Monday, November 17, 2014

Justice League United #6 Review

This review is a few days later than I'd like it. Oh well.

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

The JLU and the Legion polish off the Cadre, but before they can take a victory lap, Black Mass finds Ultra and teleports him out to where Byth is in space. Byth does a ceremony or something to turn Ultra into Infinitus. I guess. The JLU starts to head out there, but Brainiac 5 says that he's already dispatched a Legion team to the area.

Review:

Second-issue syndrome: the energy of the setup in the Annual has run out, and now we just have some fighting. The plot advances in what I suppose is a timely enough fashion, as Byth gets his hands on Ultra. With three issues to go, I hope that there's room for something unexpected in the rest of the story, now that we've got the expected development out of the way.

The Legionnaires don't distinguish themselves in this issue. The only point of interest is the return of the Lost Legionnaires on the last page as Brainy's ace-in-the-hole, prompting a reaction on my part of, "Oh, is that what they're doing".

I dunno. Am I spoiled? Do I expect too much? Is this really a decent comic and I'm just too much of a grownup to appreciate it? I mean, it's not a bad comic. It's just sorta there. (At that, it's ahead of much of Paul Levitz's third run.)

I think if this thing came out in the 1970s it would be remembered fondly. As it happens, it's 2014, and I wish we'd never seen Dawnstar's arm in JSA #1, because this is just more retroboot slog. It's not Bad LSH; it's Caretaker LSH. Stupid retroboot. Remember when Legion comics were interesting, and not just a sop thrown to a bunch of complainypantses who can't let go of 1983?

Art:

Pretty much the same as in the Annual; sometimes the characters look good (Brainy, page 21) and sometimes not so much (Phantom Girl, page 3). Skimpy backgrounds. I've certainly seen a lot worse.

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