Art: Cliff Richards
Colors: Rain Beredo
Letters: Andworld Design
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: May 13th, 2020
At the end of the last issue Starfire is killed by her sister Blackfire, and Azrael arrived to sneak attack Epoch. This issue starts with Jessica blasting her way down the halls of the ship to slam right into Azrael, knocking him back and away from his would-be victim.
Jess is obviously upset because she just lost two of her friends and was determined to save them. Blackfire and Orion tell her there was no other option. Orion also tells her that the messages that Cyborg has been sending her are lies to manipulate her. Then she gets an idea after she says the word "today." And she keeps repeating "today" while everybody questions her sanity. Most of the this kind of thing annoys me. Somebody says a word and it gives somebody an idea and they're like "YOU'RE A GENIUS!" Yeah, saying something will give you an idea. But the word "today?" Meh.
Anyways, it gives her an idea to use Epoch's time manipulator to go back in time and not change events directly because that always turns out bad, but to send a subtle message. Create a butterfly effect, if you will, that would change their decision to trust Darkseid. So they make modifications to one of Gamma Knives drones so it can use the time manipulator and send a message back through time instead of having them physically go back in time. They chose just before the destruction of the Source Wall, so we're taken back to past-Jessica arguing with the original JLO team.
Basically present-Jess and the drone are like ghosts back in time. And what is the first thing she does? Runs up and starts yelling and waving her hands. Uh, I thought you wanted to be subtle? Nobody can see or hear her though. Hax thinks that Cyborg is the best bet to hear a message, so present-Jess walks up to Cyborg and tells him everything that he needs to know to avoid falling into Darkseid's trap, but he's still arguing with past-Jess. When present-Jess comes back to the present, everything is the same, so it didn't work. Or did it?
Bits and Pieces
The time manipulator is still confusing as hell, or maybe I'm just not smart. Per usual with this title, I really like the concept, the story, and the characters, but there's just something about it that doesn't make it work as well as it could or care as much as you should.
6/10
I just don't understand what's wrong with Jessica's brain. Like, at least she's stopped being a condescending jerk to Orion. But she continues to frame events from a nonsense perspective. Like, her big message to everyone is 'Darkseid is going to lie.' Ummmm? No, he didn't. He told them all this was going to happen. He told them he was going to enclose the ghost sector. He told them he was going to use this to regain his power. He told them he would become something to fear afterward. He never lied to them (Jessica has had this extremely paranoid streak all through the book), they just decided 'yeah, we can go along with this and then outplay him,' they were technically the ones with treacherous intent, and they failed. They planned to backstab him, but they didn't succeed.
ReplyDeleteThe message shouldn't have been 'Darkseid lied,' that is useless- and wrong! He did save the ghost sector and regain his powers in the process, as he said. The only part he left out was co-opting them into new gods (although he kinda alluded to that throughout, just not the whole 'wresting away their free will' aspect). The real message should've been 'hey, playing along and then hoodwinking him won't work, don't try that.' The problem was with THEIR plan, not with Darkseid's honesty, and she should've been issuing corrections to their own mistaken notions.
Instead, the book seems to decide- no matter how much Jessica's arrogance ('Darkseid nuked me and I got better!'; yeah, no, a fluke of luck saved you, you're not that awesome, kid), hypocricy, or absurd attitude flies in the face of reality, the comic seems to be positioning her as always right- here, as she stands apart from her team agreeing with Orion's assessment of the enemy he's been fighting far longer than her lifetime, they seem to be setting her up a SECOND time as the only person who's right on her entire team, the only one that hasn't had the wool pulled over her eyes. The comic seems to worship at her feet (ironically, for such a theology-obsessed comic), but she's so frequently wrong. It's getting quite annoying. (No, correction- it's GOTTEN quite annoying, and has been there for quite some time).