DCU Comic Book Reviews

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #16

He Came And Salvation With Him

July 2008

Written by Geoff Johns and Alex Ross

Pencils by Fernando Pasarin

Inks by Rebecca Buchman

Covers by Alex Ross & Dale Eaglesham

Synopsis

In Africa, the Justice Society of America watches Gog and realizes a God walks among them.  Mr. Terrific tries to talk to Gog, but cannot be heard since Mr. Terrific does not believe in Gods.  Markus Clay (aka Amazing Man) talks to Gog and gets a short reply, before Gog walks away.  The God goes to a small village, where he heals the sick and makes them better.  Elsewhere, someone disturbs the tomb of Isis and gets attacked by Black Adam for their trouble.  Meanwhile, Gog tells the JSA that he wants to help; he is here to save everyone.  Damage doesn’t believe that Gog really wants to help.  In response, Gog tells Damage that he should enjoy life.  Gog then heals Damage’s scarred face.  Gog then wonders who is next. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

There are predictable plots in which you can see what is going to happen from a mile away and you’ve seen a thousand times before in other stories.  Then there are unpredictable plots because the writer knows what you’ve seen before, so decides to invert your expectations.  Somehow, this issue falls into both categories.  I don’t know why, perhaps I picked up on clues from the previous issue, but I just knew that Johns was not going to have Gog be a bad guy, but rather a bad guy disguised as a nice guy.  So, seeing Gog save various people and proclaim he wants to help the human race was not a shocking twist for me.  I am not even sure Johns intended it as a shock.  Certainly, the ending with Damage’s face being healed (and doesn’t that kinda negate his name, now?) was telegraphed based on the beginning. 

As for the rest of the issue, Johns does what he needs to do to set the stage for the story, so this is good in typical Johns fashion with interesting moments, nice character bits, and a few humorous situations.  At first, Black Adam’s inclusion seems a little odd, but I get the feeling that he’ll get involved with Gog at some point (rather than, say, just putting down the framework for a story after Gog is done). 

The entire sequence with Mr. Terrific just did not work for me.  I do not believe for one moment that any deity would ignore someone just because they were an atheist.  If anything, I would think it would be the opposite, with Mr. Terrific unable to see Gog because he doesn’t believe in any Gods.  Plus, any deity (or a good one at the very least) would recognize Mr. Terrific and would respect his beliefs, while at the same time trying to show him the error of his ways.  Simply ignoring a non-believer just doesn’t make much sense. 

It is amazing.  Somehow Johns manages to include most of the large cast into the story.  There are literally dozens of speaking parts.  At the moment it is not that big of a deal because, strangely enough, the focus of the storyline is not the JSA, but rather Gog.  So as long as the various team members flit in and out of Gog’s story, then it will work.  But at some point, when Johns starts a new storyline, some of these characters will fall behind.

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