Justice League Dark #28 – Ram V, Writer; Amancay Nahuelpan, Artist; June Chung, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: The main run of Justice League Dark concludes this issue, with an Endless Winter tie-in and a Future State miniseries coming soon. But for those who have been following the battle against the Upside-Down Man since the beginning, this issue delivers a spectacular finish that lets every surviving member of the team shine. When we last left off, Zatanna had sacrificed her mind and body to fuse with the Upside-Down Man in a horrifying final page. As the issue begins, she’s locked into combat with the monster in the mindscape – a battle that ends surprisingly quickly, and not in her favor, leaving the villain in control of her magic as he prepares to finish off the JLD. Good thing Wonder Woman has finally called upon the power of Hecate and is massively powered-up, but it may not be enough. As we’ve seen before, reality is largely a plaything to this villain.
However, Zatanna’s role in this story is far from done. While Wonder Woman has been at the center of most of the biggest stories, it’s Zatanna who has been the emotional core of this run. The title has revealed a lot of interesting things about her father, and her training in magic provides a surprising link to how the Upside-Down Man is finally defeated. This final issue does feel a bit rushed, with Detective Chimp having to deal out a good deal of exposition towards the end. For a bit, I thought they might be shuffling the Vertigo characters back off to limbo/Black Label with the apparent deaths of Constantine and Swamp Thing, but at least one of those is resolved by the end of the issue. Horror and superheroes aren’t a natural combo, but this title from the start has been one of DC’s best and has given us the best portrayal of some of these darker characters in the DCU in many years.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
