Review: Cry For Justice #7

Justice League: Cry For Justice #7 came out this week, marking the conclusion of the mini-series. The word that best sums up my feelings for it overall is disappointed. I don't mean to sound harsh. And I will probably be long-winded. So bear with me.

When this mini-series was announced way back when, I was excited to read it. While the idea of a pro-active League isn't 100% innovative, the roster was. There was a mix of old school JLAers (GA and GL), legacy characters (Supergirl and Batwoman), and B-listers (Congorilla and Starman). Prometheus, one of my favorite Grant Morrison characters, was going to be villain, brought back to place of villainous prominence. Art was going to be done exclusively by Mauro Cascioli. And James Robinson said the series would impact the entire DCU. On paper it all sounded great.

But then the series release was delayed. And delayed. And delayed.

I assumed that when the first issue was released that the series was in the can and so no further delays would happen. But then there were more delays. And now we have even seen guest artists on the book. Those sort of problems never make me happy as a consumer.

And from a story point of view, there were some cringe worthy moments as well. The dialogue occasionally sounded clunky or overly ham-handed. The heroes sometimes acted in ways I would not expect them to. (Would the Atom really crawl around people's brains after what his wife did to Sue Dibny?) There were pages devoted to scenes that seemed superfluous. It just never seemed to exactly gel.

But most importantly, and before I even get to the final issue review, I never felt like the team came together. Scenes where the initial intriguing roster were all in the same room are few and far between. And while the initial impetus for them each to join was a 'cry for justice', it felt like outside of Green Lantern and Green Arrow, none of the characters really needed to be there. Let me phrase it a different way ... you could remove Supergirl and replace her with Wonder Girl seamlessly. You could remove Congorilla and put in Freedom Beast. You could replace Starman with the Prince Gavyn Starman. In other words, I never felt like a particular character (outside of GL and GA) was crucial for the plot from a back story point of view; I never felt that one character's viewpoint was so unique to the story that they were indispensable.

On top of that, this really became a whole DCU story with Starfire, Donna Troy, Jay Garrick, Animal Man, Vixen, Black Canary all starring; you name it ... everyone was there. I mean, Donna Troy is the one who actually defeated Prometheus! And so I don't know if I ever saw Robinson's vision for the team he created and how they would interact with each other. It was that mesh of characters that got me interested in the first place.

All right, on to the issue.

Last issue, a captured Prometheus revealed his grand plan to teleport several cities around the world into another dimension as a way to emotionally torture his super-hero enemies. Despite being captured, the devices activate.

Without being granted his freedom, Prometheus won't tell the Justice League the codes to deactivate the devices. Unclear of the next best step, the bulk of the JLA teleport to Earth on a rescue mission. Others stay back to continue the interrogation.

Ominously dripping with foreshadowing, Green Arrow vows to Prometheus that the two of them aren't done dealing with each other.

For some reason, Prometheus' devices aren't working as designed. Rather than simply teleporting the cities away, the devices seem to be imploding the cities, destroying them.

Star City is shaking itself apart. One of the casualties is Roy Harper's daughter Lian.

I know this is supposed to be shocking. I mean a child was just killed. But again, the feeling here was disappointed. Did Lian really have to die here? Did we really need to see a child get killed to move this plot along? Haven't I seen enough death and maiming in comics recently? I suppose I should at least be happy that the point of view is from behind Ollie so I am not luridly looking right at Lian's corpse.

Still, a child was killed in this book as a plot device. It just felt unnecessary. Have we really reached a point in story-telling that we need to kill kids to try to get a response out of readers? And I didn't have much time in the issue to really have the death resonate with me because we were already moving on.




While the Earth's heroes scatter themselves to the effected cities, trying to slow down the carnage, the Atom tries to talk Prometheus into willingly giving up the codes. He even brings up the fact that Prometheus has really upset Green Arrow, killing Ollie's 'grand daughter' and maiming his 'son'.

Prometheus refuses to give up the codes unless he gets his freedom in return. At least he confesses that his machines aren't working as planned. Remember they were supposed to just make the cities disappear.

It all seems a bit contrived. Everything that Prometheus has planned in this book, every theft and counterattack and defense, has worked perfectly. Of course, if his machines worked as planned, the cities would just blip away and we wouldn't have the devastation and death we have been treated to. We wouldn't have Lian's death. It just seemed like an easy out to get to that point.


Because absolutely everything else Prometheus has planned is working like a charm. He has a defense against telepathy. Miss Martian feels some sort of backlash when she tries to mentally pry to codes from his mind.


And he has planned against magic. First he has sewn Freddy Freeman's mouth shut to keep him from saying his magic word. Again, this seems a bit off to me. We are talking about a man who skinned the Tasmanian Devil and used the pelt as a rug. Would he really stitch Freddy's lips? Wouldn't he just kill him? Of course, killing Captain Marvel would be too big a deal for this book. And besides we wouldn't see this gory shot of his sutures being removed. And that is all this is good for in my mind, something gruesome to try to get a response from me as a reader.

What's more, even when freed, Captain Marvel can't do anything to the device in Fawcett City because Prometheus made it impervious to magic!

In fact, all the devices seem impervious to any super-hero interference. Prometheus has covered all the contingencies.

There was a sequence I did enjoy in the book. With Star City crumbling around them, with the death tolls growing, the heroes have a quick discussion about what to do.

Do they deal with Prometheus and end the disasters? Do they keep him in custody and hold him responsible for this tragedy? It is an interesting 2 page spread (of which this is one corner). There is some disagreement amongst the group. Some say no deal. Some say deal for the greater good.

As always, small editorial errors bother me. So when the Flash says they need to decide quickly because 'they're loosing' (instead of losing) I had to roll my eyes.

Finally, Green Arrow cuts through the chatter. The heroes need to save people. And in this instance the best way to do that is to release Prometheus and have him turn over the codes.

He states it simply: 'we have to think of the living'. On first reading, I thought this was a nice moment. After all, Arrow lost the most here. Since the beginning, I thought he was going to be the moral compass for the team, joining it to keep Hal in line. So to have him take 'the high road' made some initial sense to me. He could look past his own tragedies and think about others ... that's sort of what heroes do, right?

Of course, it is one thing to say that happened. It is another thing to write it. Here we see the aftermath of the scene where a disgusted Vixen walks Prometheus to the teleporter.

But how did it play out? If Prometheus gave the codes and they worked, would Vixen really let him just walk away because she 'gave her word'? I don't think so. And would they ever let Prometheus walk without giving them the codes and trying them first? In other words, I can't play out the actual scene in my head in a satisfactory way. Maybe that is why we only see the conclusion ... because the scene can't be written well.

I figured I'd throw in the second panel because it the only shot of Supergirl in the book. Wasn't she supposed to be one of the key characters in this book? And she isn't even in the finale. This is what I was trying to get at earlier. This really wasn't a team book the way it was advertised. The characters we were told would 'star' were really just part of a cast of thousands.

And so we finally get to the 'big ending'. Despite his speech about the greater good, Ollie needs 'justice' and he thinks murder is the way to get it.

But even this scene ... the dramatic last page of the series ... fell flat.

From a story point of view, I can't get around the fact that Prometheus dies this way. Here is a villain so prepared that he has a defense against everything ... including having nanites to defeat the Atom in his blood. He had shown himself to be protected against telepathy and magic. But his helmet isn't arrow proof? Just a plain old steel-tipped arrow is what brings him down? Really?

Really?

And that is without my asking just how the hell Green Arrow got into the Ghost Zone and walked into Prometheus' stronghold. Are you telling me Prometheus doesn't have any defense systems there? Prometheus had just walked through the JLA satellite and defeated almost the entire team and he allows a hero to simply walk into his home and shoot him in the head with an arrow?

But even more than that, I am just sick of seeing heroes kill people. I don't think I need to see my heroes fall and go through a moral crisis and then reinvent themselves any more. I think I just want to see them be heroes again. As readers, we keep hearing that comics will try to move away from 'dark' and 'grim and gritty' but we see this the month after The Sentry literally rips Ares apart over in the Avengers.

And the fact that we see it over and over means that I have become somewhat inured to it. Maybe 10 years ago this would be shocking. Now I just sighed and thought 'here we go again ... another hero who crossed the line.' And that truly is a whimper for an ending, not the bang I think Robinson was going for.

Overall grade (issue): D+
Overall grade (series): C-

Review: Justice League: Cry For Justice #6

Talk about feast or famine. Last week, no super-title came out at all. This week there are 5 books! Supergirl, Superman, World's Finest, Superman Secret Origin, and Justice League: Cry For Justice all came out.

With Supergirl #49 being a bit spoiler-iffic, I figured I would wait a day to review that issue.

And so, let's start this review heavy week with Justice League:Cry for Justice #6. I can't believe there is only one more issue in this mini-series! It seems like it has been on the DC radar screen for almost 2 years. Delays have dogged this book.

Surprisingly, the significant delays haven't been significant enough to allow Mauro Cascioli the time to complete the series. This issue's art is done by Scott Clark. I simply don't know what to say anymore about creators and deadlines. As it was, this book's release was postponed for an inordinate amount of time to allow Cascioli time enough to get on top of the book. And yet, here we are with a guest artist. This storyline takes place before Blackest Night! And that book might finish before this one! Am I being too sour as a fan?

Clark's work is nice although not as polished as Cascioli's. In fact, when I read the book the first time, I thought it was still Cascioli ... just rushed. It looks a little rougher than the earlier work on this book. It was only on second look that I saw Clark's name on the cover.

From a writing point of view, I thought this was one of the stronger issues of the book. I don't know if that is faint praise. Mostly, I think Robinson did a good job of showing how cunning a foe Prometheus is.

Remember last issue ended with Supergirl squaring off against Captain Marvel. The book opens with Supergirl showing how she figured out who was the real villain here.

First off, Supergirl realizes that the 'shield made from magic lightning' Freddy made to deflect Prometheus' Clayface bomb (a power I questioned when it happened) would have fried her if it was truly magical. Secondly, Captain Marvel figured out everything too quickly ... too neatly. And it always seemed to lead the group to one place, the JLA satellite.

But most importantly, Supergirl realized that somewhere along the way Freddy said the word 'Shazam' and didn't change. It all adds up to one thing, Freddy is Prometheus.

I like that Robinson had Supergirl be the one to figure the whole thing out (albeit a little too late). I also thought that Supergirl falling for someone who turns out to be the villain played off of many similar stories from the Silver Age. At least this time she realized it before the reveal. She even sounds confident as she asks how Prometheus plans to eliminate her.

It turns out he is prepared for dealing with a Kryptonian. He has a 'magic bullet', a casing forged from Olympian metals. It might only be a shoulder wound, but it dispatches Supergirl for the rest of the issue.

I don't know off the top of my head if Olympian metals alone resonate enough magic to do this. But it shows some advanced planning on Prometheus' part.

In fact the next several pages show exactly how prepared Prometheus is as he wades through pretty much every JLA member.

It is a decent sequence showing how his computer analyzes the threat and then feeds him the best option. He takes out Zatanna's ability to speak, Plastic Man's ability to control his molecules, etc.

And it isn't only having the right weapon for the right hero, it's also having the battle technique. Here I like how he deflected Dr. Light's beam the appropriate angle to eliminate the Guardian. He does something similar to take out Hawkgirl.

He takes out Hal Jordan by weakening his will enough to grenade him.

He even turns the table on the Atom.

When Palmer tries the 'sinus headache' attack, Prometheus' nanobyte defenses turns the table.

I thought this was a pretty gripping panel with parts of the Atom shrunk and other expanded. That just looks painful.

Hawkman, Starman, Firestorm, Starfire, Green Arrow, Jay Garrick, The Shade ... they all fall.

So it is clear that Prometheus is prepared. This really reminded me of the Prometheus we saw in Morrison's JLA, the Prometheus who almost took out the JLA singlehandedly.


He didn't do enough to take out Donna Troy though however.

He had crucified her to a wall earlier but she has the resolve to pull herself off the wall and go after him. She then viciously batters him, coming close to killing him. I would say this was absolutely gratuitously bloody but this is nothing compared to the Red Arrow maiming panel from last issue.

I do like that it is Donna who ultimately defeats him. It would be too easy to have one of the big names be the hero. I always like it when one of the less famous heroes in team books gets some attention. I think it would be less interesting to have someone like Green Lantern save the day. We have seen that so many times already.

Shackled to a chair, Prometheus begins to monologue about his plan.

Rather than destroy the heroes' home cities, he would teleport the cities into other times, spaces, dimensions. In this way, he did not kill the citizens, merely displaced them. The heroes would be perplexed and devastated that they could never find their people.

It is an interesting plan, focusing on the mental weakness of the heroes. But it seemed kind of flat after all the build up over the title. This was his plan? To cause the heroes mental anguish? I know there would be millions of lost people ... but he wants to hurt the heroes feelings?

This was his master stroke? Wouldn't it be better to just kill the heroes?



I did like that his monologue was only buying him time to have his master stroke actually commence. This panel reminded me a bit of Ozymandias telling Nite Owl that he wouldn't tell his master plan if he hadn't already triggered it. I know ... how could I mention Watchmen in the same sentence as Cry For Justice.

With the plan in play, Prometheus starts to bargain for his freedom. He'll turn off the device if the League lets him free.

Will the League make a deal with a terrorist? Remember, this was the team that tortured people for information earlier on in the book. Will they simply let him free? Green Arrow, often the liberal voice of the JLA, demands that they not free him. It will be interesting to see where the political pendulum of this group swings.

But Prometheus has one more surprise ...

To prove that his device is active, Star City has started to be teleported away. I like the picture here with skyscrapers being ripped apart. Looks like something from a disaster movie.

I think just about everything that can be said about this title has already been said. At times the dialogue is stiff. The art can be beautiful. The action is good but can veer towards the gruesome. The book is late and now had a guest artist. A guest artist in a 7 issue miniseries!?

But as a fan of Prometheus, I did enjoy this issue's portrayal of him as he casually walked through the gauntlet of the League. Even if the plan seemed a little off, he did seem cool and calculated here.

Lastly, I was hoping that some of the text piece in this issue would be about Supergirl. Instead Robinson talks about Jay Garrick and Batwoman. I think Batwoman appeared in a handful of panels in this book.

One more issue in this series which I will have to sift into the DCU timeline. How outrageous will it be?

Overall grade: C+

Review: Cry For Justice #3

Cry For Justice #3 is another up and down issue in this up and down mini-series. The problem with this issue is that there are many more downs than ups.

In fact, there is only one up. The artwork by Mauro Cascioli is simply astounding. I mean ... I could really just gaze at the pages. I had complained about the delays in releasing this book. If the delay was to let Cascioli produce these pages then it was worth it. Now I might not like the composition of some of the panels, but overall the art was stunning.

But so much else ... the plot, the dialogue, the events ... just fell flat. Really flat.


Let's start with the opening page, the 'headless Supergirl' page we saw back a few months ago in the DC Nation column. Back then I talked about the composition of this page which effectively reduces Supergirl to her chest and midriff. What a sorry way to open this issue after Kara's heroic entrance which ended last month.

Back when we first saw it, I hoped it was just a cropped panel and that Supergirl's face would be visible. Instead it is the opening splash page and we don't see any of Kara's head. Why lay out this panel this way where it is clear that the emphasis is Supergirl's breasts?

As if the composition of the panel wasn't bad enough (and I don't know if the design is Robinson's or Cascioli's), we get some pretty weak dialogue. How nice of Hal Jordan to ask Supergirl if she is a villain. Hasn't he teamed up with her in the past? Didn't she just defeat some supervillains? Does Green Lantern really think Supergirl is a villain?




So I rolled my eyes when I saw that first page hoping things couldn't get much worse.

I was wrong.

Pages 2 and 3 were cringe inducing.

First we get my particular pet peeve ... a shot of Supergirl crying. I have harped on this before and I don't know why this bothers me so much, but it does. It really does.

Hal asks her if she is a villain and she cries?

I get the symbolism behind it ... I really do. Supergirl is physically indestructible but emotionally vulnerable. It is a powerful and intriguing contradiction so I can understand why creators would use it. But when it is overused it can lose its emotional punch. I mean, how many times have we seen Kara cry in the last year?

I mean ... your father dies in your arms? It's okay to cry.
You're in the eighth grade and your best friend is dying in your arms. It's okay to cry.
You are still reeling from your father's death and your mother is emotionally cruel to you? It's probably okay to cry.

But Hal Jordan acts like a jerk and asks you if you are a villain? And you cry? Maybe not so okay.

Ollie goes to console her but he ends up talking to her like she is in elementary school saying 'the horrible man didn't mean it. He gets grumpy around this time of day if he doesn't get a candy bar.' I know Ollie is trying to lighten the mood but would he talk to any other super-hero that way? Would he talk to Robin that way? It makes it seem like he doesn't take Supergirl or her feelings seriously.

Then we get this panel where again Supergirl is reduced to just her looks by the other heroes.

When Captain Marvel says he senses no ill will in Supergirl, the Atom assumes he is thinking with his hormones. Luckily Freddy chastises the Atom for his insensitivity. But then Captain Marvel comments that Supergirl is indeed pretty.

It unfortunately gets worse.

When Supergirl is told that Hal is being cautious because of the current situation with New Krypton, she says this wooden line. "I'm Kryptonian sure. But I'm not bad. I'm good." Who would say that? It sounds almost childish. Or maybe it should have been "I'm not bad; I'm only drawn that way" a la Jessica Rabbit.

At least Supergirl gets to explain her reasoning why she is there. Like all of them, she wants justice. For her, she wants to find who was behind Zor-El's assassination. But then she says the clunker of a line: 'Together we can be justice.'

I know there were complaints about Robinson's dialogue in the first two issues but here the lines are too campy ... too grandiose ... to really tolerate. The comic almost reads like an overblown parody of comics. It reminded me of Doom Force, Grant Morrison's parody of Rob Liefeld's X-Force. The problem here is I don't think Robinson is intentionally writing parody.

I also don't really know why Supergirl thinks that Hal, who initially was going after Libra but now has been side-tracked by Prometheus, would even be interested in finding Zor-El's killers.

We next get to the 'torture' scene of the issue. The League has apparently captured Prometheus (off screen) and is now torturing him for information. Ray Palmer again shows how he has mastered the technique Jean Loring used to kill Sue Dibny.

As I thought in the first issue, Green Arrow plays the foil to Hal asking if torture is the right thing to do. Hal shrugs off the question saying that the bodily harm they are inflicting is still better than the death that Prometheus and other super-villains have been spreading around.

Do I really want Green Lantern to do this? Geoff John's has done such a great job recreating Hal as the ultimate Green Lantern, the ultimate good guy. Does this Green Lantern, literally picking the brains of his enemy, seem like a hero?

And with all the Atom has been through, would he really crawl around people's brains like this?

Because of ... or maybe despite ... the torture, Prometheus begins to talk some gibberish about how Prometheus wanted to become Batman. It doesn't seem like any useful information came out of this.

Green Arrow then shows his lack of knowledge when he calls Prometheus a B-lister, below Javelin in ranking. Now I know Ollie was dead at the time, but doesn't he know that Prometheus almost took down the whole JLA single-handedly? I realize that Prometheus has been portrayed as a chump since then ... but below Javelin?

While the interrogation goes on, we cut to Congorilla and Starman who are still jetting to Europe in a Blackhawk plane.

They talk like old friends, odd since they just met. Congorilla says that he noticed a missing body among the remains of his slaughtered tribe. An evil ape scientist called Malavar was not amongst the dead. Congorilla assumes that is an important clue.

Now I haven't heard of Malavar but his inclusion seems like a convenient way to shoehorn Congorilla into this science-based plot.

Before the two can talk more, they are ambushed by men with jet-packs. The heroes take to the skies and defeat the airmen although it means Congorilla needs to swim the rest of the way to Europe.

The art here, no surprise, is spectacular.

Back in the States, "Prometheus" drops his disguise and reveals himself to actually be Clayface. He then detonates a bomb which destroys the floor of the skyscraper the League is questioning him in.

So first off, the Atom couldn't recognize clay brains when he was crawling around in there? But second of all, I don't know if a bomb is a significant enough threat to be a cliffhanger here, to make me concerned about thr well being of the heroes. Outside of Green Arrow, would any other member of this group even blink at a bomb?

We finally catch up with the real Prometheus who is shown to have captured Malavar.

After he reclaimed his name from his protege, Prometheus realized that he wanted revenge on the entire superhero community. Death did not seem to be a good enough outcome for his plot, especially given the number of heroes who come back from the dead.

He recounts to an underling how he began to accumulate super-technology. First he did so in Europe where he encountered and killed some Global Guardians. (Okay, I admit having the Tasmanian Devil end up as a throw rug is a nice touch.) Now that Prometheus has the tech he needs, he can unveil his true plan.

This is the Prometheus I remember ... intelligent, cunning, ruthless. At least this series will rehabilitate his character.

The issue ends with mystical characters in Opal City (presumably characters from Robinson's Starman comic which I did not read). One of them, using tarot cards, says that danger and death is coming for all of them.

We then get a full page of small panels showing all those endangered.

Look! It's another nearly headless shot of Supergirl's chest! Yeesh.

So overall I have heroes torturing villains, a poor portrayal of Supergirl, some very hackneyed dialogue, and absolutely lush artwork.

In case you can't tell, I was pretty disappointed with this issue. Yes, I am sure that in the end Hal will realize that you can't look into the abyss without the abyss looking back. And yes, I will read the rest of the issue to see how this all turns out. But this seems like a mess.

And when Supergirl is reduced to breast shots, says childish lines, and sheds quick tears ... well I am going to be unhappy.

Overall grade: C-

Review: Justice League:Cry For Justice #2

Justice League:Cry For Justice #2 was released last week and did a good job of getting all the players on the same field. This issue was titled 'The Gathering' and that is exactly what it was. The heroes of this league finally gathered together.

While James Robinson does a better job with dialogue in this issue (not as much overly heavy speeches punctuated with 'Justice!'), the real draw right now is Mauro Cascioli's art. I know I bemoaned the late arrival of this title but if that delay was to provide me with these interiors I am okay with it now.

Also, I am going concentrate on the story and gloss over the Hal/Huntress/Lady Blackhawk three-way conversation since so many other sites are talking about it. I don't know if I would add much to the discussion.

I will refer people to When Fangirls Attack ( http://womenincomics.blogspot.com/2009/08/thursday-august-6th.html ) and blog-friend Saranga's excellent blog ( http://paiwings.blogspot.com/2009/08/cry-for-justice-2-not-sexist-at-all.html ) for some views on it although it is all over the web ... maybe even surpassing bike shorts talk!



The book starts with Hal and Ollie on a rooftop in Gotham awaiting some intel on a gathering of super-villains.

One thing that I have liked about this book so far has been Hal's comments about the big three. Last issue he talked about losing himself in the shadow of the Trinity. Here he admits that he respected but disliked Batman. I think any time there are two strong and similar personalities put together there is a chance that they won't be able to tolerate each other. Batman and Green Lantern are both 'law and order' guys but with very different means to achieve their ends.

I don't recall reading any where else that Hal felt that way about Batman or Superman and Wonder Woman. It is an interesting new take on him ... that even he might feel intimidated by them.


Across the globe, Starman and Congorilla's individual investigations into the deaths of their loved ones have led them both to an abandoned Blackhawk Island base defended by D-list baddie Houngan.

Of course no comic series can exist without 2 heroes mistakenly fighting each other. After a skirmish, the two realize they are on the same side. Comparing notes, they figure out that the next step in avenging their loved ones' deaths lies Gotham City. They hop into a Grumman Skyrocket and fly off.

In the meantime, things heat up a bit in Gotham. Jason Bard shows up and let's GL and GA know what his investigations have learned. Prometheus has been looting the world of cutting edge technology and has ordered a bunch of tech-based C-list villains to gather in Gotham.

Hmmm ... we are just getting a sniff of this plot but the 'evil mastermind using lowly tech-based villains to achieve some wide-reaching plot' reminded me of Marvel's Secret War mini from a few years ago.

Remember that Hal decided to form this little team to act pro-actively and basically kick the tar out of the baddies. What could be better than a bunch of scrubs gathered in one place?

I liked everything about his panel ... the poses, the perspective, the dialogue ... it all worked.

This panel really worked in my mind more like a freeze frame in a movie when the heroes leap to action. It didn't evoke a kinetic feel of this heroic leap. You don't feel GL and GA falling here. Still, I thought this was a very strong panel in a book stuffed with excellent art.

Unfortunately the action is done off screen as the book shifts to the Atom and his detective work in Central City.

The Atom arrives at a smashed Flash Museum with Jay Garrick trying to pick up the pieces. Turns out that more tech has been stolen from here - Cosmic Treadmill tech! Moreover, three security guards (based on Flash's WWII comic relief characters Winky, Blinky, and Noddy) were killed by the supervillains robbing the place. Now I don't know how many people are even aware of Winky, Blinky, and Noddy but their deaths spur Garrick into wanting (wait for it) Justice!!

He wants it so much he is willing to join the Atom on his crusade.

I really like the Jay Garrick Flash so I was glad to see him included even peripherally in a series like this.

It is clear that Robinson has a love for the Atom. The back of the issue is a text piece about Palmer and his stories.

Robinson really wants to explore the complexities of the character and the tumultuous ride he has been on. Even Garrick can feel the heaviness on Palmer's shoulders. He tells Palmer that he needs to stop blaming himself for the actions of others. But I think the Atom is in too dark a place right now. And that maybe part of the overall story here - the redemption of the Atom's spirit.

Soon they are joined by Captain Marvel who has been on the trail of some villains who stole Zeta-beam tech in Fawcett City. Yes it looks like Prometheus has been very busy. However, he has not kept his trail clean because Marvel has also realized that the villains are gathering in Gotham.

Marvel and the Atom decide head to Gotham and face the villains. The Flash decides to stay in Central City to track down some leads there.

When they arrive in Gotham, they easily find Green Lantern and Green Arrow who have dispatched the throng of villains with some minor property damage. What a hodge-podge of villains who never seem to win: Javelin, Hellgrammite, Black Manta, The Scarecrow, Bolt, Crazy Quilt. Sheesh ... the heaviest hitter I saw in the pile of bodies was Dr. Polaris!

There was a brief reunion scene where the old JLA friends are reunited. This might be the first time that Hal and Ollie have seen Palmer since Identity Crisis. Both he and Freddy reiterate that it is the need for justice that led them to Gotham.

Later in the scene Ollie says that when Captain Marvel says justice there is a feeling of hope rather than the empty rhetoric from the old timers. It is a nice line since every other time I have read someone say justice in this book it could easily be replaced with the word revenge. I still think that Ollie joined Hal not because he believed in this cause but to make sure Green Lantern didn't revert back to a more Parallax-ian way of thinking.

Suddenly, the Javelin who has recovered heaves a spear at the gathered heroes.

A red and blue streak blocks the projectile and clobbers the Javelin.

Initially the heroes think it must be Superman who has joined them.

Nope.

It's Supergirl.

A rather stunning splash page of Supergirl.

Wow!

That is a devastatingly beautiful splash page of Supergirl.

The best adjective I can come up with for Cascioli's Supergirl is statuesque. She looks confident, powerful, athletic ... holding the unconscious super-villain in her fist. This isn't a cheesecake splash page. This is a heroic splash page.

So the story has unfolded enough to see that Prometheus is stockpiling cutting edge technology and amassing a small army of super-villains. The main players have been brought together and share a common goal. And the dialogue for the most part sounded right. And there is the utterly fabulous art by Cascioli throughout the book.

While this was only the set-up for the next 5 issues, I think it worked.

Overall grade: B+/B

More Cry For Justice Previews

Justice League: Cry For Justice is getting a lot of publicity from DC. Her is another page from the book posted on the DC Source blog and the link: http://dcublog.dccomics.com/2009/06/05/a-killer-page-from-justice-league-cry-for-justice-3-to-end-the-week/

The pages we have seen from this book have been beautiful and this one is no exception. And it includes one of my favorite super-villains Prometheus.

I really hope Supergirl gets to spar with the man who almost single-handedly took down the JLA. I can't wait to see Kara face off against some headlining DC villains (the cover shows Grodd and Sinestro for example).

But this quote was also in the Source piece.

If you miss any issue of the 7-part CRY FOR JUSTICE mini, you are so gonna hate yourself!

Looks like an issue has been added to the run.

Only a couple of weeks until the first issue is released!

Bullet Reviews: Final Crisis:Superman Beyond #2, Faces of Evil:Prometheus, Tiny Titans #12

I know that none of the comics being reviewed here have anything definitive to do with Supergirl. Still, at least tangentially, they will impact her and the DCU. And they all were good enough to warrant at least a bullet review.

The second part of Grant Morrison and Doug Mahnke's mini-series came out last week and definitely impacts Final Crisis. At last, the main threat of Mandrakk, the Dark Monitor is revealed. You might recall that last issue the Supermen from multiple universes travelled to Limbo in a Monitor driven ship to help save the universe from destruction. During that trip, Superman read of the origin of the Monitor culture which had been corrupted by the very concept of 'story'.


The female Monitor Zillo Valla is able to repair her ship by feeding it Overman's blood. It turns out that the Monitors live off of the bleed, the energy between universes. A massive destroyer ship of Mandrakk's shows up in Limbo to destroy it and the Supermen attempt to hold it off. It is then that Superman realizes he needs to inhabit the Superman statue doomsday device created by Dax Novu and hold off Mandrakk himself.

Captain Adam, the Doctor Manhatten-esque Superman, combines the energies of Ultraman and Superman to create a powerful enough quantum symmetry to broadcast the essence of Superman into the thought robot.

Superman, inhabiting the robot, is able to walk amongst the Monitors on this world of forms, taking in the massive scale of his surroundings. He learns the thought robot can adapt to fight any threat. He sees how narratives on the 52 Earths have changed the previously immutable Monitor culture.

And, he learns that the Monitors are in many ways vampire gods sucking the 'Orrery of Worlds' dry. It is at that point that Ogama, a monitor who had Nix Uotan exiled, reveals himself as an agent of Mandrakk.

Mandrakk arises and engages the Superman device. Mandrakk seems unstoppable, wielding unlimited powers and holding a container of bleed energy. But his every attack is thwarted by the ever-evolving Superman being. Mandrakk is then attacked by the Superman's origin story - an unstoppable, indestructible, better story than his own. A story as a weapon ... pure Morrison.

The battle carries across the landscape with massive damage dealt by both sides.

It is then that Superman understands. Mandrakk is the 'opposite of life'. Hmmm .... anti-life? It is also clear that Mandrakk was the first Monitor contaminated by the stories of the multiverse. He is Dax Novu. Mandrakk is cast into the overvoid surrounding reality, engulfed by the over-riding Monitor mind. Superman is able to wrest the vial of bleed from him. He returns to the Monitors where he hears that Ogama will be exiled.

Superman and Overman then 'fall' back into Limbo.

Superman then leads the Supermen against Mandrakk's destroyer, smashing it to pieces. Victorious, they are all sent back to their home worlds.

Well maybe not all of them. Mandrakk and Ogama appear in Limbo and recruit Overman to be their first knight of terror. They vow to fight Superman again, with an army of millions.

Back on Earth, Superman reveals that he carried the precious drop of ultra-menstruum, the fluid needed to save Lois, in his mouth. He kisses her and revives her.

Superman had taunted by Mandrakk about what he would want carved on his tombstone. The issue ends showing what Superman had carved on the stone while in the Monitor-world ... the words "To Be Continued." Spectacular!

Well, like most of Morrison's works this one is unbelievably dense with abstract ideas and somewhat inscrutable plot twists. Unlike Final Crisis, I was completely on board. This was Morrison at his best, throwing concepts and wrinkles at us rapid fire, hoping we can keep up.

In the end, I felt like this was sort of like a David Lynch film. I might not have understood every tiny piece, but I understood enough for the themes to come through. I loved it.

Overall grade: A

I absolutely loved Prometheus when he was written by Grant Morrison in JLA so I was thrilled to hear that Supergirl's Sterling Gates was going to write a one-shot to bring some respectability back to the character. This was a fun read.

It turns out that after the Mageddon invasion during Morrison's last JLA run, the Martian Manhunter felt Prometheus was such a threat that J'Onn imprisoned Prometheus in his mind. Prometheus was forced to relive his defeat at Batman's hands over and over.

This was the one slight slip I thought in the issue. We know how Batman was against mind-wipes in Identity Crisis. Isn't this a bit similar for him to just go along with?

The JLA dumps his catatonic body into Blackgate prison. Well, with the death of the Manhunter in Final Crisis, Prometheus' mind became free. He quickly murders his guards and escapes to a safe house of his where he discovers that someone else has been wearing his gear and pretending to be Prometheus in his absence.

This phony Prometheus is shown being taken down by 3 D-list heroes ... Anima, Gunfire, and Argus.

The real Prometheus batters them all with ease, cutting off Gunfire's hands thus robbing him of his powers. He uses his key (being carried by the fake) to transport back to his limbo-like dimension. In teleporting, he kills Anima as he only takes the top half of her with him.

The phony Prometheus was a man named Chad who the real Prometheus was grooming to be his 'Robin'. The real Prometheus feels that Chad, who both let Prometheus rot in jail and then proceeded to ruin his reputation, has betrayed him. Prometheus then burns Chad alive.

As he laughs with glee, Prometheus realizes that the JLA will underestimate him because of how Chad acted. Prometheus will have his revenge. I think he is supposed to take on the new Justice League (the Hal/Ollie/Kara one) early in that title.

So, the whole 'someone else was wearing my suit' story has been done before. But I am just glad that the intelligent, conniving, powerful Prometheus is back. And I think Gates does a good job of re-showing us how psychopathic Prometheus is as he casually kills and mutilates people throughout the issue.

Overall grade: B+

I wish I could easily explain why I enjoy Tiny Titans so much. But I flip through every issue and have purchased about half of them. The creators put so much DC Universe history in each story that I think I get a bigger kick out of them than the Supergirls at home do.

Take for example the Faces of Mischief cover, instead of Faces of Evil.

In this issue, Prinicipal Deathstroke and substitute teacher Trigon leave the school with their kids to attend a day baseball game. They decide to leave 'lunch lady Darkseid' in charge as temporary principal. Lunch Lady Darkseid? Awesome.

Darkseid decides to make the students take their final exams that day despite it being in the middle of the semester. That's right ... it's a Finals Crisis! That's comedy gold.

In another story, Robin is stopped by the hall monitor ... The Monitor. Robin is then told he does not need a hall pass by the Anti-Monitor. The two then argue about whether or not a hall pass is required. At one point the Monitor tells the Anti-Monitor 'everyone likes you more!'. I chuckled out loud.

It is hard to grade this comic because of the format.

Overall grade: A