A curious twist for the moment.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Buccellato
Art: Xermanico
Colors: J. Nanjan
Letters: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
As the series builds to a climax, we visit a parallel Earth where Lois Lane never died and where the friendship between Superman and Batman remains as strong as ever.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Injustice series is essentially just a few weeks from ending if the forty-issue run is still what’s going on with it and this installment works really well in a number of ways. One of those is the return of Xemanico for it as it looks like he had a bit of time to put more into it, both with layouts and the designs of the characters. The other is getting a different take on the characters than we’ve had for so long that it’s actually really welcome. At first glance you might say, “well, this is what we get in the continuity books, why’s that special here?” Then you remember that for the longest time the continuity books haven’t done much to actually make these characters feel human in many ways, at least until Rebirth started righting the ship.
With a chapter title of “Earth One”, what we get for pretty much the entirety of the book is a look at a different parallel Earth where things are… well, they’re like how many of us hoped the mainline universe would be in many way. It’s kind of an old school throwback to some degree, reminiscent of early post-Crisis days, as we get a lot of our well known named heroes coming to Wayne Manor in order to celebrate Alfred’s birthday. Not that it really is his birthday nor did they get the age right since it’s all a mystery, but it’s the kind of casual clothes camaraderie that made me like comics way back in the day. Everyone’s upbeat, everyone’s happy, and it even gets the lead-in with it about Lois being pregnant and Clark just being petrified about what could happen because of it. While my instincts go for the whole classic novel take about the complications of birthing a Kryptonian on Earth, I know it’s really just plain normal nervousness.
This takes up the bulk of the issue and it works, against all odds. With the way events in the series have gone as it’s gotten more and more grim, this is a weird angle to take but it’s comforting to reconnect with these characters in this sense. That’s not to say there isn’t any tension. Lex is all suited up and ready to cause trouble for the Justice League and he’s put together a team of baddies to do it with the target being that of the Daily Planet, which is where Lois is. It sets up the idea of history repeating itself to be sure but it’s hard to tell where Buccellato wants to go with this considering we’re coming up on the end run of the book. It delivers in a big way with the artwork and that makes it just a really joyful book to read for the most part.
In Summary:
Injustice is in a kind of weird state here where perhaps it makes a little more sense if you’ve been involved in the game and how the story gets underway there. Considering how many years ago it came out and that I had only a mild passing glance at it back then, I get the feeling that this will all connect into it because why do it otherwise. Those who are invested in the game and the book connection are likely just grinning with how it’s coming together (and laughing at me for not knowing, whereas I enjoy the uncertainty and lack of foreknowledge!) and it definitely seems like it’s ready to just throw down in a big way. Overall, I definitely liked this issue but it was a bit of a surprise in a lot of ways and it was just a great work of Xermanico’s.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: August 30th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
