When the water comes tumbling down…
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Buccellato
Art: Mike S. Miller
What They Say:
Wonder Woman feels betrayed by Superman’s part in the plot against Themyscira, but an old enemy may prove to be an ally in the battle against Poseidon when Aquaman reenters the fray.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Injustice certainly ramped up events this particular year and with the arrival of Poseidon the last time around it’s just feeling overwhelming in a way. We had a good range of magical/supernatural types in the previous year as it built forward but it was kept fairly restrained overall. What this segment of the arc has done is to bring in one of those that has been largely out of the picture for a bit with Aquaman. His arrival, timed with Poseidon of course, adds some fun scale to it but also a moment to bring together a lot of the core of the old Justice League. And he’s not exactly on anyone’s side here, which is kind of the norm for him, but it’s still welcome to see him throwing down once again in this world.
What we get here involves a lot of small areas that can quickly ramp up into their own thing. Poseidon’s got his own grudge with Zeus, which makes his arrival here expected with the nudging of Ares through superman, and that is all part of the larger plan. Ares manipuatlions have been a given for some time and you know Batman is several steps ahead even in this complicated game so knowing that what he’s doing with Poseidon as part of it reveals its own pieces of the puzzle. While having not read the first two years, I’m basically guessing that Ares is working “alongside” Darkseid at this point with the mystery partner that we get the nod from this time around, which makes sense since he doesn’t care about anything else but getting Superman after all is said and done over the years. Letting Ares muck up Earth is just a side benefit.
The other area that I like here is that we get some good interplay between Superman and Wonder Woman. With Poseidon offering quite the threat she’s less than pleased by what Superman has done in aligning with him, though Poseidon makes it clear he does what he wants. The relationship between these two heroes have been quite strained for some time and with Paradise Island now being so directly threatened, she’s becoming very, very, protective. This also plays out elsewhere on the island as we get Batman’s group lead by Batgirl looking to evacuate people and trying to get the Amazons to help via Artemis. But Zeus’s forces under Hermes are intent on attacking Poseidon more than anything else and that has her questioning which side she’s on even more – which isn’t a stretch considering what Zeus has done so far. The alliances and bonds here aren’t as strong as some might think, especially when pushed towards doing the wrong things.
In Summary:
Injustice continues to build up the scale of things even when it has some minor quiet moments and this installment is all about keeping us teetering on the edge. The threat to Themyscira is pretty obvious and that’s putting a lot of questions on the table for the Amazons and Wonder Woman in the face of what’s there. These divisions are fun to watch just to see who will break first and how it unfolds from there. I’m also enjoying the slow reveal of what Ares is up to and who he’s really working with, or more likely working for without realizing it, since that’ll tag into the next year of the book I’m sure. The series has whittled down the players a lot in the last couple of years and it’s been careful not to overdo that. But at the same time it feels like we’re due for some major endings here, especially since I’m expecting the recent kills to return to the world of the living having seen them make the trip on Charon’s boat.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: September 1st, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
