DCU Comic Book Reviews

JSA CLASSIFIED #12

The Fall And Rise Of Vandal Savage, Part 3

July 2006

Written by Stuart Moore

Pencils by Paul Gulacy

Inks by Jimmy Palmiotti

Cover by Paul Gulacy

Synopsis

In England in 1887, Vandal Savage is confronted by his daughter, who has contempt for who is and how he treats others.  In the present, Savage learns of the death of Alan Scott’s daughter Jennie-Lynn Haden (aka Jade) and says, “Gotcha.”  Savage injects himself in the brain, to prepare himself for Scott’s arrival.  Meanwhile, Sandman leads Scott to Savage’s hideout.  Inside, Scott is attacked by Savage, who takes a bite out of Scott’s neck.  Savage then traps Scott into force field and taunts him with his failed relationships, including the one with Jade.  Angered, Scott busts free of the force field and knocks Savage down to the ground.  Suddenly, Scott is knock down from behind, by “Sandman” who is really a mass of green ooze grown by Savage, who decides the legend of Green Lantern will end in utter disgrace.

Review

There has been a lot of build-up to the final concluding issue (next month) and this issue is pretty much no different from the others, except for one difference:  Alan Scott and Vandal Savage are finally together and Savage’s plan is finally coming to fruition.  While I found Savage’s solution on how to push Scott’s buttons to be intriguing and spot-on given recent circumstances, I am not sure if the previous issues support this angle.  A lot of the basic premise of Savage’s “plan” is based on knowledge of Scott’s past and his relationships with his friends and family.  The previous issues didn’t support what Savage told us, so if you’re not familiar with it, the impact will be slightly lost.  Intellectually, I understand that Savage used people for himself while Scott failed to protect others when they needed it most.  But that did not really come through emotionally.  Most of the flashbacks in previous issues established Savage’s ability to survive, which was interesting, but it rarely focused on his relationships or his families (literally hundreds of children).  But now we have to accept that Savage is going to mentally punish Scott for his failures, which in turn means Scott will fight back in the same manner.  Except that I don’t feel it.  As such, it comes across as anti-climatic. 

I do have one complaint with the art and this is the rendering of Jade. She looks horrible.  And while, yes, the drawing is supposed to show the moment of her death, the “horrible” that I mean is not death-like but as in plain ugly.  The teeth and the expression make her look like some wizened old witch from a bad b-movie who just had a sword impaled through her gut.-- MRB

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