Justice League: Endless Winter Special #2 – Andy Lanning, Ron Marz, Writers; Carmine Di Giandomenico, Howard Porter, Marco Santucci, Artists; Hi-Fi, Arif Prianto, Colorists
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: Endless Winter has delivered nine consistent chapters in only a month of stories, and this old-school DC event has been entertaining throughout. While sometimes it felt like the heroes were chasing their own tails, this issue finally puts all the pieces in place for an epic showdown. Aside from the Teen Titans, who were off on their own errand and don’t factor in here, all the plot threads converge on the arctic as the Frost Giant’s largest avatar threatens to tear the Justice League apart. But as if that wasn’t enough of a threat, Black Adam is starting to go rogue, determined to kill the Frost King rather than try to get through to him and reunite him with his family. This story seems to be setting up Adam’s eventual alliance with the Justice League in the upcoming Bendis/Marquez run, but that’s still a tentative alliance at best and he’s as ruthless as he’s ever been in this story.
Amid all the explosive action, there are some really good character beats. Flash, who started this story as the POV character, continues that role and gets some great lines in during his interactions with Aquaman and Black Adam. Hippolyta and Diana’s relationship has often been complex, but here we can see just how strong their bond is as Hippolyta relies on Diana to fix the mistakes her team made ages ago. The action is spectacular with a Viking Swamp Thing fighting a frost giant, but by the time it’s all over the resolution is a bit rushed—and in many ways the Frost King’s story doesn’t seem to be truly over. I wouldn’t mind seeing the character appear again, since he seems to be primed for a face-turn, but I don’t know where that will play out. Either way, Lanning and Marz—two old-school DC writers who have been writing since at least the 1990s—proved they still have it and brought this crossover to a satisfying close.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
