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| [ SCARED INTO A SALE ] |
To QUOTE the T-Rex from Meet The Robinsons: “I'm just not sure how well this plan was thought through”.
THE STORY:
Yup. Here we are on the far side of what I shall
mercifully call “the extra issue”, which I will not dwell on any further. For lack
of a better rallying cry, away we go!
(Hey, it's better than “Justice League, attack!”, isn't it?)
Supergirl versus the psychic intergalactic shapeshifting zealot. Martian Manhunter versus the brainwashed Thanagarians and genetically manipulated messiahs. And Animal Man and Green Arrow picking on one another. Just as things should be.
Oh,
right. There's still that gaggle of
Legionnaires from the future -- our creators aren't bothering to label their
heads on the title page any more, so I won't bother to keep a head count either -- trying to help our heroes.
Specifically, trying to help in much the same way a litter of
hyperactive beagle puppies tries to help with large scale carpentry projects. Maybe with a little less drooling on the
redwood.
So here we
are, back to the story as, presumably, originally intended, where we get really
close to a big party celebrating a job well done. But, of course, someone had to go and throw a
monkey-wrench in the plan. There's a
parable somewhere about too many chefs spoiling the broth, right? Imagine if one of those chefs has a twelfth
level intellect and is pretty certain he's the only one cooking.
Excluding, of
course, his archaic sous chef, Droopy McCool.
In my
opinion, one of the signs of a really great story is one that carries tension
along with it, where you care about the characters and the outcome, but manages
to deliver highly satisfying moments along the way without diminishing the
desire to read onward. Many stories
fizzle out after the big climax, but you read onwards through what is
essentially an aftermath. Sometimes you
need to trudge through murky beginnings to get yourself hooked, possibly
missing out on an otherwise engaging story because the author took too long to
make things engaging.
But the
Infinitus Saga has managed -- despite the preposterous number of characters and
big, clumsy extra issue jammed in there -- to maintain my interest in the core
story and its end result. And at the end
of this penultimate chapter, when the primary threat is likely doused, I'm
still really looking forward to the next issue.
It's tough to
get much character development done when you're juggling a ridiculous flock of
extra characters, but in this installment, Lemire manages to focus on a small handful
of our core team. You know; the
ones that call themselves Justice League United and actually belong in this
series! We get a close look at how Kara
and J'onn handle Byth, highlighting the difference between the sixteen year old
Kryptonian still trying to find her way and the god-knows-how-old Martian who
has already parted ways with both Stormwatch and the Justice League.
Plus, Animal
Man calls out a Legionnaire for his stupid code name, which is always a win in
my book.
The art
team's work is excellent, as it has been since they took over this series. We've got the superhero fight scenes we
deserve, plus plenty of beautiful emotions to underscore the deciding points of
Lemire's tale. Mon-El's face when he
“has an idea” is quite possibly the comedic highlight of the issue.
The dramatic
highlight, however, was the simultaneous decision making and apology issuing of
Brainiac 5 and J'onn J'onnzz. The
flipping back and forth was very cinematic, and moving, and, well, I mentioned
there were too many cooks, right?
THE BAD:
This is a really good issue. They must have moved most of the crap in to
the aforementioned extra issue (I
wasn't supposed to mention that again, was I?). So the bad points are going to be particularly nit-picky. Because we need to bitch about something,
right?
A
Legionnaire, who may or may not be Tyroc, proclaims, “We can't possibly hope to
stop all these wraiths, Duplicate Girl!”. Does he not hear the problem coming out of his mouth? Do I maybe misunderstand the superpowers of
Duplicate Girl? And why is there only one of
her?
Brainiac-5 is also fraying at the seams, which is kind of awesome to see (who doesn't love seeing
the cocky character taken down a peg?)
However, when he laments how he miscalculated terribly about how hopping
back in time accelerated Inifitus' birth rather than prevent it, one can't help
but think back to that earlier issue where the original plan was to kill the
kid and someone argued against
it. I would have loved to have seen some
righteous blame throwing. Maybe we'll
get that next month.
Even if
Hawkman doesn't know the difference between “you're” and “your,” it should
sound the same when he's saying it, right?
How does one even say “get you're damn hands off me”?!
THE MUSIC:
In the
interest of keeping this musical analogy relatively spoiler-free, let's just
say that someone in this team has got some of those great powers that Voltaire
might say gives one a great responsibility.
And, well, we're going to stop right there and just compare this issue to Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime.
There's a lot
of heavy stuff going on with this issue, with a few characters going their own
trying to save the day, each with their own strengths and limitations. But
ultimately, it's the tactical approach of working together; getting certain
members to leverage their own best strengths to take down Byth as a team that allows the heavy hitters to
succeed. So let's use this comparison to
pay tribute to Mon-El, who had the idea that saved the girl, and in turn, saved
the world. (Champagne on ice.)
Just like Fezzik, he finally did something
right. I'm sure he won't let it go to
his head.
THE CONCLUSION:
OK. So let's see what we've got here. Picks up where the two issues prior should have left off? Check.
Too many characters? Check. Character development? Check.
Character contrast? Check. Comedy?
Check. Tragedy? Check.
Body count? Oh, right! Legionnaire down! Legionnaire down! (Only thirty more to go...)
All joking
aside, though, in case I've been vague about it, rest assured that this issue
contains some pretty serious stuff going down.
Our heroes (so many heroes) are trying to save the universe, after all. That's no small feat. There are serious moral decisions to
make. There are ultimate steps that must
be taken, but only if all other attempts have been exhausted. But with so many prongs of attack and
defense, how are our heroes to know if they can afford to wait any longer?
Well,
the fate of the universe is at
hand. Let this not be understated.
So, with the
fate of the aforementioned universe at hand, do you know what saddened me most
about this tale? Adam Strange is still
presumably passed out drunk in Canada.
He missed the whole thing. Poor
guy. He's never going to believe the
names of these future folks.
*** Just reading and writing and rambling in the back of the Joker's old Ho-Home-On-Wheels... Keath.