DCU Comic Book Reviews

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #5

The Lightning Saga, Part

June 2007

Written by Geoff Johns

Pencils by Fernando Pasarin

Inks by Fernando Pasarin

Covers by Alex Ross & Phil Jimenez

Synopsis

[Continued from Justice League of America, issue #8]

Sandy Hawkins (aka Sand) along with Batman, Geo-Force, and Starman arrive at Arkham Asylum to locate Dream Girl, one of the five missing Legion of Super Heres.  What they find is Doctor Destiny using his dreamstone to create very real and deadly nightmares as he holds Dream Girl hostage.  When the heroes make it inside, they are confronted by the nightmares of the inmates:  Batman.  As multiple version of Batman attack, Starman slips away to locate Dream Girl.  He finds her at the mercy of Doctor Destiny, but he is able to break her free from his control and save her.  Meanwhile, Superman leads Stargirl, Red Tornado, and Cyclone to the Fortress of Solitude to locate two of the legion rings.  He finds one easily, but can’t find the other.  Red Tornado then identifies the ring’s location: on the hand of Wildfire, who was immobilized among statues.  Superman activates Wildfire’s ring.  When he awakens, he mentions a storm and then passes out.  [Continued from Justice League of America, issue #9]

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This was an exciting issue and sets the stage for the other two teams (one led by Power Girl and the other by Black Canary) to find the other members of the Legion.  The entire sequence with Doctor Destiny was brilliant, especially the appearance of all of those Batmen.  How cool was it to see Batman kicking the living daylights out of Batman?  I do have one question:  what the hell happened at the end.  Where did Batman’s belt come from?  Did it come from thin air, from inside Wildfire, from the legion ring?

Exactly how long was Wildfire standing among the statues of the other Legion members and why didn’t Superman notice there was two of them (or there was no name below the Wildfire standing on the bottom row)?

I think it was a smart move on Johns part to split the book in half between the Batman and Superman parts rather than try and bounce back and forth between the two.  The two parts had different tones to them and would have been jarring to shift between the darkness of the Arkham material and the lightness in the fortress.  The contrast between say Sand’s prophetic remarks about Batman being torn to shreds compared to Cyclone’s ramblings would not work read side to side.

I am sure there are Superman fanboys and continuity nerds that are going to go ballistic with the news that Superman was indeed part of the Legion.  This had originally been booted out of continuity with the Crisis On Infinite Earths but apparently has been brought back with the recent Infinite Crisis.  Personally, it doesn’t matter to me one way or the other. 

I think this issue definitely proved that I can only take Starman in small doses.  After a few of his pity, off hand, nonsensical remarks I wanted to reach inside the page and slap some sense into him.  When it occurs randomly and occasionally, it is pretty funny, but the more Starman appears and talks on the page, the more annoyed I get with the whole thing. 

Of all of the Batmen, I like the overweight version the best.  There is also one with very large bat ears, which is probably for these afraid of Kelly Jones.  And if you get that joke, then you really must be a Batman freak. 

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