Injustice 2 #30 – Tom Taylor, Writer; Xermanico, Artist; J. Nanjan, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: This current arc in Injustice 2 may be Tom Taylor’s finest hour on the title, as Injustice 2 #30 delivers a near-perfect combination of top-tier action with some great moments for the characters. As the issue opens, Hal Jordan is a Red Lantern – and so is Starro the Conqueror, who is moving on Oa at the behest of the mad Atrocitus. Hal’s blinded by rage, as all of his fellow Reds are, but most of them don’t have Guy Gardner in their heads. Guy’s voice, serving the role of a particularly sarcastic shame-based guardian angel, manages to get through to him long enough to get him to flee and seek the help of the Green Lanterns, to warn them what’s coming. He manages to sever his connection to the Red Lanterns in a particularly brutal manner, but it may be too late to save Oa. I also really liked the segment between Sinestro and Soranik – Geoff Johns covered a lot of this already, but Taylor manages to put some real emotion into this complex relationship.
The second half of the issue is by far the superior one, as Jaime Reyes has been kidnapped into space by Lobo. However, it soon becomes clear Lobo doesn’t mean him any harm – he’s actually been hired by Metron to safely ferry Jaime to the cosmos because his Scarab is the only thing that has a chance of beating Starro. Booster Gold and the rest of the Titans soon catch up and nearly pick another fight with Lobo, but Jaime is able to calm them down – just in time to begin having a crisis of faith. As we saw last issue, he’s among the most “normal” of the young heroes in this verse, and this is well out of his wheelhouse. It’s Booster Gold, who has played a major role in Jaime’s destiny ever since Ted’s death, who is able to get through to him and give him the motivation he needs thanks to Ted’s last words. A lot of the concepts in this series have been done before in other DC runs, but they wouldn’t work nearly as well without Tom Taylor’s dialogue. As long as he’s writing this book, it’ll be one of DC’s best alternate universes.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
