Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Justice League #46 Review and *SPOILERS*


Tell 'Em Big Barda Sent Ya


Written By: Geoff Johns
Art By: Francis Manapul, Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 16, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

After one-shot after one-shot, we're finally back to the main Justice League story and we're only a month behind..... Woo!  I don't know if the one-shots were cash grabs or just thrown out there to try and satiate us while we wait for the story to continue, but it's a bit of a bummer when we get behind on comics, especially when we left things the way they were.  Darkseid has been killed and the majority of our Justice League have been transformed into Gods.  Batman now sitting upon the Mobius Chair has become the God of Knowledge, Superman soaking in the rays of a fire pit has become the God of Strength, Shazam getting a whole new set of Gods lending their power to him has become the God of Gods, Flash being merged with the Black Racer has become the God of Death and Lex Luthor taking in Darkseid's Omega Effect has become the God of Apokolips.  That's some crazy shit and even though this issue says that Green Lantern has become the God of Light, we all saw from the Green Lantern one-shot that he got rid of that role and is back to normal....... Pretty much all the one-shots got us back to where our last issue left off, so there isn't much else to do but get into this issue and see what's going down in the Darkseid War.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

As our issue begins we see the rest of our Leaguers, who weren't bestowed with God like powers, having to do the cleanup from Darkseid's death and that means taking out the forces of Apokolips, who just refuse to let go and accept that without Darkseid, they really aren't shit.  Really though, what I get from this is that Mister Miracle is a shit husband and Big Barda is a bad ass because Barda shows up looking for Scot because apparently they were supposed to be on their honeymoon and while everyone was kind of struggling with taking these Apokolips fools down, Barda just straight up takes them all down on her own.  As much as I love seeing Big Barda and Mister Miracle holding hands and sharing a malt down at the five and dime, it still irks me that these characters are different from the ones we saw in Earth 2.  I know we're still in story over continuity territory with the DCYou, but why did I spend all that time reading about these characters if it doesn't matter anywhere else........... Yes, it's probably because I'm a comic book fanboy and I don't have anything better to do, but that's not the point now is it?  


After our initial introduction to Big Barda and how bad ass she is, we then move on to a plan that involves getting information from the remaining members of the Crime Syndicate because they're the only ones who know anything about the Anti-Monitor, since Batman's off doing his God of Knowledge things and not answering any of his teammates' calls.  We've seen this before though and I imagine that it's going to be a lot like last time, where the Crime Syndicate aren't much help and if they knew anything that could be used against the Anti-Monitor, they would have done that instead of fleeing their Earth and trying to conquer this one........... I guess it will be nice seeing Super Woman again so we can see how far along she is with her pregnancy, but apparently it's not going to be as simple as getting a visitor pass because Steve Trevor informs our heroes that Ultraman and her have been put on a no visitors list at Bell Reve, so it's going to take some Mister Miracle action to get them in.  Maybe it's because Superman isn't around at the moment or maybe it's because we just saw Big Barda and Scot Free getting all smoochy smoochy, but while everyone else goes off to see about breaking into Bell Reve, Steve Trevor hangs back with Wonder Woman so he can talk about his feelings.  Dude should have totally picked a better time though because while Superman might be all negative colored now, his hearing hasn't been altered at all and he shows up looking like he's about to stomp Steve into the ground for hitting on his girl.  


In the end, we move away from our heroes and watch as Anti-Monitor begins........ Well, I don't even know how to really explain it.  He's floating in a glowing ball of energy, looking like a big baby, while his shadow demons protect him and as our issue closes we see that this act has dispelled the Anti-Life Equation from his body.  I guess Darkseid needed to die for this to happen.......... I'm not quite sure why yet, but apparently one man's trash is another woman's treasure because Grail seems really interested in getting her hands on the Equation and somehow making her father Darkseid suffer more with it.


That's it for this issue of Justice League and as much as I love this title, I have to say that not much goes down here.  Besides for Wonder Woman coming up with a plan that our heroes have tried before, getting Big Barda in on the fight and Grail apparently having more up her sleeve than simply helping Anti-Monitor purge himself, it's just a lot of the same things we had in the previous issue.  Our heroes have become gods and are only used as filler for this issue, where we periodically have panels depicting them doing nothing to move this story along........ Well, that's not entirely true.  We do have Superman showing up and starting a jealous brawl with Steve Trevor and that's really interesting to me because it's been brewing for a long time.  As for the art........... man, I hate saying this because I'm a fan of Manapul, but I'm not really enjoying his work on Justice League because nothing is as clean as I've come to expect this series to look and the colors are so washed out that I find myself just glancing over the pages instead of staring at them like I could become a part of it........ Yeah, that's a weird thing to do, but I don't judge the way you read comics.  It's just not for me and I wish I could get behind it more because like I said, I'm a fan....... just not in this book.

Bits and Pieces:

While I was really anticipating this issue after having all those one-shots and that bad ass cliffhanger from the previous issue, this just left me wanting more because........ Well, because not much went on at all.  Our God like heroes are off doing other things and the heroes that we're left with are just grasping at straws in trying to figure out what to do next.  It's just not that engaging and Manapul's art, while I normally enjoy it just doesn't do anything for me here except make me wish that Fabok was on this instead.  

5.5/10

26 comments:

  1. This story over continuity thing is pretty irrksom. But by what I've read hear, There has to be 2 Apockylpses. Because these are totally different versions of Mister Miricle and Big Barda. Also would explain why there are 2 Stephenwolfs.
    Favorite part was seeing Superman about to crush Steve Trevor's head like a Grape. Never like Trevor in the new 52 or Pre flashpoint, Same could be said about Hal Jordan.
    Wasn't a bad issue though, I'd give it a 6/10. Better than average.

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    1. When I saw superman grab Steve, my exact thought "and this is why you're in the friend zone dumbass! Who would say that shit to the gf of the most powerful being in the universe!"

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    2. steve trevor deserves ownder woman more than jerk superman. so i'm glad that wonder owman will smash him lol

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    3. Personally I think he deserves better than Wonder Woman! Remember how much crap he went through during the second arc in the main JL title? He was beaten both physically and mentally for him to keep the JL but specifically Wonder Woman safe! And all she does is the equivalent of a pat on the back!!

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    4. Superman should be with Lois, right guys and gals??? Come on...Lois

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    5. I like Lois just fine; you can't watch Superman: The Animated series and not fall in love with Dana Delany's portrayal. On the other hand, Steve Trevor might be my favorite Damsel in Distress. Dude's always been a badass. In the Golden Age, he punched the God of War right in the face.

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    6. No comment on Lois cuz last time I did I caused our site to be called sexist XD

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    7. It makes more sense if you read Multiversity. In it, they reveal that each universe in the multiverse has its own Darkseid, and new gods, and all that. With each version being a fragment of a larger whole. So every Darkseid we come across is 1/52 the strength of the true Darkseid.

      Thus, everything going on in Earth-2 has nothing to do with the main earth.
      Oh, and the New Gods had imprisoned all of the Darkseids at one point, thus making it so that only certain people like super escape artists and monitors can break Darkseid out and allow him to go pillaging.

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    8. I just can't go with the Multiversity explanation because we saw from the Earth 2 series that the same Apokolips that destroyed that world was also the one that attacked Earth-0 in the beginning of the New 52. Those Earths had everything to do with one another.......... until they didn't.

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    9. Keep in mind that earths end couldn't even remember the names of its characters and kept going back and forth on that. I think what happened is the higher ups told the writers of earth-2 how things worked and they simply bungled it. Par for the course with that title.

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  2. So Darkseid is dead, Justice League members are becoming New Gods, something is up with Metron, Möbius is rejecting the anti-life equation, and Grail is becoming the new Anti-Monitor! Yes the art is DIFFERENT but I am absolutely loving this book!!

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    1. You loved it so much, you got suckered into the 100 page extravaganza!

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    2. Ugh thanks DC!! Even though I will love it, still frustrating not to know what I am buying. That explains why the guy at comic shop was laughing when I mentioned my excitement for reading it.

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  3. I couldn't care less about the shitty characterization of World's End!Barda and Scott being ignored. World's end ruined Earth 2 and i'm happy to see it ignored.

    Anyway, i'm enjoying Darkseid War a lot more than Forever Evil

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    1. How dare you say such dirty words as "World's End" around here!!! World's End did indeed ruin Earth 2 and I wish they would just forget all that nonsense and get back to the book people wanted in the first place.

      I'm enjoying Darkseid War enough, it just is at a lull right now and I hope it gets going next issue. I was not a huge Forever Evil Fan.

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    2. Earth 2 the book started out so strong! It got me interested in the long-standing DC tradition of parallel worlds, and had me going down the rabbit hole that is the 'back-issue bin'. James Robinson killed those first few arcs. But leave it to DC to let a top-tier writer walk off a book far too soon. Tom Taylor's run was decent, but it was a bit 'off' in the concept, I think, that Robinson was going for. But Taylor's run was at least still entertaining enough, and had some cool moments and characters introduced. But for a second time on Earth 2, DC couldn't hang onto the writer...why do all the half-way decent writers walk from there DC titles?? Is DC notoriously cheap or something?

      The third writer (or writers?) on Earth 2 was awful. And I think I remember reading around the time World's End came out that the writer (can't recall his name) was new to the comic game...like he may have been some kind of television guy or something? Well, it certainly showed in the books. Long rant short...revive the Earth 2 concept with someone who understands what there writing about.

      Matt

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    3. Earth 2: Society is being written by Daniel H. Wilson who also wrote World's End, but in the next issue we're getting Dan Abnett taking over that book.

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    4. Oh nice! Abnett has been around the industry long enough, much like Robinson, that I trust him to right that ship. Haven't bothered with Society, but I will definitely check out Abnett's run.

      Nice, fair review, btw. I had drifted off of most of DC's current stuff sometime during Future's End/World's End, but I have stayed faithful to Johns' fantastic JL run. This issue was boring, and I ripped through it in a what felt like a minute, but I think it was just a 'filler' issue in the Darkseid War arc; just an issue to wrap up Act 1 and setup Act 2. I love me some Barda (this Barda), so I still enjoyed the issue, and it still has me loving this arc. Now if we can get #47 on time...

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  4. I really enjoyed this issue. Sure it wasn't the most engaging, but what it did do was introduce Barda and give her enough focus that readers unfamiliar with her will have a good grasp that shes a badass. Which was awesome.

    Also, I really ship Steve and Diana. And if this is a hint that their going that route, then more power to em.

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  5. Just noticed on my re-read that the image for Green Lantern God of Light is a pic of Batman not Hal. Come on DC, we know that you LOVE Batman but you are offending us Latern fans.

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    1. No it's GL. His God form is similar to batmans

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  6. That's my point, why does everything have to be about Batman! :-o

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    1. Actually the GL cowl as a whole looks more like the New God Light Ray

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  7. Good point. Anyone know what exactly Big Barda is doing to Kantos with her staff/sword/mother-box thingy??

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    1. Thats the Omega rod, and she just opened a boom tube at point blank into his neck. Not quite sure what that did, but it sure looks like it smarts. She actually used a similar trick back in the day when she TKO'd Lobo in one hit.

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    2. In English: she gave the god equivalent of a taser XD

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