Cover by Ivan Reis
Written by Geoff Johns & Jeff Lemire
Pencils by Doug Mahnke
Inks by Christian Alamy
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BEWARE OF TRINITY WAR SPOILERS!
‘Justice League of America’ #6 acts as part 2 of the ‘Trinity War’ which kicked off in ‘Justice League’ #22 the events of which are now rippling through the other Justice League teams in existence.
The story is bookended by appearances of Question who also acts at the narrator to this issue. The opening page serves as a brief introduction to the character for the uninitiated before diving back in to the story where it left off in ‘Justice League’ with Doctor Light having been killed at the hands of Superman – the impact of which I discussed in my JL review.
The opening act of this issue puts some of the focus back on A.R.G.U.S and Amanda Waller who has acted as somewhat of a puppet master in bringing about this conflict.
Amanda Waller is very much a Nick Fury of the DC world but as yet she hasn’t had much chance to interact with characters beyond Steve Trevor with whom most of her scenes are shared.
Interspersed with scenes of Waller back at base-camp the fight continues in the Kahndaq desert. In fact almost half the issue takes place as Superman, shocked at his own actions, tries to control his powers whilst the JL and JLA battle around him. There’s a chance to see some of the JLA members doing what they were recruited for pairing off in battle against members of the JL.
The fight does also give artists Mahnke and Alamy chance to draw some epic panels. The full page splash as Superman screams ‘AND LOCK ME UP!’ is easily the highlight of this issue.
There is some inconsistent facial work particularly with Wonder Woman but overall the artwork in this issue is consistent with that of ‘Justice League’.
The remainder of the issue deals with the fallout of the battle with Superman in holding and Cyborg conducting an autopsy on Dr Light.
I hadn’t expected this issue to spend so much time focussing on the continuing battle. I had expected more by the way of character moments. The latter part of this issue does focus much more on the characters but actually the focus is much more on the main League rather than the JLA. They are present throughout the book but even when Superman is tied up at A.R.G.U.S the issue focuses on the reactions of Wonder Woman and Batman.
In these big crossover stories I guess its easy to lose sight of the title that the story is being written for but really this is still a Justice League story.
The ending serves as a great introduction to the Justice League Dark who will (hopefully) take centre stage in part 3 of the story.
Geoff Johns continues to steer an impressive story towards villains month. I sincerely hope the repercussions of this story are going to be felt for a long time to come.
7/10
