The death of dreams.
Creative Staff:
Story: Steve Orlando
Art: Andy MacDonald
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
“CURSE OF THE KINGBUTCHER” part one! The Ray never thought he would go back to Vanity, but the citizens of America’s most depressing city have found themselves caught in the middle of a mystic feud between order and chaos. The mysterious force known as the Might Beyond The Mirror has been granting Vanity’s greatest wishes; disabilities are healed, romances are restored and hope is rekindled. But it’s not meant to be, as a ruthless Lord of Order will stop at nothing to destroy the city’s dreams.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Justice League of America continues to be a book where I find myself wavering on whether I’ve made a mistake in continuing with it. The appeal of the characters, the base location that takes me back to the Young Justice show, and the kind of oddball things that this team can get involved with are intriguing. I’m also a big fan of the shorter story arcs that are being employed. But the team has not gelled for me and I’m having a hard time seeing it actually happening and it’s almost to a point where it needs to be broken up or changed to some degree, especially in giving Batman the boot because he’s coming across as destructive to the book as a whole.
With this book we get a new storyline kicking off with the Curse of the Kingbutcher. This one takes us back to Vanity City where it turns out the Might Beyond the Mirror has been whispering and granting wishes to various residents that have come true. Some are small, some are odd, and some are important, such as being freed of fibromyalgia. But nothing good like this can last in general and a man known as the Kingbutcher, operating under the Lords of Order apparently, has come to the city to remove these wishes. He calls them curses and views himself as saving these people but when you have some that have found ways to get past excruciating and constant pain it’s hard to view it as a curse. The wishes and the Kingbutcher have now made the news and that has the JLA coming in to deal with it, though not the entire team as some are handling Caitlin’s problem with some new leads.
With Ray being from Vanity City he has that personal connection and the mayor, his childhood friend, is also a dreamer that had a wish answered. The book gives us a decent bit of chaos at the Sanctuary before moving to Vanity City as there’s still fallout and disagreement, to put it lightly, over how the team operates. That factors well into the mission itself as the fractured sense of team is strong here and Ray’s personal connect makes it worse. That we get a slight detour in Lobo’s past is a bit odd but it’s one that I do find amusing to see reintroduced. All of it leads to that first confrontation with Kingbutcher and the expected back and forth with each side thinking that they’re in the right and it all naturally leads to a difficult reveal for Ray when he finds out his mother is a dreamer as well.
In Summary:
It’s solidly put together material but the foundations with the JLA really make it a rough read as team interactions are just awful. I’m struggling to like any of the characters because of how Batman is acting but also the way everyone else reacts. When we get away from that friction point things tend to play a bit better as we get to know the characters more but that doesn’t survive the interaction point when it returns to the group. Andy MacDonald puts in a solidly strong turn in this issue with the layouts and designs and I keep getting a kind of Bane/Lex Luthor vibe from how the Kingbutcher looks that’s kind of amusing. I’m curious where this arc will go, and for how long, but I keep wanting something more meaty from the series to sink my teeth into.
Grade: C
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: July 14th, 2017
MSRP: $2.99
