Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Buccellato, Christopher Sebela
Art: Marco Santucci
Colors: J. Nanjan
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
As Batman’s team moves closer to acquiring their secret weapon, Harley faces off against Black Adam.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With some fun material in the last installment that worked better for me than I expected, the book moves into its next “arc” with the first installment of “Black Hearts.” This is also a welcome return of Marco Santucci on the artwork as he’s done some great stuff earlier in the series and in the previous series. Working with a good range of characters, some creative costumes at times, and definitely handling the facial expressions as well as the action components, Santucci makes the book work better than it should at times simply because of the infectious fun of watching it all unfold.
With the split focus of the series as we’ve had for a few installments now, it mostly means that we don’t get anything completed but a decent bit of progress on both sides. For Harley, her riding around in the Batmobile trying to get Batgirl’s attention and information on where Batman is proves to be fun, but it’s the arrival of Black Adam in Gotham to stop her that keeps it exciting. She’s not one that can ordinarily stand up to him but the green pills help and with her gang doing their ineffective best we get a really amusing and solid fight sequence. One where she does manage to taunt the tired and weary Black Adam into showing some emotion. His position on the world is one that’s understandable with why he’d thrown in with Superman to the degree that he has and watching his quiet power trip here is fun, as is seeing the expected twist at the end with what he’ll face next.
Just as fun in a different way is what’s going on with Batman and the other world heroes at Wayne Manor. With them having survived the fight, though some of their dignity a bit worse for wear, they’re moving further into the place to where Batman is storing his secret weapon. It’s fun to see Oliver so excited to finally see it and Batman cautioning Wonder Woman about trying to reach this world’s Superman and we’re getting closer to what his secret weapon is. Not all the way there, of course, but we get the nod of Damian hiding out down there watching what’s going on and getting that step closer. This is certainly the lighter of the two stories but it has some good progress attached to it and I just like seeing this team together in general.
In Summary:
Ground Zero has a pretty fun installment overall here, partially because I enjoy Black Adam and his too tired for this shit approach to things as well as seeing a good version of the Justice League cast trying to do the right thing. Santucci works both stories well and I really like what he does with Harley and Black Adam, particularly the reveal for him as it makes him imposing from her point of view and definitely menacing in all the right ways. Combine that with solid action, some fun humor on both sides of the stories, and a sense of more progress being made, slowly but surely, and this is a solid installment.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 13th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
