Like it or not, Convergence was kind of a let down event for DC. The crossover didn’t carry enough weight, if any at all, for the majority of the universe, and I have a feeling it will be quickly forgotten. Yes, I know that the event ultimately undid the Crisis on Infinite Earths mega-event and all that jazz, which is pretty cool, but are we going to talk about it 5 or 10 years down the road? I think not. On the other hand, The Darkseid War that is spinning out of the pages of Justice League is shaping up to be the summer event that we need and really the most important one of the New 52.
I would like to assume that everyone skimmed through my riveting review (I like that alliteration) of Justice League #40 last month, but just in case you haven’t, I’ll do my best to fill you in. To prevent an inevitable war, the people of New Genesis and the almighty Darkseid trade one of each of their children to the other party. In last month’s book, we saw what happened to the daughter of Darkseid, i.e she became super evil and murderous as you could expect. What we didn’t see was what happened to the son that New Genesis traded, but we will get to that in a second. Anywho, because of the many Crisis events in DC’s long history (even though they are now undone? It makes my brain hurt), the space-time continuum is, essentially, destroyed. It’s like a real ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’ situation right now. Because of the rip in the continuum, The Anti-Monitor has been freed and has his eyes set on one being in the universe, Darkseid.
Alright, now that we are all caught up, we can jump right into issue #41. The issue starts with a really cool monologue from a new character to the New 52, but a fan favorite character from the pre-Flashpoint era; Mister Miracle. What we come to learn is that that little boy traded to Darkseid all those years ago, grew up to be a master escape artist and is now calling himself Scott Free aka Mister Miracle. Super cool, right? We are then introduced to two of our antagonists in this Darkseid War, Lashina and Kanto. One is a bladey-ribbon-wielding badass, and the other is Darkseid’s favorite assassin and we join them on their search for a woman named Myrina Black. As you can probably assume, the women that they find whom aren’t the exact Myrina Black that they need are not treated very well. Enter the Justice League. Normally, the League does do the whole ‘CSI’ thing, and don’t really tackle small-time murders, but this is a different case as the parties in question used Apokolypsian technology to get to Earth and to do their bidding. Who is this Myrina Black and why do these assassins want her? What will this new player in the story (Mister Miracle) bring to the team? Why are there two ‘Green Lantern’ type characters in the League? You will have to read the title to find out.
For those that show reserve in the current Justice League title, for fear that you wouldn’t be able to understand what’s going on, FEAR NOT! Issue #41 of JL is a perfect jumping-on point. I have read the series from the jump, but it’s nice to have the title start fresh and without any baggage, but still reward readers like myself who have been a loyalist through-and-through. You, literally, need this information to be completely up to speed on the book; There is a Justice League made of the world’s greatest heroes, there is a bad guy named Darkseid, there is a bad guy named the Anti-Monitor. That’s it.
Man, oh man. This issue packs quite a wallop and might be a contender for one of my favorite issues of the series. Johns is a master at storytelling and even though he keeps most of the big reveals very close to the vest, you really get the sense that this is the story he has been leading to through his entire run. This is neither confirmed or even researched, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Johns left the title after this arch. You can see the seeds being sewn from the past 40 issues coming together and with the introduction of new characters, this story has the making of being a pivotal point in the New 52, and in DC’s overall history.
My Rating 9/10