Recruitment Drive
Geoff Johns... I thought you were one of the major architect's behind the New 52, which I thought was designed to create greater cohesion between the series. So why, oh why, do you insist on constantly making sure that your Justice League series is THE most out of synch with the rest of the series' than any other? Page freaking one, Jason expresses a crush on an obscure callback, Blythe Bonner. Because it's not like he's spent 18 issues trying to woo Tonya in his own series or anything. Ok, maybe not ACTIVELY trying to woo her, but he's definitely expressed a big crush on her that he has yet to make the move on. I doubt you're going to go anywhere with Blythe, it was just your 'clever' little obscure reference. But if you think that's worth yet another crack in the already severely unstable continuity connection with the rest of the DCU, then go for it.
And when did Zatanna get unceremoniously booted from the Justice League Dark? Johns, are you just that selfish that you have to bully the other writers to make sure you get to play with the toys YOU want for YOUR series?
Johns and you PLEASE explain Goldrush to us? Literally EVERYONE else has some kind of history for us to latch on to, but Goldrush is an enigma, and it doesn't seem like she's particularly deep enough to merit it. If you're going to have one character stick out like a sore thumb like that, don't try to hide her in the background unless there's a good reason for it. And honestly, it feels like she's got the same personality gimmick as Godiva from JLI.
So, ultimately, what came of this issue? We got a peek at the potential new recruits for the Justice League.... and at the end of the issue the meeting is over and we have no idea how it turned out. I seriously doubt it's ONLY Firestorm, Element Woman, and The Atom that made the cut; and I have no idea about some of the people who may or may not have turned it down. Like, Zatanna may have turned it down, which means what was the point of booting her from JLD if that even happens in the actual series? And the whole hacking plot just kind of came out of nowhere. And honestly, we're supposed to believe that Cyborg basically just created The Grid by accident? REALLY? And I thought Aquaman left to run Atlantis full time? The end of Throne of Atlantis certainly implied that. Surprisingly it was actually Nightwing who had one of the most accurate scenes, where he's still not made peace with Batman.
It feels like it's been too long since the last SHAZAM co-feature, it's appearance in Justice League is so erratic it's frustrating. JUST GIVE IT IT'S OWN SERIES. SERIOUSLY. It doesn't even make sense BEING here unlike EVERY OTHER CO-FEATURE. The art is great, there was some nice character development, but this was mostly just buildup towards the big climax.
In Conclusion: 3/5
The idea of The Grid and the Justice League recruitment drive is definitely an interesting one, but Geoff Johns seemed to really drop the ball all over the place with it. Wouldn't they be aware of Black Canary's position in the Birds of Prey? Or how about the COUNTLESS other heroes they could've looked into, not just for recruitment, but some that might need assistance or would be worth investigating like THE RAVAGERS or anything relating to Dial H or just.... Johns makes out The Grid to be WAY too much informationally powerful, and then doubles the failure by barely utilizing a level of ability that would make sense. This is kind of an issue worth getting due to the recruitment drive, but it's not exactly a great story.
0 Comments