Story- Geoff Johns and Jerry Ordway
Art- Jerry Ordway
Boy, Geoff Johns likes to get his hands deep and dirty in the sandboxes, doesn’t he? Between introducing new colored Lanterns, and freeing the city of Kandor, the guy sure doesn’t balk at playing with the core mythologies of the DC pantheon.
In this issue, some of the senior members of the JSA, along with the newly returned Atom Smasher, accompany the recently de-Shazamed Billy Batson back to the Rock of Eternity to face off against Black Adam, Isis, and, as teased last issue, a corrupted other member of the Marvel family. You know, the one who also apparently has an evil hair stylist.
As someone without the cash flow, time, or John Nash-level mental capacity to be a DC completist, I appreciated the quick origin of Captain Marvel presented here, which gives all you need to know about Black Adam and his connection to Billy and his family. Odd that we had to wait until part two of the arc, but I had faith that Johns would get us up to speed at some point.
Pretty standard beat-em up fare here, until we get to a mysterious mist that swallows up Jay Garrick, and this is where the mythology tweaking comes in, as it seems to lead to, let’s just say, someplace new. And lo, I am intrigued.
Of even more note, however, is the “Origins and Omens” back-up story here, by Matthew Sturges and Fernando Pasarin, which falls more into the “Omens” category. Much like an earlier JSA issue teased upcoming stories with some excerpted panels, a renegade Oan narrates a future of worse things to come for the legacy team, hinting at even more of a rift forming in the ranks. With Bill Willingham taking over the reins of the title soon, I think we’re gonna get a lot of awesome coming down in this corner of the DCU.
No comments
Comments feed for this article