detroit team are up to now that the dome has disappeared and they have to face the Tangent Secret Six.  I'm not sure about you but after seeing how our heroes fared last issue, I don't have the greatest confidence in them........ Oh, what's that?  You didn't read the last issue, well you better get on that but just to catch you up, I'll give you a little lowdown.  After a year of being powerless in a domed Gotham, our heroes have gotten a little out of practice, so it's no wonder that when their powers returned and the Tangent Secret Six came a callin', that they got spanked hard.  Zatanna, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter were stuck in a stasis field while the rest of our team were dusting themselves off from a building collapsing on them.  The fight is on as we go into this issue, so let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our story begins with me begging Sue Dibny to punch Vicki Vale in the face because all she does in this issue, as our heroes put their lives on the line to try and save the city is talk shit.  Yeah, these heroes aren't the A-listers that everybody hopes will save them but they are still some damn fine heroes........... which is funny because the same could be said for the three heavy hitters of the team, Zatanna, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter, but they're out of commission due to them being stuck in a stasis field.  So our Justice League team throw down with the Tangent Secret Six and would have lost pretty badly if Gypsy hadn't given them a brief reprieve by throwing a belt full of grenades at the Tangent team, giving our heroes enough time to retreat and regroup........... all while Vicki Vale continues her smack talk.


While our team catch their breath in one of Mr. Freeze's old hideouts, the GCPD and Sue Dibny try to figure out a way to free the three heroes stuck in stasis, but the energy field keeps cycling through, making our heroes vanish and then reappear........... if only there was a way to "freeze" the stasis field so that our heroes could break free on their own.  That's right, Sue Dibny knows about Mr. Freeze's hideout just like Ralph.......... and I'm starting to think they were into some fetish stuff involving ice now that I think of it and when Sue gets to our team's hiding spot, we find out that the Secret Six have already won this game of hide and seek.  After Sue tells Ralph to take the fight somewhere else and after we see Vibe kicking some serious ass, after he decided to go full bore with his powers, the issue seems to end really abruptly.


In the end, Sue gets the freeze canister and as soon as our trio of heroes are freed, the fight is over.  Martian Manhunter shows up using his telepathy to stop the Secret Six in their tracks and Zatanna teleports them away....... ending the fight.  Now I don't really know if that counts as a win, but it seems to be in the eyes of Gotham because even Vicki Vale starts verbally sucking off Elongated Man for this heroic leadership of the Justice League team.


That's it for this issue of Convergence: Justice League of America and there isn't really too much going on here besides for a big ass fight, where we watch our heroes for the majority of this issue get their asses kicked.  Yeah, we have a cool moment where we think that Elongated Man is going to give a rousing speech to get his team's minds right, but all he accomplished was everyone kind of admitting to themselves that they were losers and we really don't come back from that in this issue.  It just ends with our heroes winning at the last moment and I'm not completely sure that these characters won't go home later and kill themselves because we don't really resolve their disparaging concept of themselves.  I loved the art in this book though and it's by two of the coolest sounding artists in comics, but there were a couple of times where the wrong character would be saying a bit of dialog and man does that become annoying when your trying to immerse yourself in the story.  So ultimately this second issue of JLA just comes off as a bit of a mixed bag.

Bits and Pieces:

While this issue won't elevate the Justice League Detroit team in anyone's minds, it does showcase those B-listers that we love, while they try to prove themselves to their city and to themselves.  Cool concept and all but in the end it didn't really stick the landing and I ended up feeling worse for these characters than I originally did........ and that wasn't the story's intention.  We got great art though and one of the best opposing teams in all of Convergence going on here.

6.5/10

5 comments:

  1. Wow, they really nerfed the Secret Six to make this fight work. ^^; I mean, both Plastic Man and Flash can divide themselves infinitly and change shape without limits. Spectre's power is invisibility and defaults to invisibility so he has to focus to be visible. Atoms powerset is a flying brick with gravity/atom control powers (meaning he can make anyone heavy or light. and make them super solid or super fragile.)

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    1. Yeah, I didn't get any of that. I wish we could have explored these characters more, after the first issue I really thought we would.

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    2. Tangents Flash is a living hologram, meaning shes pretty much invincible to most anything.
      And yeah, its a real shame. I mean, they did alright with Joker in issue 1, but issue 2 felt a bit 'trying to fit a load of things into a few pages'

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  2. I was just thrilled to see classic Vibe in action. I think it was residual geeking-out from the intimation on the Flash season finale that Cisco has Vibe powers! Guys--Vibe is going to be on television! George Perez is somewhere mouth agape, shaking his head slowly.

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    1. I KNOW ITS EXCITING! When I saw the pied pipers weapons were gloves that created blasts that looked like vibes in the comics i kept saying "STEAL THOSE MOFOS AND BECOME VIBE"...this is better:D

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