Well that… was a thing.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Buccellato
Art: Tom Derenick
Colors: Rex Lokus
What They Say:
Bizarro’s trail of destruction sinks to new depths and the trail is pointing back to Luthor. Can Lex eliminate this rogue before Superman discovers the connection?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With the previous issue not clicking all that well for me since I was a bit frustrated by both Bizarro and Trickster as a team and a lack of follow-up to the Joker Underground story, I’ll admit to being a bit more wary of this installment as well as it carries the storyline forth. This property hasn’t backed away from going with the hard truths of superheroes and violence with what would really happen to some degree, but there was that ending sequence that just took what happened with Superman and the Joker Underground and took it a few steps further. Bizarro’s actions in eliminating witnesses certainly fits into how the character is being presented here and it was a brutal sequence that worked but made me cringe at the same time.
With this installment, picking up where we left off definitely makes it clear just how bad things are with what Bizarro did and that Trickster is a little freaked out about it. I actually like that it makes him realize that he has to be really careful with what he says to Bizarro and is walking a tightrope himself as to how long before Bizarro may kill him. Which makes what happens even worse because Trickster is trying to keep him under control and ends up killed because, what, a fly flies into Bizarro’s mouth and he drops Trickster from the sky onto a mountain? It’s so absurd and violent in its own way that it was a shocking moment that I didn’t expect to happen. You could see him getting ready to kill the guests in the diner, but this? It’s just brutal. And sad as well as we see him going from place to place trying to get someone to repair Trickster like the old man repaired his own costume.
While this plays out we get the intense push from Superman to find this imposter since there’s a lot of carnage going on in small bursts. Hal’s view of events at the diner certainly reinforces that and Superman’s intensity is definitely appropriate as it reinforces the way he’s a no bullshit operator in the world now. This is actually starting to concern Cyborg a bit more since it’s turning them even further in a darker direction and that gets reinforced even more with how Superman responds to him about the Joker Underground. Cyborg’s line about the most powerful man in the universe unable to stop a couple hundred civilians with no powers is a strong moment that reinforces why so many people are going to push back against him because there really isn’t any need for him to do what he’s doing in order to quell things.
In Summary:
Injustice moves the Bizarro storyline forward and while it’s not that interesting it does provide a good parallel to what Superman himself is doing, which can raise questions by others that are aligned with him at the moment. Buccellato keeps things moving well enough here and it takes the odd and surprising turn, which is something that tom Derenick handles well. I really like how he essentially presented Trickster as a ragdoll when you get down to it, both from the impact moment to carrying him around for a while. The bodies must stack up here after a while since that’s part of the appeal of this series and this is one that I’m actually glad to add to it since I kind of cringed the moment he appeared and aligned with Bizarro, making for a terrible odd couple. Now to just get rid of Bizarro so I can go back to enjoying my previous incarnations of that character…
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 19th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
