A new flavor of justice.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Buccellato
Art: Bruno Redondo, Juan Albarran
What They Say:
Before embarking on a deadly mission, Renee Montoya recalls her past life with the GCPD. And Harley Quinn visits an old friend.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment to the fourth year of this storyline and all the problems of what the world would be like certainly landed well for me. There were enough simple nods to what the state of things were that you could jump in as a new reader and figure it out after a bit, but we also got the proper placement for regular readers to understand how things have changed since the end of year three. And we also got to see that Ares is about to make his move, or more open moves, in an effort to reassert the role of the gods on Earth. Since they’ve been diminished over the years, it’s certainly not a stretch to imagine them elbowing their way in, especially when the world is in the state that it’s in now.
This time around, the Ares material isn’t included but it gets to focus on some other areas of interest. Primarily, it takes us back ten years earlier in Gotham where we see a young Montoya, working with Sawyer, dealing with a small cult in an old house in the city and things go horribly wrong. It’s a rough moment for Montoya as she kills to defend herself and it made an impression as she was saved by Huntress, who told her she did the right thing in the right moment. Unfortunately for Montoya, the events after Year Three have been hard on her and all she does is drink herself into a stupor these days, made worse by the loss of Huntress at Diana’s hands. The dynamic between her, Batwoman and Selina at Montoya’s place is interesting, especially as it has the general idea coming through that their side really has started coming to grips with the fact that they lost.
Montoya’s not able to take that path anymore though, and after shaking off her drunken side, she gets into the scuffle with Cyborg and Robin that we saw at the end of the previous issue. Admittedly, I’m not up on where Montoya stands in the mainline continuity these days, but she’s definitely strong here and she knocks Robin practically into orbit. It sets the tone well as she’s intent on facing off against Superman and makes quite the statement. Which is part of what feels like is going to populate other aspects of the world if others start to reach their breaking point and get inspired. Case in point is Harley, as she’s bored and looking for something to do and even Ivy won’t help since she just wants to care for her plants. You can see the wheels turning there, and her time with Billy briefly makes you wonder how the fallout impacted him, but it’s another potential touchstone to action with Harley here.
In Summary:
As expected at this point, the series is working through some foundational aspects of what’s going to really get things going, and it’s doing it with a good mix of quiet moments, such as the past and introspective pieces here with Montoya and the others, and also the bigger elements, again, Montoya declaring war on Superman or the whole Ares angle from before. And this is mostly movements with more minor characters overall as opposed to the big players who have settled into their roles and are mostly complacent, at least outside of Bruce and who knows what all his real plan is. In the end, the book is a quick, fun and engaging read to see the world changing again as the fourth year gets further underway and it again leaves me wanting more.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: May 12th, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
