It all comes to an end… and a start!
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Buccellato
Art: Mike S. Miller
Colors: J. Nanjan
Letters: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Year Five concludes as the storyline leads directly into the first INJUSTICE game! Batman and his allies race against time-and a rampaging Superman-to bring over the duplicate heroes from the parallel Earth.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
It’s taken a few years but we’ve now reached the point where the comic series has caught up with the game and is ready to set those events into motion. It’s been an interesting ride, particularly as someone who never played the games beyond a few minutes with the original demo, as I’ve largely enjoyed the run but have felt like it didn’t have the flexibility to really cut loose and do what it needed to do. With the end of this series, however, it’s just the launching point for what’s to come as Chris Sebela will be writing the Injustice: Ground Zero series that kicks off next month as it takes us through the events of the first game through Harley Quinn’s eyes. That ought to be interesting to see, though I’m sad to see Buccellato go as he mostly had a good and fun handle on all of this.
With the finale, Buccellato and Miller along with Nanjan and Abbott turn in a solid piece that puts us into the right frame of mind for what’s to come. Superman’s confrontation with Batman makes up the majority of this as we get Batman doing his best, as always, to buy Batwoman and Batgirl some time to get things done where they are. It’s a pretty compelling piece within this framework as we get Batman trying to reach him, even as a delaying action, and sift through what used to make Superman who he is. The two have an intense history to be sure and one that’s gone very wrong in the last few years, but Bruce always knew more about Clark than anyone else and his reaching back to how his parents on Krypton would feel about how their son that they sent here to be a symbol ended up becoming a dictator. It’s a really solid use and the impact definitely lands even if Bruce isn’t able to truly follow through on it.
In some sense there’s a recap of events here more than anything else because there is so much history and only so much you can do before launching into the game narrative. Having Batman lay all of this out, reminding us of the deaths and the suffering that Superman and the regime have caused is important. Bringing out the piece with Alfred is particularly stark because you see Hal and Diana being shocked by it, though they really shouldn’t be at this point after the list of things Bruce rattles off that they’ve all been complicit in. Mixing into all of this we get some time with Kate and Barbara as they struggle to get things done with the transporter, and a nod to what’s going on in the other parallel world, before it all segues into the final setup piece across various parts of the world. It’s not exactly complex or complicated, but it’s a bit awkward since it’s trying to achieve certain game elements for the moment.
In Summary:
The end of the run is a solid enough one and largely did what I expected once they made it clear where the final act was going to go. Buccellato has handled the characters and scripts well over his tenure and I had no issue with what he did after taking over for Tom Taylor. This issue wraps up a lot of things by cementing where the characters stand and all their actions and opens up others with what’s to come. The book has had a lot of different artists overall that got to play to their strengths depending on the arc at the time, but Mike S. Miller has been one of the most consistent ones and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching his growth on this run and really enjoyed a lot of what he did here in the end with the layouts, some of the blending, and things like the headshot run that we got along the top about midway through. Good stuff all around and hopefully we’ll be seeing more of his work soon.
We’ll be back for Injustice: Ground Zero when that digital-first run kicks off next month!
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: September 20th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99