Justice Society of America #11 – Geoff Johns, Writer; Marco Santucci, Artist; Ivan Plascencia, Colorist
Ray – 8/10
Ray: Geoff Johns is arguably the defining creator at DC Comics of the last twenty years, having iconic runs on so many great books. That makes it all the more disappointing how his run there is ending, with him already having left for his own company and playing out the string with massively delayed books coming out several months late. Despite this, though, the quality of the titles hasn’t really suffered and you haven’t been able to see many seams in the scripting – until now. While this is the penultimate issue of his run before the title ends and Jeff Lemire takes over with a new #1, this is actually the last issue of the main run with Todd Nauck drawing a Stargirl-focused epilogue next month. So this issue has the task of wrapping up the massive collection of plots involving Mordru, the Legion, and the time-displaced Huntress. It does that – but with quite a few hiccups along the way.
Much of this issue is dedicated to huge battle scenes between the JSA and the Legion, until the real villain is revealed – Eclipso, having been lurking inside the body of someone the whole time and revealing themselves in a truly horrific way. There is a lot of tonal shift in this issue, veering from sci-fi action to body horror in only two pages. When Eclipso is defeated, there’s a lot of exposition about how it’s going to happen and then it just…happens. It’s pretty clear that this was meant to be a whole arc that was condensed into one issue and there’s only so much even a writer like Johns can do with that. The ending reveals some interesting things about the legacy of the JSA in the future, but I’m guessing that the final issue – where he says goodbye to the character that he began his DC run with and one that’s incredibly personal to him – will be Johns at his best in his final act.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
