DCU Comic Book Reviews

JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE #7

Justice

April 2010

Written by James Robinson

Pencils by Mauro Cascioli and Scott Clark

Inks by Mauro Cascioli and Scott Clark

Cover by Mauro Cascioli

Synopsis

At the JLA Watchtower, Prometheus reveals that he has attached teleportation devices to various major cities designed to send each to a different dimension in time and space. To prove his point, the one attached to Star City is activated.  However, instead of disappearing, the city starts to crumble and fall apart.  The JLA rush to the city to help.  There, Ollie discovers Lian Harper, the daughter of Roy Harper whose right arm was severed by Prometheus, killed by the destruction.  Elsewhere, other cities begin to crumble and fall.  The heroes are unable to turn off the devices.  Prometheus tells them they can stop it, as long as they let him free.  After the heroes debate what to do, the decision is to let him go in order to save lives in the cities that are falling apart.  Later, Prometheus debates whether or not to kill Quimby because the devices failed to work properly.  He is then interrupted by Green Arrow, who shoots Prometheus in the head, killing him.  For Justice. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

A disclaimer:  I knew the ending before I started to read.  I am so far behind in my reviews that no matter how much I tried to avoid it, I couldn’t get away from the ending (and, of course, this issue of Justice League of America didn’t help at all).  So, as I was reading, I knew what was going to happen.  Even knowing that, I thought this was a well-structured issue, with a terrific pace as the tension and the horror kept escalating until the decision was made to let Prometheus go.  I liked the way the heroes debated what to do, eventually realizing that they had no choice and reaching their decision.  But for as much as I liked the way the issue was structured, I have serious problems with the way the story has been structured.  A lot of this issue (and the ending) is based on the readers’ emotional connection to three characters:  Roy, Lian, and Ollie.  Sadly, we don’t get that, mostly because they were part of the story all that much.  Lian’s only appearance is her death and Roy disappeared several issues ago and even when he was there, he wasn’t a big part of the plot.  At the beginning, the two leads were Hal and Ollie and Congorilla and Mikaal.  Now, in the final issue, the latter pair barely makes a cameo, leaving whatever story was being told with the two of them unfinished, and the former pair barely interact with each other.  Instead, we get Lian’s death and Ollie’s justice and all of the heroes discussing Prometheus’ terms.  But there is nothing in the story, nothing at all, that makes me want or wish for Ollie to do what he did.  We need to care about these characters, not only about Roy and Lian, but also about Ollie and how he feels about them.  We didn’t get that.  Instead we get Hal going on and on about Justice while Ollie stands next to him.  Ultimately, seeing Lian’s body provoked no emotional reaction, other than shock.  But not the shock Robinson was going for which is her death, but at the clumsy way it was handled.  I mean, we don’t even see her before Ollie is holding her in his arms.  Maybe a scene of her at home just as the shock waves.  Maybe a moment where she is dreaming of her father, drawing a picture of him, or something that would make use see the little girl that she is.  That is what Robinson should’ve been going for.  He needed sympathy and sadness and anger and rage, all of which would make Ollie’s actions understandable.  Instead, we get nothing, which makes Ollie’s actions feel like a writer’s decision, not a moment of crisply defined characterization.  

The problem, I think, is that the set-up and the resolution of this mini-series is supposed to be all about justice and what exactly that means.  This is fine, except the contents of this issue, and the ending to the plot, is more with dealing with a terrorist and whether or not you give in to their demands than it is about justice.  Think about that.  This issue is about Prometheus and his demand to be freed or else.  This is no different than any criminal taking a hostage (or a plot point for 24).  And it is an intriguing story, but it is not a “Cry for Justice.”  Whatever happened to Congorilla or Mikaal or the Atom or whomever else seeking “justice” against Prometheus?  Do they get what they wanted, are they satisfied with the way things ended?  Oh, I think there are moments where the characters pay lip service to seeing the light and realizing they were wrong to seek vengeance in the name of “justice”, but those feel more like an afterthought.  Wouldn’t it make sense to have one of those characters come face-to-face with Prometheus and wrestle with their desire for vengeance/justice, whether to exact revenge or put them in jail?  Isn’t that the original concept?  Yet, it gets lost in the negotiations to save the cities.  Moreover, we don’t even see Ollie’s decision to exact “justice.”  It is not explained or shown; rather we see the events from Prometheus’ side so that the killing is a “shocking turn of events” as the ad copy would say.  In line with the concept of justice, wouldn’t it have made sense for the other characters to talk Ollie out of it, to tell him that murder is not justice, that they need to bring him and arrest him.  Then show Ollie deciding they were wrong?  But again, we don’t see this.  It is like Robinson lost sight of the story in an effort to get across the plot.     

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