Aside from the undeniably icky notion of Max Lord's bleeding nose spelling out the continents, I'm not keen on Dustin Nguyen's cover this time - Max looks tremendous, but the heroes are a little too sketchy for me. Full marks for trying something different, though.
Inside, the series continues as it has for months now, with a strongly plotted superhero adventure. Most of the League tries to protect Wonder Woman from a battery of Omacs, while Booster Gold takes the fight to Max. It's great to see the Checkmate grandmaster on the back foot for once, surprised by Booster's full-frontal attack. Which isn't to say he doesn't pick himself up, ready for the fight back.
That's something we'll see next issue, in the grand finale of writer Judd Winick's superb series. This issue we get the worst Omac of all, a massive cyborg who can use the League's own powers against them, in the manner of old JLA enemy Amazo. Actually, given that this Omac Prime was tooled by Amazo's creator, Professor Ivo, we should probably call him Omac Prime, AmazOmac. Ivo has been presented as Lord's stooge of late, but there are hints here that he's playing Max ... let's not forget that Ivo is an A-class bad guy, one of the few JLA foes to kill a Leaguer (I'd dance a jig were his victim, Vibe, to show up next issue and clean his scaly clock).
Penciller Fernando Dagnino and inker Raul Fernandez supply this series with its best artwork yet - it's big and it's clever, full of motion and emotion (click on image to enlarge). And as coloured by Hi-Fi, it's pop rocking eye candy. The letterer is good too - and very modest ... there's no credit! I blame the letterer.
If you've not been reading, the hardcover collecting the first 12 issues is out now. It's JLA action at its best.
Maxwell Lord has evolved into such a fantastic villain over the last decade. Judd Winick, i still remember those San Francisco Real World episodes where he was struggling to get a Sunday paper cartooning gig in the newspaper industry. that was a cheesy show but what can i say that season was taking place in a city that was 25 minutes from me.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen The Real World - I think it was on MTV UK, but that's not a channel I have, I must check out YouTube,David.
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