Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Justice League #25 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Geoff Johns
Art By: Doug Mahnke
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 11, 2013


Family Matters


So the DCU is in complete disarray.  But what would you expect from a event called Forever Evil?  So the big things to cue you in on.  Nightwing has been captured by the Crime Syndicate, and his secret identity was shown across the world.  Ultra Man just got done beating the hell out of Black Adam, and went to find Metallo to get a Kryptonite fix, and basically all hell has broken lose.  These are just the main plot points to get you through Justice League #25.  So let's go see how the big bads are doing.

Explain It!:

We're taken to the past of Earth 3, where we find ourselves in Crime Alley after a family has finished watching a Zorro film.  Sound familiar?  Well here's the twist.  See the Wayne family consists of Thomas Wayne, Martha Wayne, Thomas Wayne Jr., and Bruce Wayne, and these people are awful.  Thomas Wayne spends his money on lawyers that take care of his malpractice lawsuits, since he apparently just likes cutting people.  Martha is an obnoxious, awful wife, and mother, and I guess the boys have had enough of their nonsense.  Thomas Wayne Jr. pulls a gun on his parents.  He intends on taking them out before they can spend away Bruce, and his inheritance.  But Bruce has second thoughts about murdering his parents, the siblings struggle for the gun when three shots ring out into the night.  Only Thomas Jr. stands, as he looks back and sees Alfred holding the smoking gun.  Above him he sees a owl, whoing into the night, seeming to ask him "Who are you?"  At that moment Owlman is born.  Wow.

OH GOD! THE HUMANITY!
Now in our present day, and our present world, I'm calling shenanigans.  Owlman takes out a crime family meeting to discuss their future in a world controlled by the Crime Syndicate.  The shenanigans part is because we witness the origin of Plastic Man.  The no good hoodlum, Patrick "The Eel" O'Brian was at the meeting, and had a drum of chemicals fall on top of him, melting him down, as he screamed out.  But BUT!  Plastic Man has already been talked about in the DCU.  They even brought him up in JLI as a potential member, but deemed him too weird.  It's nice to see his origin and all but continuity man.  Continuity......man.

Moving on, as we know the Crime Syndicate has Nightwing, and are keeping him chained up.  But it seems that Owlman has plans for our hero.  Owlman's Dick Grayson was his sidekick in Earth 3, and was known as Talon, but sadly he died even before the end of Earth 3.  Owlman wants to rebuild his broken family and is willing to betray all of the Crime Syndicate to do it.  He wants his surrogate brother back, and even convinces Nightwing to go along with it.  It's either have Ultra Man rule the world, or Owlman, so it's a lesser of two evils thing.  In the end as Owlman talks to Nightwing about his betrayal, we see that Super Woman is listening in, and smiles.  But I wouldn't worry to much.  Owlman, and Super Woman are keeping the fact that Super Woman is pregnant with his baby a secret from Ultra Man, and the rest of the Syndicate, so I think she's down with whatever Owlman wants.  We'll continue this little story next in Forever Evil #4.

Bits and Pieces:

While it doesn't make a huge impact on the overall story, this Owlman centric book does a lot to further the character, and allow us to understand his motivations.  This event has really been action driven up until now, and it's nice to examine the characters a bit more, and I'd like to see more individual stories dealing with the rest of the Crime Syndicate.  This isn't the best of Forever Evil main titles, but it is certainly worth reading, and who doesn't love being transported to parallel worlds?  The bird is the word, and the bird is Owlman.  Go get the issue.

8/10

No comments:

Post a Comment