Holy G’Nort!
Creative Staff:
Story: JM DeMatteis, Keith Giffen
Art: Scott Kolins, Colleen Doran
Colors: Hi-Fi
What They Say:
After a brutal defeat by Lady Styx’s legion, the remaining members of the Justice League are forced into hiding – but there are eyes everywhere. How do you hide in plain sight? You create secret identities. But will that be enough to elude Styx’s deadliest bounty hunter, Eclipso?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As I keep finding issue after issue, Justice League 3001 is a dense and complicated series that can be difficult to follow but oh so worth it. There’s a crazy energy that’s at work with it and while I suspect there is a large overall plan in place, it has a pervasive feeling of “winging it” more often than not. Which keeps the reader guessing in a good way because it can pretty much do whatever it wants. Hence getting a backup story here with art from Colleen Doran in which we follow Ariel and Lois tracking down Sinestro as they need him and his power ring. Discovering that he’s running a strip club and loves to perform himself? Suffice to say, the trap is laid for the readers in an amusing way.
The bulk of this issue is again split between two stories that further events overall but still keeps us guessing. The initial story has us on Bodhi still where Kara, Bea and Ice are dealing with the scavengers that are taking care of the remains of the planet after Lady Styx obliterated it. There’s an interesting angle here in how this is being done, following her path of ruined worlds and taking advantage of the leftovers, but it’s the cast that’s used that really nails it. I’ve long hated G’Nort and I still do here but it makes such perfect sense – even more so when we’re introduced to his cousin that’s running the operation – that you can’t help but laugh and love it. Yes, another ridiculous long-lived character at play here, but he provides some good insights as to how Lady Styx operates and adds a new threat to the mix as well. For a little exposition and backstory, this subplot works well to enhance what Lady Styx herself is up to.
Not that we’ll truly know as she’s essentially saying elsewhere that nobody can know her mind. The Takon-Galtos exploits are fun with Wonder Woman and her group as they go after sheriff Tariq, who turns out to be The Convert. Who turns out to have been working for Lady Styx for centuries if not longer. With his abilities making the Scullions clear and his connection to the Lady as well, we get it made clear once again that a grand event is playing out that really boils down to the bored god-type thing. I do expect there’ll be more to it if we get to know Lady Styx more, but as a baseline to get things moving and explain why she does what she does, right down to the Justice League being a toy of her own creation to amuse her for a while, a lot of it makes sense. So much of the book feels like the whims of a creator in how it zigs and zags so much that you can almost see it as if Lady Styx is creating it all.
In Summary:
Justice League 3001 once again has a whole lot of fun with what it’s doing. While I have no idea what it wants to do, I’m loving the ride as the script is fun, dense, and just plain weird. This issue has some action in which Kolins gets to have fun with Supergirl going on the offensive, but mostly it’s a lot of dialogue and exposition, which he hands just as well as the layouts are strong here. There’s so much to take in, like the dialogue, that the book can be positively overwhelming. This isn’t a causal read. This is a sit down and absorb it book. The backup feature is also a great deal of fun made more so by Colleen Doran’s artwork. I love her portrayal of Ariel and Lois here to the point where they need their own spinoff of wacky hijinks – especially with those disguises!
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: March 23rd, 2016
MSRP: $2.99
