I do love a good explosion.
Creative Staff:
Story: Christopher Sebela
Art: Tom Derenick
Colors: J. Nanjan
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
The daring rescue of Batman from Stryker’s Island reaches its climax, while the Joker puts Harley back under his spell.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With the prequel for the second Injustice game comic series coming up after this one in a couple of months, there’s a sense about Ground Zero that we’re going through the motions a bit here. Sebela is keeping things moving to be sure but it’s more with the B-plot focusing on the Justice League characters and their attempt to stop Superman more than Harley and her storyline. This issue brings Tom Derenick back for the art chores and that means we’ve got a very solid installment as I do quite like his interpretation of the Joker here as it feels more in line with some of the 70’s versions that i grew up with. So there’s a lot to like here in the layouts and arrangement of the flow as well as the action elements themselves.
The main plot with Harley and the Joker continues to drag on as he’s further establishing his dominance over her by plucking away at her underlings. Characters that we’ve gotten to know pretty well over the last several issues as they and Harley have been fun together. So, it makes sense that the Joker would start cutting them up to deal with her because replacing her is a whole lot of work. His goal at this point is just general chaos as he’s trying to figure out his big play and he’s got some of her guys on his side to accomplish that with. Gary becomes a decent focus and one does hope he survives as I’ve enjoyed him more than I expected as the series went on. The problem, however, is that we’re still mostly dealing with the same thing in that she can’t stand up to him and meekly goes along with it all, all while internally complaining about it. Which is what almost every issue is on some level.
The flip side continues to be more of what I had hoped for with this series as we now have Pancake Batman broken out and the two of them along with Green Arrow barely surviving thanks to Cyborg finally just bashing the transporter with his first. There’s not a lot of movement in this arc as they’re mostly getting things in place to try and work the Kryptonite gun to deal with Superman but there are fun moments. Particularly as the two Batman’s dole out instructions and poor Batgirl has to deal with him at double speed in this way, making her regret the experience. You can see the different parts coming together and how furious Superman is become, especially with the Watchtower exploding, but it’s not getting the front and center attention it really deserves.
In Summary:
At this stage I feel like we’re just killing time until the next series and the promise of this book has been lost because of it. It’s easy to keep up with since it’s a buck an issue digitally and there are fun moments each installment, making it an experience that I like to have every week. The secondary plot is the more interesting piece but it gets less time in favor of the problematic and repetitive main plot. This installment again has a good look about it thanks to Tom Derenick as he knows how this series operates and what it needs to achieve and that’s something that he delivers with ease, making it a fun read just for that alone.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: January 31st, 2017
MSRP: $0.99
