Thinning the ranks.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Buccellato
Art: Bruno Redondo, Juan Albarran
Colors: Rex Lokus
What They Say:
Bizarro takes on The Rogues with tragic results, while Trickster tries to capitalize on the situation.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The introduction of Bizarro into the storyline the last time around was kind of just a tease and it worked well enough because you had to wonder how he’d fit into the narrative here. I definitely have an affection for the character that goes back a long way, but he’s a hard character to use and is one that I think is better suited for more unusual projects like All-Star Superman. That said, giving him the chance to cut loose in a series like this has a lot of appeal since the stakes are so different. His use here is pretty much something where we just drop in on the events as they’re going on and it’s just a whole lot of expected chaos. With Bizarro, you want carnage. And carnage is what we get here.
Bizarro’s taking up the Superman mantle well enough as he thinks he is and really doesn’t like to be told otherwise. So his going to defend a Regime outpost makes a weird kind of sense amid the chaos that Batman and his group kicked off the last time around to test what the Regime is capable of. We get to see all of this through the eyes of Trickster as he’s arrived to find out what’s going on there and it’s just a mess, largely because Mirror Master was taken down and the groups escape route is cut off because of that. I love the frantic nature of how a couple of them are trying to fight back, unable to tell that it’s not really Superman, just a weird sounding Superman, while Golden Glider does her best to figure out how to get the gear that Mirror Master uses to work. There’s some well laid out action here and some very intense if brief character deaths, but since they weren’t even called out by name they’re not really going to resonate like the big guys.
The fallout from this is where things begin to move and that has some interesting potential for a bit. Bizarro has now absconded with Trickster thanks to his calling Superman a friend. Superman himself does finally get there but there’s little for him to do and it’s just a matter of trying to do a little investigative work – which he leaves for everyone else. The interesting part is seeing how things end up back at Batman’s hideout where everyone has to cope with the losses and the intensity of it while still not knowing it’s actually Bizarro. The thing is that in a way, there’s no difference at this point. This connects us back to Selina’s leaving that we’d seen before but it works well overall to show the impact of what’s happened during this particular fight and just how much Batman is struggling to keep something together here.
In Summary:
Injustice works through some good material here and it shows that kind of spoiler into the works that Bizarro can be. Where he’ll actually end up in the grand scheme of things should be fun since it could make trouble for everyone. Hopefully Trickster figures out how to keep surviving, though! The scripts keeps things moving fast and it is a smooth read, making for an enjoyable if light time. Redondo and Albarran continue to put in some solid work and they definitely have fun with Bizarro in bringing him to life as there’s a great dynamism to how they have him moving and fighting here. Good stuff all around.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: February 23rd, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
