Justice League Dark #29 – Andy Lanning, Ron Marz, Writers; Amancay Nahuelpan, Marco Santucci, Artists; June Chung, Arif Prianto, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: As Endless Winter heads towards its final act, it serves as a staging ground for what’s essentially the series finale of this book. While Ram V will be continuing it in backups come March, this tie-in is not written by him. Surprisingly, though, the regular event writers do a great job of picking up with the many subplots he left behind. The opening segment shows the death of Viking Prince and the vanquishing of Frost King ages ago, but it’s clear that Hippolyta does not view this as a victory. The massive storms are slowing Earth to a crawl, and the various Parliaments have essentially gone dormant in anticipation of the extinction of life on Earth. The only person who can possibly help turn the title and replenish Earth’s life-force is Swamp Thing—but he’s been missing since the last arc and is presumed dead. There’s only one thing to do—mount a rescue mission into enemy territory.
The land of New Myrra was a desolate wasteland when Swamp Thing disappeared into it, but that’s far from what’s discovered when the heroes re-enter. This is a great setup for Ram V’s upcoming Swamp Thing solo series in Future State and beyond. What’s particularly impressive about Endless Winter is how it shifts constantly between lead characters, but never stops feeling like a cohesive story. This issue focuses almost entirely on the Oblivion Bar and the magical heroes, along with Hippolyta, but it feels like it continues seamlessly from past chapters. Unlike its sister event from 1996, The Final Night, this series does have a main villain, but it also doesn’t feel like one they’re going to be able to punch away. There’s few better ways to show what a hero is made of than to put them in the middle of an apocalypse, and in the next chapter—this week—we’ll see what Black Adam is made of.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
