Justice Society of America Annual #2 - DC

At least in the Magog book you kind of get a feeling for what David's doing and why. With the internal dialogue, at least we get a little explanation as to why he does the things he does, or at least how he justifies it. Here however . . he doesn't explain anything. He just wants everyone to get the hell out of his way so he can finish doing what he's doing. Now, if you read this book, I'm guessing that you've been reading Magog also. If not . . that's ok. But if you have, then you know what's been going on with this Haven, and how it's a front for Flashpoint. But, just in case . . Flashpoint is a group that deals in exotic weapons. It's all rather futuristic and scientific, but . . basically, they're arms dealers. And they'll deal to anyone. They don't care which side of the fight it is. Anyways, the guy who runs Flashpoint is the warden of this jail, Haven. It's all a front. So Magog has been following the train and ended up here. He played the dumb jock until he could figure out what was going on. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the wardens second in command is actually his mother's sister. But that's a whole other story. You'll have to read Magog to catch up on that. Suffice it to say, the Warden tried to kill him . . Magog's 'aunt' saved him, by removing him from this reality, and then brought him back. That's when Magog went on a rampage and started tearing up everything that he could get his hands on. So the Warden uses his cover and sends out an alert that Magog is trying to incite a riot, or jailbreak. This goes straight to the JSA. The All-Stars are the first to arrive, but the JSA isn't very far behind. So . . now you know what Magog's doing here. However, the rest of his team-mates don't. All they know it that he's stirring up a whole lot of ruckus here. The frustrating part though is that he won't take the time to try to explain it to anyone. Instead he just attacks them with anger and animosity. Which really just pisses everyone off. So, rather than taking a few seconds to explain what's going on, or ask for help . . and maybe they could've caught the Warden with his hand in the cookie jar . . instead they just end up all fighting amongst themselves. So much so that they're fighting each other more than they are the inmates that are trying to kill them so that they can escape. Long story short, the Warden self-destructs the facility, and escapes before anyone is the wiser. Well . . except for Karen. Magog and Power Girl are going at it the whole issue and finally she asks Magog for some kind of tangible proof that something's going on here. He slams her through the ground and into the facility below. But that happens mere seconds before the whole thing blows up in their faces . . literally. Magog leaves, letting them know in no uncertain terms that he doesn't want to be a part of either team. Allan is ready to haul his butt to jail, but Karen asks that they leave him alone. 'God knows I can't stand him anymore. But he's still fighting the good fight. He doesn't belong in the JSA, but he doesn't belong behind bars either.' This Annual is actually more an extension of the story in Magog's book than it is of the JSA or All-Stars. But . . a JSA Annual would probably sell better than a Magog Annual. Keith Giffen writes this, as he does the Magog solo book. So . . he knows the story. Also Matthew Sturges helps him. This one is basically set up to remove Magog from the team atmosphere and officially place him as solo-status. I hope he's updated his face-book page. It was an interesting and action-packed story, but . . it was also very frustrating. A little communication could've solved a whole lot of grief here. Tom Derenick and Rodney Ramos provide the art.