DCU Comic Book Reviews

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #18

War Lords

October 2008

Written by Geoff Johns and Alex Ross

Pencils by Dale Eaglesham and Jerry Ordway

Inks by Mick Gray, Kris Justice, Nathan Massengill, Jerry Ordway

Covers by Alex Ross & Dale Eaglesham

Synopsis

In the Congo, the Justice Society protect innocent villagers from attacking soldiers.  With them is Gog, who wants to fix everything that is wrong, including members of the Justice Society.  When the attacks seem to increase, Gog decides to put a stop to it by changing all of the soldiers into trees.  Then, the Justice Society walks into an ambush.  In the attack, David Reid is shot and wounded.  Dr. Mid-Nite examines him, but when Gog restored his eyesight, he lost the ability to see the damage inside the human body. There is nothing he can do.  Reid is dead.  However, Gog decides to fix that and resurrects Reid into Magog.  On Earth-2, Power Girl approaches Professor Michael Holt, an expert on parallel universes, for help. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

There have been times in this extremely long arc that the story has dragged, in which the action has slowed down to the point where plot seems to be stretched to the breaking point.  As I was reading this issue, I was beginning to feel that stretching point once more.  We have seen Gog do his good deeds.  We have seen the effect of Gog’s “fixing” on the heroes and how it seems to backfire.  Hell, we’ve even see the effect Damage’s new pretty face has on women.  This issue seemed like it was more of the same.  Then we get to the end, where Johns kicks it up a notch.  There was this feeling that one of Gog’s “improvements” to the heroes was going to result in something bad happening and that it would led to something that Gog wanted to accomplish.  So in that sense, I liked the way Johns set up the ending and I think the payoff works, even if it seemed to drag to get there. 

Having said that, however, the beginning portions of the issues is still great.  He knows these characters (especially Hawkman, who gets the rotating spotlight this month) and how to write them and he knows how to integrate the large cast so that they don’t get lost in the shuffle. 

Strangely, I was not expecting the ending, but at the same time I could see it coming.  My main reaction was a feeling that the development made perfect sense, which I think is a compliment to the writer that he set-up the plot twist perfectly.  Reading through this issue, you can see the hints of what is to come (Reid says, “I’ll walk with Gog,” earlier in the issue).  I don’t feel cheated by what occurred, nor do I feel it was a twist just for the sake of a shock; Johns and Ross set it up well, which gives me confidence that they will do the rest of the story justice. 

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