Justice League of America (vol.2) #45 (2010)
Justice League of America (vol.2) #45 (July, 2010)
“Prelude to Dark Things”
Writer – James Robinson
Penciller – Mark Bagley
Inkers – Rob Hunter & Norm Rapmund
Colorist – Ulises Arreola
Letterer – Rob Leigh
Assistant Editor – Rex Ogle
Associate Editor – Adam Schlagman
Editor – Eddie Berganza
Cover Price: $3.99
Hmm… I’m not usually one to notice such things, but… er, is Power Girl’s boob-window a little low on this cover? I mean, I thought it was a “cleavage” sorta thing, but here it looks like she’s giving birth to a pair of very competitive twins.
Welcome back to #BrightestMay.
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We pick up with the Justice Society and Sebastian Faust just as the comatose Green Lantern, Alan Scott begins to emit massive amounts of… well, green light. Obsidian wants answers… but for the moment, Faust is rather tight-lipped. Alan’s body rises and just takes off! Meanwhile in Germany, the recently emerged-from-a-meteor Jade is also awake… and boy is she ticked.
If you recall, when the green meteorite landed the Rocket Elite (ya know, the German Rocket Reds) arrived on the scene to see what’s what. Now that Etrigan has been shooed off, they’d really like some answers. Jade ain’t keen on spilling the beans, though in fairness, she might be just as confused as the rest of us.
The interrogation is interrupted by the arrival of… the Justice Society, and they’re being led by the glowing, yet still comatose-ish, body of Jade’s father… Alan Scott.
Inside the jet, the JSA chat up recent events… and try to appeal to Sebastian Faust so he might speak in something other than riddles. They are unsuccessful. Anyhoo, just then Power Girl arrives. And by “arrives”, I mean bursts through their jet full-force!
The Society falls… luckily, they have a pair of speedsters who are able to nyoink them out of the sky before they go splat, and gently set them down on the ground. Just as this maddened Power Girl sets her sights on the Justice League, Supergirl arrives to wallop her with a left! One’a those “Ooh” moments, if not for the cover showing us exactly what was going to happen. In case you were wondering, Congorilla informed Supergirl as to where they’d be “just in case”.
The Girls (Super and Power) duke it out for a number of pages while Dick tries to think up a way out of this. He realizes he doesn’t have any Green Kryptonite… but he does now have a… green lady, and figures that’s “close enough” (in fairness, the Starheart is “magic based”). He has Jade join in the kerfuffle… and wouldn’tcha know it? It gets the job done.
As the dust settles, we learn that the meteor that brought Jade to Earth was actually the Starheart. Worth noting, Jade’s brother Obsidian is now in a similar stasis as their father. Before Jade can continue her story, the Rocket Elite reconnoiter and try another frontal assault. Jade raises her hand and gives ’em a taste of “notsomuch”.
With the Germans neutralized, Jade proceeds to give the League and Society the quick and dirty on her father’s secret origin… which is really anything but secret, right?
Anyhoo, Mr. Terrific interrupts to inform the heroes that his T-Spheres are picking up reports that magic-based metas are currently exhibiting strange behaviors. Oh yeah, also elemental-based ones too… ooh, ooh, and maybe chaos-based ones too, why not, right? Let’s just throw the weather in there while we’re at it! It’s here that Sebastian Faust finally opens his maw. His daddy has gone crazy. I mean, how could ya tell?
At this point Alan Scott finally “wakes up”. There is an odd and cold “Starheart heavy” father-daughter reunion, which ends with the reveal that… Alan Scott (in a very Kingdom Come costume) will usher in the end of the world! Holy Golden Age not-quite Parallax!
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Well, this was kind of all over the place. I’m not even sure where to start.
We’ve got all of the magic/elemental/chaos based metas on Earth acting bizarrely. Last issue we saw Etrigan kind of lose his marbles, and here… a bunch of others (in single-panels that I didn’t feel needed to be captured for posterity). Among them were Shango, Zach Zatara, Jason Woodrue, Firehawk, Felix Faust… and Atlas? Atlas from 1st Issue Special. Okay. Well, I’ll hand it to Robinson, he’s great about giving nods to 1st Issue Special, even if I don’t quite get this one.
This might all be due to the bursting of the Starheart… okay, it’s very likely that this all has to do with the bursting of the Starheart. Fair enough… but, is it interesting? Ehh, so far… I gotta say, nope. Does it look pretty? Sure. Am I asking myself easy questions just to pad out this “review”? You betcha.
Considering that this is just a prelude to the JLA/JSA crossover (which we’ll be getting to shortly), I suppose it did a decent enough job of laying the foundation… no matter how nebulous it may seem at this point. I suppose all we need to know is Alan Scott: Bad. If that sounds like something that’ll rock your socks, this crossover might just be for you!
Overall… hard to really look at this one “in a vacuum”. It comes across as kinda sloppy… and just grabbing bits and pieces from everywhere in attempt to make it all “work”. Not sure it’s all that successful at this point… though I’d love to be proven wrong. When I read this back in 2010, I was still getting my DC “sea legs” back, so I was able to dismiss a lot of stuff that didn’t jive with me. Reading it today though… I still feel kinda lost, and I’m not sure that it’s my fault this time around.
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