Justice League Red #3 // Review
Green Lantern and Cyborg are in Washing5ton State fighting something known as The Beast of Blood. (It’s got red robed followers that call it that. It’s a big, red lizard that seems really, really angry.) They’re having difficulty with it until one of their followers happens to mention that there’s only one thing that could kill it. Green Lanern’s got an idea. It’s a weird one but it just might work in Justice League Red #3. Writer Saladin Ahmed and artist Clayton Henry and colorist Arif Prianto continue a fun superhero team adventure that continues to have a great deal of narrative momentum.
Elsewhere, Powergirl is getting a videoconference call with her dead parents. Red Tornado has allowed the conversation to happen through the use of exotic tech. He didn’t exactly ask her whether or not she wanted to see her parents. He just sort of assumed that she did. And he's not wrong. She hadn't seen her parents since she was very, very young. But clearly.Red Tornado had his reasons for wanting to do this. And they had everything to do with the fact that he's still having them ate him in secret. And he hasn't done a whole lot to explain why.
Ahmed continues to explore a relief, fun concept. Any vast intelligence with a fixation on being human is going to make some pretty erratic decisions that the people around it are necessarily going to be all that aware of. And so they were going to be issues that end up developing. It's a fun dynamic at the heart of the series, which also includes a lot of enjoyable scenes here and there. The heroes are really well rented as being people who would prefer not to be in this sort of a situation but are doing what they must do. There's a whit and wisdom about their interactions that continues a very appealing momentum as the series enter is third issue.
There's a whole lot of mystery going on in this series. And there's a lot of weird elements that are drawn in from odd angles. It can be really difficult for any artist to hold it together with the respect to a script that moves through as much different territory as.Ahmed is bringing you to the page here. Henry and Prianto strike a very solid balance between weird action and compelling drama that keeps everything moving.
Ahmed is working with a central dynamic that is a great deal of fun. The interaction between the heroes feels fresh and engaging. The uncertainty as to why it is that they're doing what they're doing is something that serves as a central mystery that continues to push everything forward, but one does get the feeling that even without that central mystery it's still a really cool dynamic between everyone on the team. And so it will still have its appeal even once the initial concern begins to evaporate. It could continue to be a really enjoyable subset of the justice league even after the initial concern concerns that formed it have been resolved.
