Cry For Justice #1 Review

Justice League: Cry for Justice #1

Roll Call: Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Green Arrow, Atom (Palmer and Choi versions), Starman (Mikaal Tomas), Congorilla

Guest Stars: most of the JLA, largely in unspeaking crowd scenes; Freedom Beast

Villain: Killer Moth (barely, largely as plot point)

The issue opens with GL Hal in the JLA satellite, basically lecturing the JLA about doing nothing to avenge the deaths of J’Onn J’Onzz and Bruce Wayne. He and Superman bicker over what should be done, and Hal decides more direct action is called for than the League seems willing to commit to. He gets off the memorable line “I am the law in space sector 2814, and that includes Earth.” Everyone present seems content to let Superman speak for them, except Black Canary and Green Arrow, who have their own side debate. Finally, Hal leaves, stating his intent to go after the Society that killed J’Onn. Superman implies he won’t let that happen, and Hal brings up his ring, sparking with power, and says “Try and stop me.” Hal storms off, and Green Arrow goes with him, drawn it seems more by their years of close friendship than him necessarily agreeing with Hal. There’s page of some good banter between them, and we cut to…

Albuquerque New Mexico, and the hide out of Killer Moth. The Atoms Palmer and Choi easily defeat Moth and his men, and we learn that Moth was involved in an attack that seriously injured Mike Dante, an old friend of Palmer’s. There are amusingly done narration boxes in this fight, each Atom impressed by the other, and saying he thinks he’s now no longer needed. Ray shrinks into Moth’s nasal cavity and starts to grow, torturing the info he needs out of him- that the attack was planned by Prometheus to gain access to the Time Pool technology. Personally, the thought of Prometheus with that kind of resource at his disposal scares me. Ray sends Ryan back to Ivy Town and goes after Prometheus shouting for “Justice.”

In Opal City, the setting for Robinson’s previous Starman series (if you haven’t read it, IMHO you really really should), we find one of the many Starmen, blue skinned alien Mikaal Tomas) going to view the body of his former lover Tony. Starman’s people don’t view sex as Earth’s many cultures tend to, and is openly bisexual (one of the few such characters in comics). Tony was killed in New York City while visiting his parents during a villain assault on STAR Labs. He tries to keep it together, goes out on the street, and then loses it, his energy powers destroying nearby car. He stalks off, hunting for… Justice. (See theme yet?)

Now we go to the Congo, on the plains of Africa (at least it is here, I don’t claim to be geographer). The Golden Gorilla with Congo Bill’s mind sits among the slaughter of the troop of apes he’d been living with. His human body was also slain. Freedom Beast staggers out of some undergrowth to die apologizing he didn’t protect them, he tried. Congorilla follows the scent of a trail from the killers, crying out “I WANT JUSTICE!” and we get the dreaded to be continued ending.

There are some nice pages of the author talking about the book, sketches, and the origin of Congorilla. These are a nice bonus, and the kind of thing Robinson did throughout Starman.

I’m going to give this issue a 3.5 out of 5.

Let me tell you what I liked and disliked in the issue:

First the likes:

Hal and Ollie were dead on character wise. Ironically, this version of Green Arrow seems to be more in character than the one appearing in the Green Arrow/Black Canary monthly. The banter about Hal’s dramatic ring bubble exit vs using the teleporter was wonderful, as was Hal telling Ollie that Dinah was going to kill him.

The Atoms were also dead on in character, with some nice trivia touches. Ray’s costume still doesn’t stay on at ful size, switching him to civilian clothes, but Choi doesn’t have this problem, both consistent with their prior appearances. The links to Ivy Town and its University were nicely done.

The Opal City scene was great, bringing up bits of the past stories there without the reader needing to have read them to follow the plot. Bobo Benetti, a former strong crook turned good in Starman is referenced. Tony is an old supporting character of this very obscure Starman, and his death infuriates him, but we don’t get the big shock value of “Hey, they were lovers, he’s GAY. No, wait, he’s BI!”

The having the various characters suffer loss and go off to seek justice unites the plot bits, and is nicely done. It might get overused if it continues next issue, but it’s done effectively here.

My dislikes:

Artist and coloration errors abound. Firestorm is colored Caucasian, that version has been dead a long time. Some of the heroes in the JLA scene shouldn’t be there (Black Lightning, Red Arrow, Hawkgirl) but considering the book was delayed several times, it’s understandable. Less so is the inclusion of Supergirl- this version has never been in the League. Also, Ollie stalks off to leave the team, and his virtual son, Roy, says nothing? At one point in their scene, Choi is clearly talking but he’s also clearly in Ray’s costume.

The death of Freedom Beast was wholly unneeded. Congorilla was clearly going to be upset enough at his “family” being killed, not to mention his human half. I don’t believe we’ve ever seen link between these two characters before- why is his death going to incite Congorilla further?

Ray seems to be reflecting on Ryan being his chosen successor. What we learned in the last Atom title is that Ryan was set up to think that, but he and Ray had no prior contact. This part doesn’t really work. And why is Killer Moth in New Mexico? He’s usually a Gotham villain. And Moth was the chosen cat’s paw of Prometheus? Moth the incompetent? Really? And wasn’t he turned into a moth like monster during Underworld Unleashed?

And it seems rather ironic to me that in a book about avenging casualties, and especially those killed by accident, the first thing we see Starman do is blow up some poor guy’s car.

Also, much of the promised team hasn’t even been seen yet, aside from the cover. I understand pacing but this is a limited series, and we haven’t gotten to Batwoman or Shazam yet? Supergirl is rumored to be part of this team, she was shown in the crowd on the satellite and never got any dialogue or even a thought bubble?

Just my opinion. What do y’all think? (Yeah, I’m from the South)