Guarding a ruined entrance, that’s just up Blue Beetle’s alley.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tom Taylor
Art: Daniel Sampere, Juan Albarran
Colors: Rex Lokus
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Trapped in Ra’s al Ghul’s underground lair, the rescue team looks for another way out. Harley joins with the kids and their would-be rescuers and Batman gets tangled up by an old enemy.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Injustice 2 spent some quality time exploring why Animal Man was aligned with Ra’s the last time around and you can extrapolate that to Poison Ivy and maybe one or two others. The rest are just here because they’re on what they feel is the right side and others are just hired muscle. Tom Taylor delivered a good character piece for me the last time around with what he did with Buddy and exploring his reasoning, which at the same time is similar enough to Ra’s that there’s some element of sympathy for the bad guys in all of this. This issue brings back the same art team and they once again have a lot of fun with things here, especially as it’s a pretty busy installment with a lot of things going on in general.
This installment has a number of tracks running and they’re all fun. The group that’s inside is splitting up to deal with things as Batman and Wildcat head off to find Alfred – and Damian, as Bruce is intent on bringing him home, while the rest go to find the kids. There’s some fun in seeing Batman and Wildcat fighting side by side, and some of the commentary from Wildcat, but we also get to see how the rest are doing in trying to find the kids. The thing that’s helping them out here is twofold; the first is that the place is really well labeled because of its size, making it easy to get from place to place.The other is that Plas and Luke are still hiding themselves in plain sight and listening in to what’s going on with the underlings and are closing in on where the kids actually are at.
What’s fun is that we get to see the kids figuring out their own best approach to dealing with things. They’re kept in what’s designed to be a fun area for them with games and the like, but they know who their parents are and are aware of what they need to do to prepare for them coming. It doesn’t hurt that two of them have powers nor that the group includes Harley’s daughter Lucy. So when they do get their opportunity to fight back it plays well as they’re not able to do a huge amount but can do enough to make a difference. It’s also amusing in some of the twists that comes into it and the kind of mad race they’re on to try and get to another way out. Sampere really works the kids well here as they look and move well and the use of their powers and the brief fight is fun to watch, especially with the twist.
In Summary:
Injustice 2 nudges things forward and changes the dynamic a bit with Harley ready to get out of this place since she was essentially an unwilling participant of a significant order. The only downside is that I’m just not a fan of how Sampere handles Harley, which is kinda ok as I’m glad that she’s had more of a reduced role in general after the last series. There are a lot of fun moments to be had here from the kids sticking up for themselves, the dialogue between Batman and Wildcat, and some of the little pieces with the fights and the overall look of the book that just delivers fun and an exciting storyline that I want more of. Thank goodness this one is weekly!
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: August 15th, 2017
MSRP: $0.99