JUSTICE LEAGUE #46

Hello? Is anybody there? I'm looking for my friend and I need someone to help me find him. He's a big chap, my friend. Wears a lot of armor and is good at killing Gods. You might of heard of him because he was seen in the following comic book created by Geoff Johns, Francis Manapul, and Published by DC Comics, in January, 2016. Anti-Mucka is his name. Nice chap.

TO QUOTE Edwin Louis Cole: 'God never ends anything on a negative; God always ends on a positive'.

THE REVIEW:

You know when you watch a really big and long movie (and I do mean really long), and half way through it you see a scene which kind of redefines the saga from there on in, well, this issue of the Justice League is basically that scene. One part of it was a fairly murky looking fight scene where people talked and punched the living crap out of each other. Another part of it was an excuse to show that Big Barda and Mister Miracle are still an item. Another part of it re-positioned the heroes and villains to go wherever they need to go next. Another part of it was an update on the Justice League of Gods. And yeah, that sort of thing. You go here -- check. You kick that person there -- check. You kiss him -- check. You get jealous because that person kissed whoever -- check. And so on, and so on, until it was revealed that the sole purpose of this episode was to show that one of the people in it was going to become a new, New God, Ta-Dah!

But not just any new, New God, dear reader. A New God unlike any who have come before. A God that basically now has the world at their finger-tip's and yadda-yadda-yadda, blah-blah-blah, snore-snore, Amen!

Now for some fairly spoiler free reasons I don't really want to divulge who this person actually is. That said, however, it does become fairly obvious who it will be the more you read this book. Wonder Woman mentions this person's name in an exposition-like sequence half way through it. Plus there is another cut-away scene that kind of shows us that this person is still somewhere doing something while the others are doing something else.

Ouch! That last sentence sounded very vague, didn't it? But then again, that is precisely what this issue is in a nutshell. Vague. As much as I did enjoy reading Wonder Woman's opening monologue at the start of the comic (loved the parable of Ino as a kid, and how it fit into the Odyssey), as well as the way the plot set up the Gods, the heroes, the villains, the context, and what is yet to come, at the end of the day nothing overtly solidifying was really accomplished. Apart from saying hello to Barda, some of the new God's going in search for the Anti-Monitor, and a big fight that never went anywhere, all in all Justice League 46 was nothing more than a stop gap.

I do apologize for being so negative, dear reader. As I did want to like this issue, honestly I did. And thought I would when they started mentioning how Mister Miracle and Barda will break into Belle Reve Prison and escape with two members of the Crime Syndicate. Yet when it became apparent that this was going to happen next month rather than this month, well, once again, this was something else to add to the setup for 'a later date pile' this issue did in spades.

Nice art by Francis Manapul though. Very gritty. And like the previous parts of this much larger arc, the muted color pallet did aide it's telling at times, elevating a somewhat mixed bag of a story into something much more palatable.

Oh! By the way, while I'm on the subject of being able to digest something, does anyone know what the Anti-Monitor is turning into, plus what would happen if he sat down on Merton's chair? Apart from squash Batman of course. And do you think that this was one of the main reasons Merton... coff-coff... 'allowed' Batman to sit on it in the first place? To keep himself safe from the Anti-Monitors evolution?

Food for thought, huh?

THE MUSIC:

Our father, who art at DC. Darkseid be thy name. Monopoly be thy game. A game of cat and mouse, as seen in this very issue. A issue that reminds me of the Etta James' song, 'God's Song', simply because this very issue needs some, and needs some quick. Amen.

THE COMPARISON:

In honor of Mister Miracle and Big Barda's union, I would now like to compare this comic book to a porn movie. Well, the sight of seeing them two together does remind me of the Mister Miracle series from back in the Giffen-DeMatteis days. And to me, those days reminds me of.... errrr... next question please.

THE CONCLUSION:

At the very end of this issue the new, New God, says something that I felt was pretty bizarre to read. So, just for the shear hell of it, let's see if you can guess what they say out of the following eight options.