We know the main villain in the arc is Gorilla Grodd and he is the main villain here, albeit in the past leading up to the present-day story. I haven't always been the biggest Grodd fan. I don't think I have a great grasp of what his power set is or even how powerful he is. Here, Waid makes it clear that Grodd is a powerhouse, worthy of leading an uprising against the League.
When you get Grodd, you almost always get Gorilla City. Fun to see Solovar again, even if he is more coldblooded here than I am used to seeing. I suppose it makes sense given how many times Grodd has taken over his rule.
And there is the usual fun moments between heroes in this else-when past. Everyone seems a little fun and very collegial. It always works for me.
Clayton Henry is on art. I love his smooth lines and no-nonsense approach to art. I loved him on the recent Phantom Zone arc in Action Comics so glad he gets a big cast to work with here. Thankfully he does apes well. Not every artist can claim that.
On to the book.
The plane veers too close to Gorilla City airspace and is demolished by their defenses. Hal parachutes in.
The scene opens up with Hal Jordan test piloting a WayneTech aircraft over the Congo. Bruce Wayne is there to witness the flight. Clark Kent is there to cover the story.
That is simple and classic Bronze Age story-telling, a way to get everyone together. In reality, is this flight so important that the Planet would send Clark there? Don't think about it too hard. Seriously, I love things like this.
Waid adds a great dollop of fun to it. Bruce thinks Hal will use the ring to save himself and the plane if disaster hits. Clark tells Bruce that Hal doesn't wear the ring on test flights. Bruce's shocked face in the last panel is perfect. I definitely chuckled.
It also encapsulates Hal's personality quite well. If this is the first Hal comic you've read, you already kind of know him. Daring.
It just so happens that all this happens during a Grodd insurrection. And he thinks Hal must be an advanced spy. So he televises his threat to the world.
Another Bronze Age story trope. Of course the test flight would involve 3 super-heroes in their civilian identities and would occur over Gorilla City just as Grodd took over forcing his hand. If the flight happened a week earlier, none of this would happen. Comic karma!
If Grodd is involved and Hal needs rescuing and we are in the past, Barry needs to be involved.
Flash vibrates our title heroes into Gorilla City to help with the revolt. But Grodd is prepared. Titano is there to take out Superman.
Titano!!
Great semi-splash by Henry.
Turns out Hal is in the same cell as once-again ousted King Solovar. Seriously, how many times has Grodd taken over??
At least we hear that Grodd isn't a popular revolutionary. He has a small, dedicated following.
It says something when the best Solovar story I know was his brief sniff of the spotlight in the early Crisis On Infinite Earths series. Poor guy. Best known for mostly losing.
Remember when I said this was all some sort of cosmic serendipity that all the players were there. Well, it might have actually been a ploy by Grodd!
The Flash discovers a sort of catatonic Grodd in a technological globe of some sort. With Superman there and weakened, Grodd uses his 'force of mind' and the tech to mindswap with Superman! The whole thing was put together to get Superman there.
But maybe Grodd needed to speed up his plan because of the test flight? Or did Grodd know about the flight and planned all this?
Don't think too much Anj.
So Grodd in Superman's body is frightening. But Grodd also gave the heroes their best weapon to fight him ... Titano.
I do like this little turn of events. Grodd knows the heroes won't kill the body of their friend. The Titano option is only half-good.
Except for Solovar who is probably done with being removed from office by Grodd.
He actually thinks killing Grodd in Superman's body makes perfect sense. He unleashes Titano on the Grodd of Steel.
Love these big panels that Henry is giving us. The 'Grodd taking over' panel, this one. Big moments require bigger art.
We get a bit of comic book science.
The Flash grabs Grodd/Superman's body and vibrates it through Superman/Grodd's.
The body meld breaks the mind meld.
This honestly felt like Bronze Age JLA story. It is a simple but plausible answer to the threat.
Now you think Solovar would just kill Grodd. A few pages earlier he was fine with killing him inside Superman's body. But now, back in the ape form, Grodd is just thrown into prison.
And then we get the link to the We Are Yesterday arc. The Grodd from the future opens up some portal into the past and takes over his past self.
This was a sort-of done-in-one story just bringing Grodd into the forefront and teeing up the new arc. I am going to have to see how this all plays out. Time travel stories can give me a headache. But no denying this was fun and the art was great.
Overall grade: B+
4 comments:
Solovar has been ruthless to Grodd before. In Flash Spectacular during the late 1970's he had him executed for his crimes. Of course, Grodd found a way to weasel out of it. https://www.comics.org/issue/31909/
I Find Grodd kinda one note and boring. He's always had the same goal with no insight into why beyond personal hubris unless it's a revenge story. To me that makes him a story device rather than a personality. Maybe if a different future Groddd or one from an alt Earth showed Grodd his having zero goals past killing all humans and ruling Earth turned out to be very unsatisfactory we'd get growth but after decades with the same goals and personality any growth would be undone toot sweet. Solivar is pretty much in the same boat but with less reason to exist, being only a very minor obstacle to Grodd ever. New and more nuanced evil and good gorilla leaders would be better.
I suppose that with this being early on in the modern DCU - this was the first time any Leaguer bar Barry met him - Grodd hadn’t usurped Solovar THAT many times.
I enjoy Grodd, the only time I didn’t was in the New 52, when he kept eating people.
Top review.
Definitely don't like brain-eating Grodd. So New 52!
And I suppose given the timeline of WF, this could be very early!
Thanks for comments!
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