Justice League: Generation Lost #24

I'll be frank. The official review of Justice League Generation Lost is, for all intents and purposes, biased to the highest degree. So, for the sake of brevity, and to reinforce a point, I shall make my review of Issue #24. I can assure you, this issue is not as bad as it's panned out to be. There are some flaws, to be fair, but none that reaches such magnitude. Let's get on with it.

The Good

Judd Winnick, for the lack of a better term, has piggybacked onto the momentum that Keith Giffen built in issue #1 of Generation Lost. And as the issues kept coming, he finally made this momentum his own. Issue #24 is a perfect example of this, starting with a good summary of what has happened the past 23 issues beforehand, and doing a good job of implementing certain sub-plots to the action in this issue with little to no effort.

The dialogue in this issue was very refreshing to read, from the banter between Booster Gold and Max Lord (with an impressive fight scene, to boot), the brief interaction between Rocket Red and Fire, further alluding to their romance, to the showcasing of all the members of the JLI. It begs to be mentioned that in this ragtag team of heroes, Blue Beetle and Captain Atom get the most prominence, aside from Booster Gold. And the way Winnick uses Blue Beetle and Captain Atom in their defining moments, is worthy of admiration. Aaron Lopresti and Matt Ryan deserve to be acknowledged as well, for equipping Winnick some of the most impressive art in this maxi-series since the team of Fernando Dagnino and Raul Fernandez. For a final issue, this issue helped this maxi-series steal the show from Brightest Day, with some nostalgia tidbits to boot, more specifically, the variant cover, which brings to mind the iconic cover of Justice League #1.

The Bad

Well, how can I put it? I was offset by one small thing in particular. Let's start with the ending of the issue. How could Max Lord, just after making everybody remember who he is at the coercion of Captain Atom, be allowed to make a YouTube-style video, without so much a single ounce of resistance? This was not fully explained, at least how could he pull it off after escaping from the end of the Booster fight. Aside from that, there weren't that many chinks in this issue. It would've helped if this issue was a little longer, for the fact that 56 pages was still not enough space to properly end this series.

The Verdict

With the promise of a new JLI monthly awaiting after this issue, the JLI definitely stole the show in Brightest Day. Crazy fights, crazier climaxes, and all for 5 bucks. Definitely a better investment than, let's say, Sin's Past, for instance. If you don't feel like going through all the previous issues in order to better understand this issue, it's no problem, this issue serves as a great stand-alone, as well. In a week where DC Comics has unleashed some monster titles, this is one of the books to get. If anything else, the action and banter is definitely worth the price of admission. 4.5/5 GREAT BUY