Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Justice League of America #14
DC Comics
McDuffie, Benes & Hope

Part two of the Injustice League is a fast moving part of the story unraveling the plot and pitting Luthor versus Superman. Kind of.

We open the story with the entire Justice League prisoner expect Black Lightning and Superman. Luthor appears and talks some heavy trash to Superman. This was great and I was ready for the fisticuffs but instead Luthor was a hologram. Bor-ring.

Luthor then shows how the JLA are all tied up and racked. Of course this is illustrated using Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Vixen and a whole lot of T&A. I guess Hawkgirl is the ugly duckling of the bunch. Luthor also shows a Big-foot look-a-like beating on Geo-Force. I don’t know when Geo-Force was taken captive, but beyond that the hairy guy is apparently not Gorilla Grodd. But, the next time we see Geo-Force he is being tended to by Grodd. Later, we see both Grodd and Harry-Man together in the same frame. Okay…..

Luthor reveals his overall plot. He wants to get Superman angry. Why? Not sure about that one. Let's move on.

Superman gets sprayed with some Kryponite paint. I don’t know what that is, but apparently it washes off easy.

Superman and Black Lighting plot to invade the Injustice League. Superman doesn’t want to call in for back up because there is no time. That makes less sense than Luthor trying to piss off Superman by capturing the JLA. Let's move on.

Superman invades and immediately throws Parasite out of the building. Smart move. Lightning enters and takes out the Batman villains and Luthor. So far so good. Superman gets pinned down by Dr Light and Grodd and Lightning is taken out by the psycho-Green Lantern-killer-chick. Oh well.

The issue ends with Luthor and a Kryptonite stick while he holds Superman by the collar.

Good issue except the plot is not existent. Superman flew into a trap. Luthor had some Kryptonite and kept all the JLAers alive just to draw in Superman? If he killed the JLA wouldn’t Superman still show up? Action is a 10. Plot is a 2.

The artwork is a tough one. I like Benes a lot. I like his Superman, Luthor and many others. I hated his Joker. Joker looks like a senior citizen on one page and a well polished marble statue on another. I also don’t like the Grodd here. I am going to throw this in the face of DC for a second. We are told that we shouldn’t mind much if a book is delayed because of the artist (Last Son of Krypton) because in trade format it will look consistent and flow properly. Here we have two artists who draw Grodd as differently as the Scarecrow and Superdog look. This is going to look horrible in a trade format. Alas in reviewing this issue I cant bring up the previous issue.

If you like some action and some nice visuals you cant go wrong. I would even say a newcomer could pick this up and really get into it. Despite the bad plot holes and the Joker, I liked it. I'm a sucker for fighting.

4 out of 5 geek goggles.


Justice League Of America #14