Justice League Unlimited #4 // Review
The Green is going through hell.Mr. Terrific doesn’t have access to anyone who can help at the moment. He can’t contact anyone who has any kind of connection with the elemental force that connects all the plant life in the universe. There aren’t any heroes available with the necessary expertise, but right now he would even settle for a terrorist like Poison Ivy. (He can’t get ahold of her either.) Things are getting worse in Justice League Unlimited #4. Writer Mark Waid throws a lot at the page in an issue brought to page and panel by artist Dan Mora and colorist Tamra Bonvillain.
Those responsible for the flames that are consuming The Green are a mysterious group known as Inferno. The Justice League is going to have a very difficult time tangling with them as they are only just dealing with the flames from their attack. Batman could try to track down the situation, but he’s a bit preoccupied trying to track down a martian who has lost his telepathic abilities. There’s no telling how long the world has got. Red Tornado suggests to Mr. Terrific that it might be a good idea to contact someone who might not normally be considered a contact...she’s got a connection with The Green...she’s a friend of Swamp Thing. Maybe she might be able to help.
Waid has a lot of moving parts at play in a story that might not make a whole lot of sense to those who don’t have some passing familiarity with the team and some of the basic premises of the DC universe. It’s a big, tangled mess that doesn’t feel like it’s moving around very fluidly. It’s always difficult to manage a huge, sweeping storyline featuring a massive ensemble that has a lot going on. Waid delivers the intensity of what’s going on quite well, but specifics are weird and hazy. Clearly the script is far too busy with everything that’s going on toe pay too much attention to the reader. Best to stand back and let the story do what it needs to do in order to reach some level of resolution. There isn’t anything for the reader to do anyway.
The script jumps around a lot. It would be a challenge for anyone to nail the right intensity in all the right scenes. Mora does a brilliant job of nailing the visual tension in every scene in a way that DOES actually draw-in the reader. Bonvillain adds-in some very slick and dazzling color effects to punch-up the intensity in various places, adding considerably to the visual appeal of an otherwise thoroughly messy issue . Magic gets thrown around A LOT in the issue. It would all run the risk of looking pretty silly if it weren’t for some very dazzling effects being brought to the page by Bonvillain.
The action DOES manage to hold through from beginning to end. The mystery of Inferno and. their true motives will survive the first major plot arc of the series, but there’’s going to be a lot more that’s going to have to happen in order for the series to make a coherent run f the momentum that Waid and company are trying to harness.
