THIS WEEK: The “We Are Yesterday” crossover reaches its time-shattering conclusion in Justice League Unlimited #8.
Note: the review below contains spoilers. If you want a quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendation on the comics in question, check out the bottom of the article for our final verdict.
Justice League Unlimited #8
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Dan Mora
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Cover Artist: Dan Mora
When Mark Waid, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain, and Ariana Maher launched Justice League Unlimited for DC back in November, they brought with them Inferno, a shadowy villainous group for the team to face off against. “We Are Yesterday,” the current crossover between JLU and another Waid-written series, Batman/Superman: World’s Finest, has revealed Inferno to be the Legion of Doom, albeit a past version of the group brought forward to the present by Gorilla Grodd. This week’s Justice League Unlimited #8 wraps up “We Are Yesterday” in all of its time-travelling glory, finally revealing Grodd’s ultimate goal, and taking the overall DC All In storyline in a surprising direction.
For five issues leading up to this one, Waid and a team of guest-artists have been ratcheting up the excitement as the Legion of Doom infiltrates and takes control of the JLU Watchtower. Now reunited with regular series artist Mora, this concluding chapter is an all-out melee between the League, the Legion of Doom, and a group of heroes from throughout time and space brought to the present by Air Wave. Even amidst the mayhem, Waid does a strong job of keeping the story grounded in its characters, with the inextricably-linked Grodd and Air Wave at the center of things. Grodd’s end goal is perfectly in line with the homo sapien-hating super-gorilla readers have known for decades, while Air Wave’s need for redemption after having been duped by the Legion into betraying the League is all too human and relatable. The end result of the storyline is also sure to make for some great character interactions going forward.
It’s hard to overstate just how absolutely killer the work by Mora and Bonvillain on this issue is. There are dozens of characters, including multiple versions of the same characters, engaged in all-out action throughout the whole issue, and it’s huge and exciting, yet everything is also still visually clear and easy to follow. Mora’s linework and page composition are as kinetic as ever, and Bonvillain’s colors pop off the page and help readers keep track of everything that’s happening. Color effects like the somewhat-disembodied Air Wave and Grodd’s harnessing of the Omega Energy look incredible. This issue only furthers the argument that Mora and Bonvillain are the best art team in superhero comics.
“We Are Yesterday” was both a wrap-up of the mysteries established at the launch of Justice League Unlimited, and also a lot of setup, not just for things to come but also for itself. There were quite a few hoops to jump through to bring the Legion of Doom of the past into the present, and jumping back and forth between time periods, keeping track of which versions of each character were in each scene, was occasionally confusing. The midpoint of the storyline, past all the exposition and explanation, is where things really got going, and once they did this storyline was a blast.
Justice League Unlimited #8 is a satisfying conclusion to “We Are Yesterday,” while also establishing an updated status quo for both the JLU series and the overall All In storyline, and adding a whole slew of new players to the field of the DCU. A final page tease (which actually builds off of something from this week’s issue of Superman, though it reads fine in isolation) hints at what’s to come from the next big DC event, and if Waid, Mora, and co. are anywhere near the helm of that event it should be a great time.
Final Verdict: BUY.
Round-Up
- Elsewhere in time and Waid-written comics, we have New History of the DC Universe #1, the debut issue of the four-issue miniseries establishing the new definitive-until-the-next-time-it-gets-rewritten canon for the DCU. Waid teams with Jerry Ordway and Todd Nauck on this first issue, which covers from the beginning of time through around the 1960s. It’s less of a story as much as it is a history book, and it’s fun to see Waid weave so many disparate threads into a coherent timeline. Looking forward to future issues of this one as we get into the age of superheroes.
- Superman #27 from Joshua Williamson, Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, and Sean Izaakse wraps up a lot of storylines that have been ongoing since the launch of this current series. I didn’t expect there to be such a sense of finality to a lot of what was going on here, but at the same time everything happens organically and this feels like a natural endpoint for some of these stories. There are still plenty more to tell, though, and Williamson clearly has a plan for where the series is to take these characters next. I’m particularly excited for the Legion-centric story that’s on the horizon.
- Green Arrow #25 kicks off a new arc for the series, with a story focused on the relationship between Oliver Queen and Roy Harper. Chris Condon, Montos, and Adriano Lucas have very quickly made this one of the DC’s best books, and this issue gets a new arc off to a promising start. Ollie and Roy have a fraught history and seeing that on display and how far they’ve come is very welcome for fans of the characters.
- Over in the Absolute Universe, it’s opportune timing given the weather for much of the U.S. this week that Absolute Martian Manhunter #4 is set during a White Martian-orchestrated heat wave. Deniz Camp‘s dialogue conveys the fracturing of everyone’s psyches under the oppressive heat wonderfully, and Javier Rodríguez continues to put on a masterclass in visual storytelling on this book. Incredible stuff.
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