Sprawling stories with a lot of danger.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tom Taylor
Art: Bruno Redondo, Juan Albarran
Colors: Rex Lokus
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Steel (Natasha Irons) leads a task force in protecting the President-elect at the inauguration. Batman’s team is on the verge of breaking free from Ra’s al Ghul’s jungle stronghold, but the Dark Knight himself gets tangled up with Poison Ivy.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While the Injustice series as a whole tends to focus on just a couple of stories at any given time, working a two-track approach in many issues, this series has expanded as time has gone on and split the group up more and working more character pieces in different stages. Tom Taylor has handled this well so that each issue feels focused but also so that we see the expansions and await to see how it impacts the current storyline. It doesn’t hurt that Bruno Redondo returns with this issue either as he illustrates one of my favorite Poison Ivy designs and just gets to have some real fun with it, ably assisted with Juan Albarran on inks again and Rex Lokus putting together some delightful colors for it overall.
The events of the last issue really make a sprawling impact here with Connor showing off his ability against Faux Batman as that serves as a signal to many others inside the base that things are not right. You do have to love the pride of the parental side in that he’s got better accuracy than his mother but all it means is that things are not going to be going quietly at this stage, if they ever really were. That serves to get Blue Beetle aware that things are going south and having to find a way in while Harley has to try and keep things from going badly when the rest of the baddies show up. Not that she’s a great liar in general but in this kind of situation she just can’t pull it off considering how fractured her attention is and trying to figure out how to keep Wildcat alive at the same time.
While this unfolds we get two other areas that are dealt with of note. The first is the prologue here that goes back five years earlier with Natasha Irons in Paris just as the nuke goes off in metropolis, with John Henry Irons leaving much to her to be found and incorporated later. It’s a reminder of the loss there as well as what has motivated her since, resulting in her now watching over the President-Elect appearing in DC for the inauguration. There’s some nice material with Aqualad there that provides a nod to what Aquaman is up to these days and all of it feels like it’s just waiting to explode properly. A smaller but very enjoyable piece provides some of the ending material in this issue as a contrast with Batman being tied up, literally, by Poison Ivy as she prepares to have her way with him. It’s a beautifully laid out sequence with some great designs and artwork that fits perfectly with how she’s lording this moment over him even as he prepares his own piece to change the narrative and move forward in finding Alfred.
In Summary:
Injustice 2 keeps moving forward as it feels like it’s working with a good bit of energy and a plan, one that hasn’t come together fully yet but has a sense of dread about it with what Ra’s is up to. This installment feels a bit more all over the place with the stories that it’s working with but they all feel key to what’s going on and are building blocks for what’s about to happen, notably with Natasha as she provides a new link to the past to reinforce why she’s working toward a particular future. The fun in the base battle is definitely there but the far too brief sequence with Batman and Poison Ivy is what works the best for me. I need Redondo and Albarran to do a full high end quality standalone book with these two characters under a mature label. Good stuff all around and it once again has me excited to see what comes next as everything continues to build.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: August 29th, 2017
MSRP: $0.99
