Time to make a real choice.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tom Taylor
Art: Daniel Sampere, Juan Albarran
Colors: Rex Lokus
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Harley finally meets the person pulling the Suicide Squad’s strings, and their plans are far more deadly–and global–than anyone could have imagined.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The first six issues of this Injustice series has covered a lot of ground with what the world is like at this point, some of the underlying tensions, and the way the various sides have organized themselves. Tom Taylor has extrapolated some fun things in the setup while keeping the look at events tight and focused on just a few people – but with some welcome expansions here and there. With this issue, we luck out with more Sampere/Albarran artwork under the great color work from Rex Lokus and that means an installment that’s mostly focused on dialogue and exposition manages to be pretty engaging and fun to read. THe facial designs continue to be quite the draw for me, especially since Sampere seems to really bring some great emotion to the surface with Harley.
While most installments work a two track approach to the story, this one focuses in on just one event and gives it room to breathe. Though I’m still not a fan of Harley’s dominance in the Injustice series as of late it does work well here considering her past with the Joker and what they intended to do. And with her having been on a couple of different sides over the course of it that factors into it as well. With her back with Faux Batman and his group in their base of operations, it’s here that we get Deadshot ready to kill her and even Faux Batman ready to explode her head. What we learn here is that he’s not the main man in charge, which we knew, and that person is now ready to talk to Harley to try and sway her over in a fully committed way to the plan. That the person is Ra’s al Ghul isn’t too much of a surprise considering what we had in the last couple of issues with Damian being broken out and those involved in it.
Ra’s is at a point where he views humanity as being the thing that is killing the world and all that is wrong with it must be culled and cut away. And, naturally, he’s the one to do it. Surprisingly, though, he’s brought a few over to his side beyond the usual types and he’s giving Harley one last chance to fall in or be cut away as they can’t have someone they can’t trust there. Ra’s doesn’t exactly handle all of this well considering the leverage he puts on her but it’s something that allows for a real push and reaction out of her, and something that gets Ivy to protect her while also trying to convince her to really listen and understand. It’s little surprise that Ivy’s on board with this considering her view of humanity compared to that of the Green, nor is it that it seems like Harley will change sides once again, even if it may be an act on her part – both to protect her daughter and to gain intel. Ra’s plan isn’t exposed yet but his reasoning is, in its own way, understandable and those coming on board with him make a certain sense so far.
In Summary:
Injustice 2 continues to do some very fun things and a lot of that is owed to the scripts that Tom Taylor is putting into motion here. It’s revealing things at a good pace, providing some sound reasoning for the characters to operate with, and pulling back the curtain on a larger plan that will turn to chaos and create new sides. What makes it really exciting – even in an installment that’s all about the dialogue – is how the art comes across. Sampere and Albarran deliver some great pages and emotion for the characters here and Rex Lokus continues to be one of my favorite colorists on the digital front. This is a very solid issue that adds more to the foundations and the team did a great job in just about every regard – including making me feel more for Harley.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: May 23rd, 2017
MSRP: $0.99
