DCU Comic Book Reviews

JUSTICE SOCIETY of AMERICA #33

Split Up

January 2010

Written by Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges

Pencils by Jesus Merino

Inks by Jesus Merino

Cover by Jesus Merino

Synopsis

At Justice Society Headquarters, the team is being attacked bay group of supervillains.  Elsehwere, Mr. America asks if the All-American Kid is ready to join the fight.  The Kid says he is, then bashes Mr. America on the head.  The “Kid” then bashes the head of Wildcat.  He is then held at gunpoint by King Chimera.  When the “Kid” realizes the gun is just an illusion, he decides to find other prey.  Elsewhere, Dr. Fate emerges from the brownstone and casts a spell that ends the battle.  Elsewhere, the “Kid” retrieves Obsidian and hands it over to his boss.  Just then, Mister Terrific emerges, revealing he knew the kid was really Jeremy Karne (aka Kid Karnevil).  Karnevil knew that, which is why they took him out first.  Mister Terrific then takes out Karnevil, before collapsing.  Later, Terrific is taken to the hospital.  The team argues over what has happened in the past day.  Liberty Belle suggests it is time to split up the team.    

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Out of curiosity, the first page I looked at was the last page.  I just had this feeling it was going to end with one of the characters telling everyone else they needed to split up.  Sure enough, there it was (and the characters placed on the page based on how the team will be split, just like the cover).  I wouldn’t have guessed Liberty Belle as the one to do it, however.  The rest of the issue was pretty standard, with the heroes fighting the villains in random scenes of match-ups.  Eventually, the battle would be won, the assassin would be found, and then the group would break it up.  I hate to sound like it was predictable, but, well, it was.  It wasn’t bad, per so, but there was very little excited me.  This entire story has been in the service of breaking up the team and I think it shows.  Hopefully now that the break-up has occurred, Willingham (who will take over this title as Sturges goes to the All-Stars title for the other team) will be able to write stories without a forgone conclusion. 

From the material I have read from Willingham and Sturges over the years, I know that the two of them have a pretty good sense of humor.  The funny bone comes through in this issue as a number of the confrontations between heroes and villains are less fights and more battles for the wittiest joke.  I am not complaining mind you, some of the stuff was funny, but I think the cost is the ultimate reason to split the team is lost.  They split because Magog thinks they need to be ready tactically, but we don’t see it here because the writing is more focused on individual battles rather than the bigger picture. 

It would’ve been nice to see Dr. Fate’s spell.  I actually felt like I missed a few pages when we went form the spell casting to the after effects.  What about, you know, seeing the spell when it actually is working.  I am not sure if it is bad writing or skipped out of necessity due to the page count, but it was strange not to see it. 

I liked the fact that killer was the one whom they originally thought was the killer. I liked the fact that it was revealed to be Karnevil (a character that previously appeared in the Willingham penned Shadowpact series).  I did not like the fact that the Justice Society would fail to realize it was not the All-American Kid.  It seems ridiculous that such a mistake could happen.  And I did not like the way Terrific managed to spring back to “life” at the right moment to stop Karnevil.  It smacked too much of the writer’s influence rather than an extension of the events in the story, if you understand the subtle difference I am trying to make. 

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