THIS WEEK: It’s an all DC K.O. tie-in special, as we take a look at Justice League Unlimited #12, The Flash #26, and Superman #31. Ready? Fight!
Note: The reviews below may contain spoilers.
Justice League Unlimited #12
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist/Cover Artist: Dan Mora
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Over the course of the next few months, Mark Waid will provide his answer to an enduring DC Comics question: What do you do with the regular, monthly Justice League title while a DC event is happening?
The draw of a Justice League comic is that it has all of DC’s most popular heroes in it, tackling problems too big for any one of them to handle. The draw of a DC event comic is that it has ALL of DC’s heroes in it, tackling problems too big for any handful of them to handle. As a result, while a DC event is in progress, the ongoing Justice League title often suffers. Because it either doesn’t have access to its main cast, can’t compete with the craziness happening in that year’s event title, or both.
But the DC All In era’s Justice League title is different from those of the past. Justice League Unlimited is, by design, built to allow Waid, artist Dan Mora, colorist Tamra Bonvillain, and letterer Ariana Maher to spotlight any set of DC heroes that interests them. While JLU regularly features the Big Seven Justice Leaguers, it’s not dependent on them. So the fact that Waid does not have access to Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, as well as the other Leaguers taking part in the main DC K.O. tournament, does not impact Justice League Unlimited #12 all that much. Especially as Waid already built himself a way to cheat and include alternate versions of some of those heroes in this tie-in story.
Those versions are the remaining time-displaced Leaguers from Waid and co.’s “We Are Yesterday” crossover. As I’ve said before, the JLU portions of “We Are Yesterday” moved too quickly for me, and overall, the crossover felt jumbled and overly-complex. However, Waid makes good use of the remainders of “We Are Yesterday” here, by slowing down and allowing us to connect with many of the time-displaced Leaguers. These sorts of spotlight moments are what I’ve enjoyed most about JLU, so I was happy to receive several of them here.
There is, of course, also a plot to Justice League Unlimited #12. And while it’s not quite as high stakes as DC K.O. itself, it’s a pretty solid undercard. To stop the League’s evacuation of Earth, Neron, the Lord of Hell, has powered up several low-tier supervillains. To solve this problem in one fell swoop, Mister Terrific assembles the time-displaced Leaguers to invade Hell and take down Neron.
That invasion will kick off next issue, giving Mora and Bonvillain the opportunity to show this eclectic group of past and future Leaguers in action. Personally, I’m quite excited to see this art team’s take on Electric Superman and his powers, and to learn more about some of the future Leaguers whose personalities and backstories are only hinted at in this issue.
In that regard, Justice League Unlimited #12 is certainly a success. While the last few issues of JLU have felt far too much like exposition than story, this issue was a welcome return to the balance of character moments and larger than life action that made this series’s early issues so great. I’m happy to report that this era’s Justice League title is not suffering due to DC K.O., but actually thriving with the weight of progressing DC All In’s metastory lifted from it.
The Round-Up
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Mark Waid also had a hand in The Flash #26, co-writing the issue with Christopher Cantwell. This DC K.O. tie-in sees Impulse attempt to pull a Flashpoint to prevent Darkseid from ascending in the first place. There’s a lot of exposition to get to that point, which Waid and Cantwell do their best to get through quickly. But the highlight of this issue is Vasco Georgiev’s art, Matt Herms’s colors, and Buddy Beaudoin’s lettering. This art team (minus Beaudoin, who is taking over from Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou) has been doing some quite kinetic and inventive work on The Flash for awhile now, and I hope this issue’s status as a DC K.O. tie-in will make more readers aware of that work.- Of this week’s three DC K.O. tie-ins, Superman #31 may actually have been my favorite. In this issue, writer Joshua Williamson, artists Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferrerira, colorist Alejandro Sánchez, and letterer Ariana Maher show what the Man of Steel was up to just before the K.O. tournament kicked off, then shift the spotlight over to Lois Lane and (spoiler!) Superboy-Prime. Williamson’s plot shows just how much of the All In metastory he’d already woven into Superman, and he and the rest of the creative team are clearly having fun with Superboy-Prime’s ability to break the fourth wall. My only hangup with this issue is that, to me, Barrows has never quite felt at home on the Superman line. The heavy shadows that make his figures so perfect for Bat-books just don’t feel right when applied to Superman and Metropolis. That said, I have no other nits to pick here, and I’m looking forward to next month’s Lois and Prime team-up.
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Mark Waid also had a hand in The Flash #26, co-writing the issue with Christopher Cantwell. This DC K.O. tie-in sees Impulse attempt to pull a Flashpoint to prevent Darkseid from ascending in the first place. There’s a lot of exposition to get to that point, which Waid and Cantwell do their best to get through quickly. But the highlight of this issue is Vasco Georgiev’s art, Matt Herms’s colors, and Buddy Beaudoin’s lettering. This art team (minus Beaudoin, who is taking over from Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou) has been doing some quite kinetic and inventive work on The Flash for awhile now, and I hope this issue’s status as a DC K.O. tie-in will make more readers aware of that work.
“What do you do with the regular, monthly Justice League title while a DC event is happening?” I’d argue technically the first year of “Justice League United” has been all about laying groundwork for/tying into “K.O” and this issue is nothing new. I’ve found the book entertaining – Waid rarely disappoints – but also agree with critics who see it as too unfocused and jumbled. Waid simply doesn’t have enough time to develop characters, character interactions or plots. On the one hand it’s a fun experiment – not sure there has really ever been a book like this which has the feel of an ongoing crisis with so many heroes flitting in and out of its pages for sometimes too brief cameos. Did you catch Big Barda in this issue? How about Doom Patrol’s Niles Calder? They got no dialogue but if you squint they were there. Still, every issue is something new and fun. But I’d very much prefer Waid just be given the keys to the title and allowed to do whatever he wanted seperate from “K.O.” When it was first announced the P.R. materials showed a core team that looked super interesting with Captain Atom, Star Sapphire, the Atom and Black Lightning included. Makes me wonder if this title started as one thing and became what it is. Here’s hoping that Waid gets to do more of his own thing when the event is over – at least until the NEXT DC event…
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