A new phase of the battle begins.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tom Taylor
Art: Bruno Redondo, Juan Albarran
Colors: Rex Lokus
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Harley and Lucy visit Harley’s sister. Meanwhile, in Gorilla City, tensions mount as Professor Ivo rushes to complete his secret weapon.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
One of the things that I’ve really loved about this run of the Injustice property is that as much as I enjoyed what came before and the artists that worked on it, this one feels like it’s getting a better lead-in time to produce some higher quality artwork. Bruno Redondo and Juan Albarran have been my favorites on it so getting them back at this point where Tom Taylor is ushering in the next part of this battle is just fantastic. That it also comes with two of my favorite characters that are also a couple getting some quality time together is even better. The combination of all the talents here with Rex Lokus giving it some fantastic pop on the digital viewing side just makes this an even better experience that I want the whole run to look like. No pressure, guys.
We’ve had a couple of issues dealing with different things after the last big event in this run and we get a little more of the fallout here. Harley’s bringing Lucy back home is a great moment because it has her talking about how she’s not going to play to the usual game of avoiding her to protect her but rather embrace her to be a part of her life after all they’ve been through. Harley’s verbal deluge is a comical piece here that fits for her but is also the only weak point for me in this book because, even in-character as it is, it just becomes a tl;dr moment as she recaps what happened. I really liked seeing what we get with Harley and Lucy and some of the understanding that comes from it as the bond between the two feels better cemented at this point and that’s important.
The other important bond shows up when she heads back to her apartment after a good bit of time way only to find most of the plants are dead. And Ivy is there as well. Their relationship is certainly taking a hit what with Ivy being in league with Ra’s to eradicate mankind to save the world but they at least know to put it all aside for a while to be who they are for each other. It’s one of Redondo’s best set of non-action pages and Lokus really nails the color design to make you feel a part of it. It’s all also a nice contrast to the darker back half that shows us Ivo working for Ra’s to create Amazon as part of the alliance with Solovar in Gorilla City in order to deal with the scourge of humanity. It ups the game nicely as we see it play out with a test run but I just liked the character dynamics before that with Grodd pushing his boundaries, Solovar reminding him of everything, and Ivo’s wariness about the whole endeavour.
In Summary:
Injustice 2 has had a lot of really good issues in its run but this one just clicked in a lot of different ways for me. As much as I do enjoy the big action pieces and the threat and tension that comes from it, it doesn’t work without the character design of it. Harley’s a frustrating character for me with her overuse in general the last several years but Taylor works it well with something quieter, whether with Lucy or Ivy, to make her more human and accessible. The big stars for this one for me are Redondo and Albarran, however, as they with Rex Lokus have produced what may be the best looking issue of this run so far and we’ve had some great looking issues. I love that Injustice 2 feels like it’s getting more of the time needed to produce better books and this kind of result makes it all worthwhile.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: November 21st, 2017
MSRP: $0.99
