Justice League #33 Review

No Doug Flutie Here

Written by: Joshua Williamson
Art by: Tyler Kirkham, Mikel Janin, Arif Prianto, Jeromy Cox, Richard Starkings and Comicraft's
Jimmy Betancourt
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: November 15, 2017

It's the finale to the Bats out of Hell Metal tie-in and I have not been a fan so far, but I am all for a game winning Hail Mary that makes it all worthwhile.  Yea, this issue continues with Cyborg's football talk so I figured I'd join in as well.  So, is this issue heading for the Super Bowl or is it just...well, the Cleveland Browns?  Let's find out...


The issue opens with some narration from the Batman Who Laughs and some Tyler Kirkham art.  The narration is okay,  but ends oddly and the art is fantastic!  I am a self professed Kirkham fanboy so that goes to figure.

We continue with Cyborg and a little catchup...Element X, a bunch of football references...but, then we head off in a newer direction when his Mother Box starts telling him to give himself up for the good of the Multiverse.  The problem is, this "upgrade" will effectively erase Vic Stone for good. Still, he is a team player and without the intervening of Raven (yea, it was a bit out of nowhere), he may have done it.  Luckily, Raven is in his mind to tell him he can save everyone AS Vic Stone.  That's what he does as he shows off his new upgrade (Cyborg One Million, Baby!) and makes the Batman Who Laughs look stupid in front of his boss and his friends. 

A fight breaks out and amid even more football metaphors, the Justice League starts kicking ass and things look even better when backup arrives.  Cyborg tells the everyone that he knows what these Dark Knights are and everyone (including Raven) escape.  While it looks bad for Barbatos and the Dark Knights, we do get the reminder that they still have the Suicide Squad and most of the Teen Titans.

The heroes end up in Hypertime where we see some crazy sights, in and out of continuity (my favorite being the Justice League's children), before we get one last football metaphor as Cyborg tells the team his kind of generic plan and we end the issue seeing that all of this may be all acording to plan for the bad guys.

Okay, this issue was a bit more than what I was expecting.  Instead of just ending right how we began to move forward into Metal #4, we get a huge upgrade for Cyborg and Raven back in action.  I don't know what I think of Multiverse hacking Cyborg (and wonder if the upgrade survives this story), but it does tie some things up from the Murder Machine one-shot and makes things interesting going forward.  I did love all the art in this issue, but the dialogue read a bit generic and the overall story seemed padded out to reach a full issue.

Bits and Pieces:

This was the best of the Bats out of Hell issues because it changed things up and felt like it mattered.  It still had some problems, but the art itself almost made up for them. I wasn't upset even if it wasn't the Hail Mary I was hoping for.

7.0/10