Paving the way… for justice!
Creative Staff:
Story: Steve Orlando
Art: Diogenes Neves, Rui Jose, Marc Deering
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
“THE EXTREMISTS” part three! The Extremists now control a nation, and within its borders, all is ordered and protected—all but free will. But how do seven people, even the JLA, fight an entire country? And even if they could, no one can truly prepare for the catastrophic design Dreamslayer has in store for reality itself.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Justice League of America has been doing some fun stuff since it got underway, though I’ll admit I kind of expected more of it to take place in American than in Kravnia. Steve Orlando has provided for a lot of things going on with the three main issues of the series with the arrival of Lord Havok and it’s been fun in all the ways I kind of want a team book like this to be. This installment keeps that up but brings in Diogenes Neves on the artwork with Rui Jose and Marc Deering inking, all of which is brought together well with the consistency of Hi-Fi’s color work. There’s so much detail in so many of these scenes that it just makes me appreciate the high quality color work that’s done here to bring it all to life so well.
In terms of story, there are some interesting ideas at play here. Havok and his crew do get some decent time explored here in simple form as the fight picks up and the Leaguer’s interact with them. Havok himself is the driving force that keeps it going here, however. With his team having taken over Kravnia, he’s essentially looking to reposition the nation to what it once was and what it was on his world of Angor. That leads to a couple of pages where he works his particular charm to all the other nations around them that were originally part of the singular nation that was broken up ages ago. It’s a familiar story in history to be sure but what he does here is to completely cement his power in a creative way, albeit one that would take more time in reality. But what it sets here is engaging because as the others fight the Extremists in the street, he’s conquered more nations.
The streets side of the book is certainly interesting in its own right. While things have fallen apart quickly for Kravnia, we do see the resistance side that has taken up and working to remove those powered villains who took their choice away. The arrival of the League to help has them panicked by more foreign powered do-gooders, but Black Canary handles this well in saying they just want to provide support, not lead or take over the job of freeing the country. It’s not an unfamiliar position but it’s one that works even better with this newer team that allows them to draw on the experience of the elders like Canary and Batman. There isn’t time for a lot of bonding between sides but it gets down to brass tacks well enough and sets up the action, which in turn connects to learning more about the various Extremists in smaller form to flesh it all out.
In Summary:
While I’m still not fully on board with this book in some ways as I’m not sure what I expected from it, I’m definitely enjoying it as a way every couple of weeks to get some fun team action with characters that I like. It’s definitely an ensemble installment this time around as they’re split apart to tackle various opponents in pairings but it works well to showcase everyone. The real winner is Havok as he’s coming across as someone who is thinking things through, in comic book form at least, and moving forward with plans in smart ways to cement his power and change the world. Orlando’s got the voices for the cast down well – though I’m hoping we get some downtime installments to really flesh out the interactions – and the addition of Diogenes and the inking crew to the roster is a solid one that made for a great looking book. I’m still waiting for things to come together in a way that makes me fully invested in it but I’m also simply enjoying the heck out of it.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: March 29th, 2017
MSRP: $2.99
