Justice League Unlimited #16 – Mark Waid, Writer; Dan Mora, Artist; Tamra Bonvillain, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: Amid the big epic action of DC KO, this arc of the Justice League’s title has managed to pack in a surprising amount of emotion and haunting storytelling as a group of doomed time-displaced heroes are led into Hell by Mr. Terrific in an attempt to stop Neron’s sabotage of Earth’s evacuation efforts. But one by one, they fell by the wayside, dying in the countless realms of Hell. Now there are only two left, Mr. Terrific and the mysterious Owlwoman – but at the last second, she betrayed him, being Neron’s secret agent all along and leaving him at the demon king’s mercy. Her motivation is all too simple – she doesn’t want to die. She doesn’t know any of these heroes, coming from the far future. But as horrible as her betrayal is, she still has some humanity in her, and it’s clear she’s horrified by Neron’s torture of Michael and his plans for Earth – as the deadline to evacuate gets closer and closer.
This series has done a really good job of capturing the sheer desperation of a truly apocalyptic scenario, with a group of villains on Earth being so determined to escape the end that they cut a deal with the literal devil. In some ways, this feels like the perfect sequel thirty years later to the original Underworld Unleashed event – which was also written by Waid, as he continues to make Neron one of the scariest demon villains in comic books. But while the writing is excellent, the true all-star of this run on the title has been Dan Mora’s art. His depiction of Hell draws on his work in darker high fantasy stories over at Boom, and there have been some truly disturbing visuals in each issue. I’ll say that the final act and the decision one character makes is a little predictable, but it feels right, and it leads to one of the most effective and emotional final panels in any DC book in a while.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
