With this issue . . there's some good news . . . and some bad news. The good news is . . the team has finally been able to figure out where all the prisoner's were sent to. You know, the one's that were captured by the Suicide Squad. And our team is more than ready to assemble, so they can go and rescue their comrade, whom is undercover, from the murderous villains. Jonn Jonzz has been sending messages back to the Justice League about the conditions of their "incarceration", and clues as to the actual whereabouts of the planet where they are now residing. Once they confront the "Wall" about this, she really has no choice other than to go assist with their mission. She gives them the coordinates of the planet, and even sends Rick Flag along as a source of intelligence. Although I'm sure he's there as much for Amanda's benefit, as their own. Anyways, they get to the planet, but are hard pressed to find any actual clues that anyone's even been there. It turns out we have 2 things going on here. First of all, Kanjar Ro is actually on this planet. And he tries to attack and take the members hostage. His goal is to sell them off as "space-slaves". Not very original, I know. But hey, it's Kanjar Ro. What would you really expect. When they learn that Kendra's Nth metal pretty much negates the energy that he's using to encapture them, they make pretty short work of him. Now for the bad news. First the ship that transported them here has blown up. Rick Flag was aboard that ship. So they don't know if he got out or not. Secondly, the prisoners never actually made it to this planet. Their transport beam was intercepted in space, and they were sent to a different planet. We know this, and we know that it was Desaad. But, our team-members don't know it. So as far as they're concerned, right now, Jonn is "lost in space". They're just going to have to start their search anew. As to the creative talent on this book . . . I think Alan Burnett is doing an ok job with the storied. It seems like they're bouncing back and forth a lot though between Alan and Dwayne McDuffie. I'm not really sure why that is. It seems to me that any writer would love to have the chance to steer this book. All these characters, all this action and sub-plots . . . there's an awful lot of potential here. So I'm a little unsure why we haven't got a regular writer on this series yet. My other comment, about the art, is really just a personal observation. Ed Benes, again, does the art . . I'm a huge fan. But, they have 3 different inkers this issue. And as I've said before, I think inkers make a huge difference on the finished work of the pencillers. Some click well together . . some don't. With 3 different inkers, there's actually some pages in this book that look like they were done, almost, by an entirely different artist. I just think, for example, the characters faces look different on page 7, than on page 8. I know. It's not really that big of a deal. It's just a personal observation. It didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book. It's just how my mind works. This is a fantastic series, and so far they've kept their momentum going . . with the writer change. It's a great format for the world's greatest heroes.
I still flip through a comic from time to time, but I stopped collecting several years ago, mainly because characters that were supposed to be long dead kept coming back; it snatched the credibility right out of the story—at least for me. So I figured, “Why bother?” But I do miss is the art. Some of the artists were so fantastic and put such energy into their work, I could sit and look at it for hours. I didn’t even need the dialog.
ReplyDeleteIf that's the case, and you haven't had a chance to check out this series . . . you really should. Ed Benes has just done a fantastic job with these characters. I listed this book as one of my top 10 for last year, and a lot of that was due to the incredible artwork. If you get a chance . . give it a shot. You won't be disappointed.
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