Justice League: Generation Lost

Let me start by putting my pre-conceptions out there, I love this title, I have from the start. Maxwell Lord is a completely brilliant villain, in both character and writing. Booster Gold is a delight to watch, Rocket Red is even bigger comic relief, and evrything is great. I'm also previously a huge fan of Judd Winick for Under the Hood and of Keith Griffin for I Luv Halloween and a lot of other things (Though the latter is oddly absent from this issue). Point is, I'm predisposed to already love each issue (though if it gets bad I'll still know they're bad, I just might give an extra few crumbs than most when giving out scores on better issues). 
 
The Good: Mazwell Lord gets his Brightest Day vision, and he tackles it just a hair differently than the rest imo. I dunno if I'm just crazy or how to begin to describe it but it seemed a tad cooler than most of the others. Especially Osiris' in Titans this week. 
Rocket Red is HILARIOUS. Serious, Booster Gold is on this team and yet he's overshadowed in terms of conic relief. Rocket Red is an attention glutinous, bad grammar speaking, wild and showy devout communist hypocrite. You can just hear the stereotypical heavy Russian accent practically screaming at you off each line he blurts out. 
The cover is really awesome imo. 
Each character gets ample equal bits of screen time. 
The explosive climactic raid we were expecting for issue 6 happens. 
 
The Bad: There really wasn't anything bad, but there wasn't anything particularly spectacular either. I said in my Batgirl review I appreciate the title for not needing to be 'epic' but Generation Lost began by being epic, so I've come to expect it. It's still a great issue, but not the absolute best. My gripes are very minor though. 
Ice seems a bit suddenly turned around imo. It was a bit odd. 
 
In Conclusion: 4.5/5 
I love Generation Lost. If you're into it, this is an essential issue. If you're not into it, this issue won't change your mind, but go read issue 1, that was still one of my favorites and it's never fallen any lower than maybe a 3.5 imo and that was only one issue.

While the the JLE's having no luck in changing the world's mind about the existence of Maxwell Lord, they decide to take a new approach to getting into Checkmate's secure facility - - stealth. 
 

The Good   

It's a funny and sensible for this unofficial JLE to hoodwink Checkmate's savy defenses by pretending to be radical communist Rocket Reds. I especially love the guards' consternation about  being accused of being anti-communist. I've also been enjoying the logic and reason the team's pitting against this nightmarish fantasy situation they've been thrust into - - how they're testing the parameters of just how extensively the rest of the worlds forgotten about Max lord. Bennet's work here too is some rare work where you're just feeling all corners of the art. He never skimps on the detail for the scenery and it always contributes to the storytelling in every panel. It just feels fleshed out.

The Bad   

The deliberate pacing on this is something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it allows for more detailed character exploration and a modest tone that reflects these characters experience as C-listers who're in an overwhelming situation where everything takes a lot more time and effort than the regular Justice Leauge would have to go through. On the other hand, the title's taken its time to get these characters trying to infiltrate Checkmate.

The Verdict - 4.5/5  

Every two weeks, I'm looking forward to reading this title. DC's been experimenting with weekly and bi-weekly content for the past few years and this is definitely one of the best executions of that publishing model. It never feels rushed and, in fact, it feels a lot more polished than other DC titles that are coming out on a less-frequent basis. I'm running out of praise to level on this. Suffice it to say, you'd do well to pick comic up.

Death to the Imperialists!! Da!!

 As you may have already noticed about the title of this review, this is the Rocket Red issue.  He's a scene stealer every time he shows up.  That's why it's rather hard for me to hate on him.  Nevertheless, I remain a little skeptical about the character because: 
 

• Although it is certainly a guilty pleasure to laugh at Gavril, he seems primarily a character that plays to certain caricatures and stereotypes.  

 

• Aside from his personality, I haven't truly gotten over this nagging feeling that he's really just a Crimson Dynamo clone.  Rocket Red appeared circa 1987, while the first red suited Iron Man villain popped up in the early 60s.  

 
I must say though that he's growing on me.  I wonder.  If he were a serious Russian character, and Booster Gold was the goofball, would I still think that Rocket Red was a communist caricature?  In any case, he balances off the cast, and adds some diversity.  He works especially well when paired with Captain Atom.  Nate plays the role of a total square perfectly next to Gavril.  I must say that seeing the team suited up in Rocket Red suits was a fun surprise.  You get the impression that the dialogue throughout was probably as much fun to write as it was to read.  

Talk about Art

Based on the precedent set by the previous six issues, the other sad reality creeping in a little is the quality of artwork taking a slight dip.  You get a sense that they took advantage of the copy and paste tool to get through some talky-talk bits with Fire and Booster.  I hope the production team is able to maintain at least this level of quality throughout the series.  Bi-weekly releases?  Really?  You've got to applaud them for setting such a high mark.  Or, is the head mucky-muck publisher guy at DC lighting a fire under their collective behinds to make sure they hit their targets?  Come on man, let those guys be artists and create!  The covers on the other hand are top notch.
 

Final Thoughts

It's hard to rate this one on it's own because it's not as self contained as "Splitting the Atom".  I still can't believe how good that Captain Atom story was.  Topping that issue would have been a tall order.  In a way, book No. 7 may have been a lot tougher to write.  Even though it was mostly all Rocket Red, there's the challenge of having all six characters involved.  To me though, having everyone there for Gavril to play off of is the only way to do it.  Perhaps he'll sprout wings of his own when all is said and done.  It pains me to say this, but maybe the only way for Rocket Red to buck the stereotype is to catch a mole within their ranks.  Booster Gold seems like one of the usual suspects unfortunately.  Possibly Fire.  Wait for it.
 
And I haven't even gotten to Mr. Extreme Mind Control Powers.
 

3.5/5

This issue was hilarious to read all thanks to Gavril.I will admit he might a bit offensive to some that actually believe in communism (wich in that case why are you reading comic books,it's own by a capitalist company) but as we seen he's kinda of a hypocrite,he has a blog and he is just happy being in the Justice League (even though this isn't the League).What else is cool aout this issue is that we start with Max getting his White Lantern vision just like in Brightest Day #7.This issue does also have a a lot of talking between Fire and Ice wich i guess is for those that are big fans of there's,not that i don't like them but i just haven't read any of the JLI books to know them better. 

My only complaint might be that the pacing is a slowed down some more because of the whole sneaking in Checkmate base but hopefully it will pick up next issue.If you are reading Generation Lost you better not stop and if you are wondering if yyou should read this title the answer is YES.

The Good  

 
I think this was a pretty solid issue, at last they are doing something about maxwell. Of all the possible things they could do, they have definitely chosen the boldest one, but it's ok because it was about time something happened here. I love when they realized that Booster Gold is "the leader" and how they reacted. As always with Generation Lost the cover was awesome, I really think these covers are among the best of the last few years. 
 

The Bad  

 
Well I don't remember anything bad about it, maybe because my expectations for this volume has been so low that having a decent issue made me miss the bad things. 
 

Finally

 
Read it, since last issue its been getting better and hopefully it will stay that way.