It’s not a good wedding unless villains invade.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tom Taylor
Art: Bruno Redondo, Juan Albarran
Colors: Rex Lokus
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
The ghosts of Batman’s past won’t stay buried, and when the other heroes think they’re going to have a rare moment of happiness, the Suicide Squad gets ready to spoil the party.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I’m a sucker for a wedding in comics simply because they almost always lead to some kind of crazy mess. And when they don’t we end up with a pretty fun event in general, often one that was being built toward for some time when it comes to big name characters. Taylor’s throwing a wedding in the mix of Injustice 2 may not read well for those that are only interested in the fighting side, which is what dominates the game, but for those that are enjoying the wider take of the comics this is a great way to humanize the cast more. And when you have folks like Redondo and Albarran bringing it to life it’s just all the sweeter. While I’m a sucker for Ollie (and Connor in his cute green suit), I just loved the simplicity and beauty of Dinah in her outfit and Redondo did a fantastic job with that.
To complicate this wedding we get the fun of Damian and a few others that are holding onto some serious (and fairly warranted) bad feelings toward Bruce from their interactions over the years and Damian is intent on reviving Alfred through Ra’s – and you know Ra’s is using it as a big psychological wedge against Brue. The fight that gets underway out by the grave isn’t extensive but it has some solid tension with Bruce trying to get away and alert the others while taking a bit of a hit. It’s Damian’s scathing words that likely inflict the most damage but some of that still feels like the hurt of a child being hurled at an adult where the child still hasn’t grasped the realities of what it is to be an adult. But that works well and plays solidly into how Damian is trying to fix this with Alfred and bringing him back to life.
With that playing out we also get the impact of the rest of the group assaulting the church to sow more confusion into the mix. This actually has something of a bigger plot point to it with Deadshot and a few others whisking away some of the kids of these heroes to use as leverage as that’s really the only reason for this kind of action to hit. It’s definitely well executed as a two-stage assault that keeps its focus on just a few characters, notably Black Lightning and the newly married couple, but it feels fully connected. It’s through this sequence that I think Redondo and Albarran shine the bets as we get Ollie and his being hit hard to the emotional side of Dinah after discovering what’s happened and going into a serious and understandable panic as her happy day shifts horribly.
In Summary:
Injustice 2 delivers a fun wedding installment that follows up the previous one just right with some good action, solid emotion, and a push forward with the story that’s going to up the emotional ante for some characters. I still want to smack Damian around and I’m really curious to see how intense things are going to get for Dinah and others as they have an even greater and more personal motivation to deal with things now, especially as bigger forces are at play weaving their own plans. Taylor’s continuing to deliver a book that I thrill to each week and getting some great artwork from this team across the board just makes it all the sweeter. Great stuff building toward some big crescendos soon hopefully.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: July 4th, 2017
MSRP: $0.99
