Justice League Odyssey #20 Review

Writer: Dan Abnett
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.

They get into a pretty long fight with a lot of banter. Azrael's voice, which can now make people obey his commands, is not working on Jess because now her body is an Omega battery; she's "a fragment of Darkseid's own power". She tries to get him to surrender but he won't, saying that he's a soldier ready to die for Darkseid. That's when Blackfire straight-up kills him too.

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