The James Robinson story of Eclipso fights everyone (again) comes to what should be a conclusion in JLA 59. I say should be… well, you’ll see why later. It’s a rather odd issue all the way around.It starts with Eclipso gloating to Bruce Gordon, his mortal host, over his total victory against not only the JLA, but the Earth and then later, the Universe and God Himself. Those two bicker, as usual (except last issue, where Gordon was inexplicably missing), and then we go back to the actual fight. Except under the fight is a row of panels that apparently take place before the fight, wherein Robinson rattles off everything that fans have been saying about his Donna Troy being so incredibly out of character in his run and calls it a “defense mechanism” for all the pain she’s been through. Sloppy writing excused by pop psychology, neat.The fight goes on in two places, as the heroes fight Eclipso outside, and Atom and Starman battle Eclipso’s control of the Shade inside Shade’s head. The two micro-heroes triumph, of course. Once Shade is free, all the captured heroes, villains, and others slip free of Eclipso’s control. Eclipso’s earlier hallucination is explained as part of the Blue Lantern’s power (I guess Donna’s death was that, too, although that’s never really explained). With everyone freed, all the light based characters (and, oddly, Cyborg) blast Eclipso as he’s pummeled by Donna and Jesse, and it all ends in a big flash of light that changes him back to mortal. The moon is repaired (How? We don’t know, they don’t show it or talk about it) and there’s another of Robinson’s big “Character talking to fans emphasizing once again this IS the Justice League” moments that are really getting old. The last page is a splash of the JLA around a table, with Batman disbanding the League, and the caption “to be concluded.” Now, usually that means that the present story isn’t done, but aside from Dick’s surprise announcement, I don’t see what’s left. And cliffhangers like that usually don’t continue a story arc. Of course, next month should be the end of the DCU as we know it, so who knows what’s up with the final issues?\

The League’s plan was decent for the parameters, and I always like seeing Ray Palmer lend a hand. I like his character a lot, and it was good seeing Dick being given credit as leader. Eclipso losing to the suddenly shifted balance against him was perfectly legitimate.

There are WAY too many loose ends here. I suppose Donna’s “death” was a Blue Lantern illusion, but was Spectre’s as well? How did they fix the moon? There’s a weak attempt to link this story and Alan Scott being back to normal with the ugly traffic light, “I am paralyzed even though I’m made of energy” costume he’s had in JSA, but it really doesn’t work. Even the big crowd battle scene in Eclipso’s head doesn’t make sense- Captain Atom gets knocked around by energy blasts from Booster Gold? I guess more for the sake of riding it out than I really am liking this, I’ll see what happens next month, and why Dick is disbanding them.