The scales are upped once again.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Buccellato
Art: Xermanico
What They Say:
While Superman is off world, Batman recruits a new ally, and the JLA seeks counsel in Atlantis.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The end run of Injustice is moving along pretty briskly here even with a decent chunk of it spent doing dialogue and exposition about events. The series has done some fun things in the world-changing side of the equation now that the old gods are taking up residence and establishing themselves as we’ve seen. The push of them into a more formal reality is interesting and open to a lot of potential ideas, but we’re going with more straightforward superhero material here, which I completely get. The light touching upon various religions and reactions previously was about all I expect out of it, though it does leave me wishing that someone would write a more detailed series or story about such an event happening and how the world could react.
This issue is basically a tale of two planets, with a little more thrown into the mix. Superman’s fight on Apokalips is about as solid as you’d expect as the two go at it, though the impact of it comes from Desaad more than anything else as he’s now actually fearful for his life based on how it’s going. The heart of Apokalips is in danger with the intensity of the fight and we see the way both of these being deal with each other physically and verbally in a great way. Xermanico captures Superman quite well here with the intensity of his expression and the power of both of them in the fight. Placing a larger threat into the picture, even briefly, about how the fight would end Apokalips and cause chaos throughout the galaxy is amusing. That Darkseid may not survive it and Superman might? Even for me that feels like a stretch.
But at least we get some time with the New Gods and New Genesis thrown into the mix. Batman’s attempts at getting help from the Highfather makes sense when it comes to events on Earth and especially because of the collusion going on that breaks quite a few rules that they have. It all fits with Batman’s looking at every angle aspect and calling in whatever favors he can to try and gain some advantage. This also plays well to tie into how things are going on Earth amid all this spacebound material. Batman’s group is painfully small right now and there is a natural low going on here considering the state of the world. This provides for a nice pick me up from Alfred, though that really does go only so far. The interesting piece of this part of the book involves the remnants of the Justice League that are meeting in Atlantis to try and figure out a plan, one that won’t involve Arthur. The group has been whittled away and it’s no surprise that a lot aren’t answering the call considering the state of the world. It has a ragged group kind of feeling to it with nothing to lose, which hopefully means we whittle things down a bit more through the finale.
In Summary:
Injustice has built things up to a big level here with the stakes, much like the last year did, but there’s a strange sense of calm about it. Which is weird to say when you have Superman and Darkseid nearly destroying Apokalips. The book does some good stuff all around with the characters that are still running through it, though I’m kind of mildly unnerved by the whole Harley/Billy thing. I liked the action in the book and the use of the New Gods to the story – a potential story point if we get a fifth year? There are some nice call backs here with Kalibak and all, but mostly it’s got a strange quiet before the storm feeling even as we’re amid the actual storm.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: September 29th, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
