DCU Comic Book Reviews

JSA #62

Redemption Lost, Part III

August 2004

Written by Geoff Johns

Pencils by Tom Mandrake & Don Kramer

Inks by Tom Mandrake & Keith Champagne

Cover by Ethan Van Sciver

Synopsis

In 1940, police detective Jim Corrigan is shot and killed by a local Mafia leader.  However, the Spectre takes Corrigan as its host to exact vengeance on those who deserve it.  Today, in Portsmouth, the Spirit King has escaped from the Spectre’s wrath and has unleashed zombies on the city.  While the JSA battles the zombies, Reverend Creamer talks to Hal Jordan, the current host for the Spectre.  Jordan had tried to get the Spectre on a path of redemption rather than Vengeance, but Jordan can no longer hold the Spectre in check.  Elsewhere, the Spirit King has overtaken the Flash’s body and is attempting to kill Mr. Terrific.  The Spectre appears to take out vengeance on Spirit King, releasing the Flash and sending all of the zombies back to hell.  Later, Dr. Mid-Nite is operating on Mr. Terrific, who flatlines.  In that state, Mr. Terrific sees a vision of his dead wife, who tells him he has important work to do.  The next day, Dr. Mid-Nite and Mr. Terrific go to church.  In Connecticut, Rex Tyler stands outside his home, but is unable to see his wife.  In Gotham, Alan Scott and Jay Garrick tell Batman about the Spectre and ask the Dark Knight to give Hal Jordan a second chance.  Batman tells them he already did.

Review

The cynic in me realizes that much of this story arc was designed as a way to get to the beginning of the new Green Lantern mini-series that will restore Hal Jordan to his former role.  It will be interesting to see if the mini-series relies on this storyline in some fashion.  Johns will be the writer for the new mini-series, so at least (I hope) there will be internal consistency in how the Spectre will be handled.  Yet, the decision to return the Spectre to vengeance seems rather abrupt and too easily brings the ending to the story.  The real focus of the story should have been Mr. Terrific and Flash, given their roles in the Spirit King’s madness as well as their connections to the original tragedy.  When Paula tells Terrific the name of their son, it is supposed to be a tender, tear-inducing moment, but it gets lost because of the business of the Spectre story.  It is almost as if Johns tossed in two different stories with character development moments and in the process each got lost and the impact is lessened.  Johns is fantastic at juggling a lot of different characters and directing chaos (as demonstrated by the zombie fight scenes in this story), but he seems to lose the core idea of the story (Mr. Terrific’s crisis of faith related to his wife’s death) along the way. 

When and how exactly did Mr. Terrific suffer heart damage to the point where he would flatline?  He gets physically beat up, but nothing that would give him a heart attack.-- Review by MRB

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