A Future Generation of the Justice League
It's another trip into the future for Captain Atom, despite what the solicitation claims, and it's even more fun the second time since this time we get to meet a future version of the Justice League.
What so often kills these kinds of one-off trips to different realities or time periods stories is that writers put no real thought into them. The characters feel like something the creators probably came up with on the spot or during a lunch break. This is definitely not the case in this issue. It feels like Judd Winick took the time to come up with some solid ideas for future members of the Justice League and Aaron Lopresti bothered to give them their own unique character designs. This is exactly the kind of thing you want from a story like this, and this issue delivers.
The plot of the issue is basically what you would expect. The future sucks, and Captain Atom wants to figure out what he can do to prevent it when he goes back to his present. It's a standard time travel plot, and there is really nothing wrong with that when it is done well like it is here.
One thing that concerns me is that this issue implies that Wonder Woman will be getting involved in the story at some point. That raises an important question. Will it be the Wonder Woman we know or the Wonder Woman currently appearing in JMS' run? If Winick ends up having to use the latter, it's really going to hurt the story. That will go well beyond a Wonder Woman who simply doesn't remember killing Max Lord and to a Wonder Woman who isn't even the same person who committed that act. Even worse, it will bring up all the continuity confusion regarding Wonder Woman's current status and the rest of the DCU. Hopefully, if Wonder Woman does appear in this series later on, it's the real Wonder Woman and not the current drastically altered history version.
Justice League: Generation Lost continues to be one of the best reads offered by DC and honestly, the best of the Brightest Day offerings.
