The Keystone
The Good: This cover has one of the more unique designs, well utilizing the weak 90's 3D to really show us just how impossible it it to completely convey the full scope of a universe so far in the future. The Big 3 shown on the cover are well balanced, and each of them is in very iconic poses for themselves.
Morrison's clearly having a ball with the idea that these issues are the actual One Millionth issues of their series, released in the future in the format of the present as a replication of an antique. He does the best job with this particular idea, even making sure the future readers know that you have to physically turn the pages. It really does a great job balancing out the modern storytelling with Silver or Golden Age ridiculously over-the-top nonsense, especially considering Future Superman has powers similar to Silver Age Superman.
Morrison does a great job writing the dynamic between the Future Justice League. They're all interesting and unique, but all clearly The JLA. Of particular note was the nice serious banter between Future Batman and Future Superman. It was lighthearted but respectful.
Morrison also does a great job at showing us how the Justice Legion Alpha carries on the iconic nature of the Justice League of America. He does this with far more subtlety than anyone else writing One Million issues. Superman does some very heroic and iconic things, Batman does some surprising things, Wonder Woman's a hard fighter, but showsn direct concern for her android thing on her arm.
The little bits of expostions explaining various characters and important devices avoids being dull exposition by being very poetic.
In many ways, this issue is the vital keystone to the entire DC One Million story. If you count only the original event, this issue is exactly halfway through the story, using the given reading order. The first week spent a lot of time branching out the stories in different subplots alont the same overall direction, and now everything is coming back together here. All of the 'present day' subplots come together in this key issue.
This issue does such a great job at subtly emphasizing just how iconic the ideas of the DC heroes are. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman; they're so iconic that they've trascended the need for symbols. It cements the idea that this story is all about the power of the legacy, made of a material that can be changed here and there without losing it's integrity. It's still made of the same core materials.
The Bad: The fights are pumped up, but end up being pretty short. It's a little diappointing.
In Conclusion: 5/5
This is a very very iconic issue of Justice League. The DC One Million story is halfway along, and things are desperate, but seem a little too clear, so you know something HAS to go wrong before the finale. But in the core of this keystone issue, we get to see how the spirit of our greatest heroes will be carried on forever, and it will always be AWESOME.
