Wow...
The Good: I really dislike Cliff Chang's artwork, but this was at least better than his last 2 terrible covers.
It seemed to start off as a disappointingly generic issue and too much of a repeat of the last issue with the other half of the characters, but boooooooy was I wrong.
We get a nice short look into Magog's past which really sets the tone for this issue.
Magog is treated as an extremely serious threat, which, with Max Lord's enhancements to his tech, he is.
When Captain Atom is questioning Magog as they fight, it gets really intense. Captain Atom makes great use of their shared history as soldiers for the US.
It's hard to review this issue without spoiling it, but I can say that the monotony of the usual came to a screeching halt with a shocking plot twist, and the instant fallout of it builds up the tension even more. After that, we're dealt an even BIGGER shock. Even if you've seen the stuff they've said about the next issue, you would not expect it to be as big as it is here.
The Bad: This issue proves how splitting up the team wasn't a great idea. This issue has a huge focus on half the team, which makes it feel like a jarring contrast to the last issue with a repeated sense of scale.
The fight scene isn't too great. It's filled with a lot of close shots and charging energy. However, the fight isn't really about the fight so it's not a huge deal.
In Conclusion: 4.8/5
It's good, its damn good. In fact it's great. Actually it's excellent. It's possibly even phenomenal. It's only a few hairs short of perfect. The team needs to rejoin though, the series does not really benefit much by having them in 2 separate groups. All I can say is that Max Lord is an amazing villain. He manages to take his White Lantern mission and use it as just another piece in his plan. This series is a fantastic godlike train chugging ahead at full speed heading straight for a crash. A big, huge, epic, fantastic, spectacular, badass, awesome crash.
