The real fight begins now.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tom Taylor
Art: Bruno Redondo, Juan Albarran
Colors: Rex Lokus
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
While Batman and his allies complete their mission against Ra’s al Ghul, Ra’s is not about to let them have the final victory. Was the mission to enter Ra’s’ jungle stronghold in order to rescue the children merely a distraction from something far more sinister?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Injustice 2 has delivered a lot of fun over the course of its run once it got past the first few issues and thankfully pushed Harley more to supporting role after being far too dominant for too long. Taylor worked in a pretty good cast with several stories going on that connect and diverge along the way as needed, which is something this installment handles as well. This issue has Bruno Redondo back and the switching between him and Daniel Sampere continues to be very solidly handled, making this a storng series of issues overall with some great art that’s bound together by the always solid inking from Juan Albarran. This is a team that with Rex Lokus and Wes Abbot have been firing on all cylinders from early on and it just has all the right polish to show off what it’s doing.
This installment is more of setup for what’s to come than anything else but there is a big moment to be had that almost has the right kind of payoff. We’ve been watching a smattering of pages for a while now with Steel and Aqualad watching over the inauguration as the country tries to move back to norms after the despotic rule by Superman. It’s been a lot of waiting for the other shoe to drop and that does finally happen here where Aqualad gets Steel to fly high to get a better view of events before he goes into what seems like a semi-trance mode and turns the reflecting pool into a tidal wave that runs roughshod over the National Mall and up to Congress where the swearing in turns into a whole lot of people drowning. The implications are big and it plays well to events going on with Ra’s and his group.
The bulk of the issue is spent with the fallout from what happened in Ra’s base of operations where so many of the animals and plants are now dead and ruined, resulting in some breakdowns to be had and some of Ra’s team in bad shape. Ra’s is indignant to say the least here in dealing with all of this but he makes it clear to Batman that after all that has happened he won’t be holding back against him any longer out of deference to his daughter and grandchildren toward him, confirming that Athanasia is related to Bruce. The “good guys”here don’t get a lot of time as it’s mostly just Bruce and Ra’s facing off sternly but it’s made clear that Ra’s is intent on wiping the slate clean to protect those that cannot protect themselves from man’s onslaught. It paints the picture of a righteous fury that I hope this team can really capture and convey in the issues to come.
In Summary:
Injustice 2 hits a pivotal point here where things are changing in terms of the scale of what’s going on but it comes at the cost of pushing the majority of the cast to the background to focus on Bruce and Ra’s. That’s not a bad thing but the other areas felt a bit more superficial because of it. The long standing problems between the two men allows that history to give this some weight and knowing that Ra’s is able to follow through in a way here that he can’t in the mainstream continuity has me pretty interested in what’s to come. I also quite liked what we got out of the D.C. arc so far as there are questions to be answered there and a lot of fallout that should ensue from such a disaster.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: September 19th, 2017
MSRP: $0.99
