Cry For Justice #5 Review
Cry For Justice #5
Roll Call: Green Lantern (Hal), Green Arrow, Atom (Palmer), Supergirl, Shazam, Mikaal, Congorilla, Batwoman
Villain: Endless Winter (WHO?)
Guest Stars: Jay Garrick Flash, Shade, various Titans and JLA members
As ever, caution, there be spoilers.
The story opens at the Baker household (as in Buddy, Animal Man), where Kory and Donna are hanging out, as Kory used to before the Titans reformed. Congorilla and Mikaal turn up here, Congorilla having known Buddy back when they were both in the Forgotten Heroes together. In another nod to history, Kory even makes a reference to the short lived “Justice League of Aliens” she and Mikaal were both in. All the heroes here agree to help hunt Prometheus, and go for help to the Justice League, which is where we go next, as Hal’s team meets up with the League he and Ollie stormed out on back at the beginning of the series. Roy agrees to help, Dinah and Ollie bicker about how he left, and there are some good characterizations here. There’s a summary of the vague “Prometheus is doing something bad with high tech” plotline, as more heroes fight villains they don’t know, like Stargirl and Cyclone against Kull the Beastman for example.
At this point, they get more information from Batwoman, finally doing something more than posing in the background. She fought Endless Winter, beat her, and was finally getting information on what was going on when Endless was killed by some remote control device. The body is going to be brought to the JLA for Ray Palmer to examine. Meanwhile, in Keystone, Jay Garrick and Shade share their own information before Jay is summoned by the League, and offers to bring Shade along.
Ray examines the dead body, and learns she was killed by a device based on the tech Amanda Waller used to use to keep the Suicide Squad under control. Shazam and Supergirl keep up their sort of flirting. They hear that Guardian has stopped a bad guy in Metropolis who was setting up some kind of device, and both he and it are brought aboard. There’s a neat consultation scene by video monitor with Cyborg, Dr. Magnus, and a few other scientific heavyweights, who agree the device blends Time Pool and Zeta Beam tech with other things to create a massive teleporter that is capable of sending a whole city anywhere in time or space or to other dimensions. They also agree the device doesn’t work, as it would require an immense computer and huge amounts of power.
Supergirl suddenly notices Freddie/Shazam is gone, and Roy leaves to go call Lian and wish her good night, a nice touch. Canary and Arrow bicker more, and then Buddy and company arrive. The League starts to say “We’re kinda busy” before everyone realizes they are after Prometheus. Bill/Congorilla suddenly takes off after scenting something, yelling “Where is he?”
He passes Supergirl, who is asking who Bill is, when they both see a blood trail on the floor. They follow it to find Roy, bleeding, burned, and missing most of his right arm, who passes out at their feet. Bill gets Kara to cauterize the wounds and then roars out his attack cry, which echoes throughout the base, so the main group of heroes hear it. They follow the sound and find Roy, which is when Ollie understandably freaks out. Ollie swears they are going to find who did this and make them pay. Ahead, in another room, we see Supergirl pass the defeated Congorilla and Flash (when did he get here? First time he showed up in the base) to square off against who seems to be the villain…. Freddie. You guessed it, To Be Continued.
What I liked- lots of nice history touches by Robinson, like the Forgotten Heroes and the JL Aliens references. Kory maintaining her friendship with the Baker family is nice, too. All in all, the characters are acting more like themselves.
The mastermind who still hasn't actually shown up yet in the issue
What I didn’t- Robinson really seems to have become the most dangerous force in the DCU behind only Dan Dido himself and Superboy Prime. Now he’s crippled one of the “Fab Five” Titans who is also a personal favorite of mine. Also, the ongoing errors with Firestorm in the background are just annoying. Every single appearance he’s made in this series, it’s the Ronnie Raymond version. To head off one argument that keeps popping up, it’s not just “Oh, they colored a black man white.” There are differences in the costumes, and this is the long dead Raymond version, NOT the current Jason Rousch. This has happened too many times to be a mistake, it’s either the artist being well over a year behind and the editor being asleep, or they’ve decided to bend continuity for no real apparent reason. Trivial detail? Maybe, but still irksome. This also seems like an attempt to shoe horn in the foundation for Robinson’s later JLA team. Kory, Donna, Congorilla, and Guardian all being members of it and turning up on the satellite this issue seems a bit strained.
And really now- “We don’t know what’s going on, some villain is planning something with high tech we can’t figure out. Oh, I know, lets take a wholly unknown device and bring it into our base. Hmm.. It needs special computers and a major power source? We have both those things here. I know, let’s KEEP IT HERE!” Batman should come back from the dead or the past or whatever they did to them and slap them all for this. Also, Flash showing up for the first time out cold on the floor was just… odd.
My prediction- getting the device on board is part of what Prometheus has planned to get to those other things, and this is NOT Freddie. It would explain how his powers have been working a bit differently. I think this issue was better than the series has been, but still not that great. What did you think?
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| good art, better characterizations | Slow moving plot, continuity glitches |
| Rating |
1 Comment
I saw your post at the DC forums and ran over to here to see what you thought, because I found the ending to be a big mess — and I assume there are more serious artwork problems than just Firestorm’s race and the fact that Ray Palmer’s costume doesn’t show up when he’s full size!
First: the cover has nothing to do with the rest of the issue–or am I missing a page? How come no one is mentioning that?
Second: too much of the plot twists at the end depend on the artist simply not showing certain characters. Freddy seems to be present two panels before Kara asks where he is, then is shown back in the main room after she has apparently (since it’s not shown) wandered off to find him. I doubt he vanished and returned so easily when there are 25 of the world’s greatest heroes all the room with them. Notice also that Hawkman vanishes after Roy leaves the room. Hunh??? If we follow the artwork, we’re left to conclude that either Supergirl or Hawkman has attacked Roy.
Now look at the scene with Kara and Congorilla: it looks like she’s using her heat vision on Congorilla and not on Roy. The way the panels are framed don’t show us that Roy’s arm has been cauterized, and the orange in the background of Congorilla’s yell are the same color as her heat vision — and she’s seen with glowing eyes on the final page as well. So did Congorilla yell in order to summon the other heroes, or was he being attacked? Clumsy, clumsy artwork on that page.
And then suddenly the Flash is there — hunh??? When did he show up? Was he there in the last issue and I forgot it? Was he using Roy’s bathroom for the whole issue and then exit just when Congorilla is getting attacked?
It makes NO sense whatsoever. And wouldn’t Supergirl’s hearing have picked up some of Roy’s screaming, or even the fighting?
I am thoroughly confused by what happened at the end of the episode, and I blame the artist for creating UN-necessary ambiguity….