The last stand.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Buccellato
Art: Mike S. Miller
What They Say:
It’s a showdown in Themyscira, as Superman’s now leaderless allies get ready for an assault on the Gods of Olympus.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Injustice comes to its penultimate installment here with a sense that it has a lot to do… yet not. The series has been an enjoyable one for me this year, even if not too many bodies have fallen along the way, The shift to using the gods of Olympus is one that worked well for me after it moved through some of the earlier back and forth elements, dealing with some of the fallout from the previous season and upping the anger level of others. The last couple of installments have kept things ramping up with the threats at hand, such as Darkseid, Zeus and a nuclear strike, but I’ll admit that even as it does all of this it doesn’t have quite the same threat and impact. It’s not a bad thing in a way, because it’s not being forced in a sense. It has more of an old school comic book charm in a way.
I mean, we have Diana lassoing some nuclear missiles.
Events on Themyscira are pretty dire in general as we get Diana and the rest of the remnants of the League there getting their resolve together in order to take down the gods. They’ve taken a beating before and they’ll take it again, even if it is their last stand. It’s a good moment for Diana as she’s come to terms with just how wrong Zeus is with what he’s doing, but also a realization for her that as much as she is Wonder Woman in the eyes of the world, she’s first and foremost the Princess of Themyscira. And seeing the way things are going so badly there now, she gets some good support from her friends and a few others like Artemis. This makes for some good splash pages and fight sequences playing out between the various sides, giving us a shot of Batwoman kicking Hera in the face or seeing Cyborg take an arrow in his electronic eye. It is, admittedly, an unwinnable fight, but they play it well here by putting their all in.
Of course, stupid moments do arrive along the way. When they realize there are a few nuclear missiles coming their way, most take a moment to stop and wonder what they can do. Some keep fighting and end up taking out one of those that stands a chance in stopping it. That Diana stopped even after Hera killed Artemis is surprising, but it makes sense overall considering the scale of the threat. It’s one that plays out in a way that gives her a chance to go out in a big way, not exactly redeem herself or anything since she doesn’t view herself as being in the wrong, but it’s a heroic moment that she goes all out with. While Superman does provide a boost at the end, it’s after she’s gone as far as she can, so it was welcome that he didn’t truly do the job for her in a sense, especially since he faced much less risk.
In Summary:
With just one more installment to go, things do go big here at the end as the biggest of the players arrive on the field. It’s an expected end sequence with what’s at stake and the players that have been moving around, but I liked it because it didn’t undercut Diana’s sequences nor the fight that was going on before this big guys got involved in things. The book is mostly fight sequences and Miller has managed that well throughout the run, so there’s no problems here. Some of the group walking panels early on just felt a bit weird to me, but once it segues into the action it keeps running and works well. I’m already feeling the loss of this book and my weekly connection to these characters since I’m not reading much else from DC at the moment. It’ll be interesting to see how this all winds up.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: October 6th, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
