Justice League Unlimited #7 // Review
They’ve cleared the entire facility. The only one left is Elongated Man, oddly enough. Gorilla Grodd’s talking to him about the team’s orbital base. Telling him that they gathered heroic-types into an army that rules over the Earth. He’s...impressed, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not a threat to the team and the Earth it is trying to protect in Justice League Unlimited #7. Writer Mark Waid continues and enjoyable conflict for some of the most powerful heroes in the DC Universe in an issue brought to page and panel by artist Travis Moore and colorist Tamra Bonvillain.
Superman, Batman and Robin are in the desert of Arabia 14,000 BCE. Stargirl and Captain Marvel are in the year 19,642 in a place we know as the Indian Ocean. (It’s a jungle now.) Flash and Green Arrow are in Tombstone, Arizona in1872. Supergirl, Martian Manhunter and Mr. Terrific are on Jupiter in the year 2212. Everyone’s been scattered and none of the traditional means of returning to the current era seem to be working. Clearly Grodd had everything planned-out to the last detail. How can the JLA face Grodd and his team if they’re strewn throughout time and space?
Once again--Waid is working with dynamics and elements that have been with the Justice League since Gardner Fox was writing the series back in the 1960s. So there’s very little that’s truly new in the latest issue. Waid is presenting it in a way that manages to catch some refreshingly new appeal in old tropes. Much of his success has to do with the overall rhythm and timing and action of the drama. He’s got a very balanced approach to bringing all of the different characters to the page. It’s a huge ensemble that he’s working with, but they all seem to get thec enter of the page in equal measure, which is quite an accomplishment.
Moore is called upon to show a whole bunch of different character in a whole bunch of drastically different settings that are all responding to the same essential threat. This isn’t an easy thing to do. The dramatically different settings don’t relly get that much of an opportunity to make much of an appearance on the page. To Moore’s credit, though, the central conflict that’s driving the story. DOES have quite a bit of momentum to it that works quite well on the page throughout the issue.
A story that has crossed-over to a few different titles finally settles-down to its beg conclusion in JLU next month. The pre-summer dual-title crossover has been pretty well-modulated for such a thing in the current era. Every piece of the crossover seemed to connect to every other piece of it quite well without overpowering any of the individual characters that came into contact with it. It even does a solid job of connecting-up with elements that were put int place during the dawn of DC’s All-In initiative. Quite impressive integration for the current era of superhero comics, which generally don’t have a very solid focus on deeper continuity.
