DCU Comic Book Reviews

JUSTICE SOCIETY of AMERICA #37

Darkness Engine, Part Two of Fatherland

May 2010

Written by Bill Willingham

Pencils by Jesus Merino

Inks by Jesse Delperdang

Cover by Jesus Merino

Synopsis

Twenty Years Later…Mr. Terrific continues to recount his memoir of how America was invaded and conquered by the Fourth Reich.  The invasion began with the Fourth Reich attack the Justice Society headquarters.  After an initial setback, the Justice Society fought back and began to turn the tide.  When the losses start to mount, the Fourth Reich reveal the Darkness Engine, a device powered by Obsidian that nullifies metahuman powers.  And can also take away life.  The battle was over.  The Justice Society surrendered.  Twenty Years Later…finishes telling his story for the night.  He then escapes his barrack to find Superman, Batman, and other heroes so they can continue their plot to escape and overthrow the Fourth Reich. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This issue was saved by the ending, with the heroes continuing their plot to escape.  I like the fact that they haven’t given up and are continuing to fight, even without superpowers.  However, if you think about it a bit you’ve got to wonder what they were doing for the past 20 years that they haven’t fought back (or won) yet (or why they wouldn’t kill Superman first since he is one of the big guns).  Or why the hell they gave up in the first place.  I get the idea of retreat to fight another day, but it seems too early in the fight to give up.  Anyway, the rest of the issue follows the format of the last issue with Mr. Terrific recounting what happened before to lead to what is happening now.  A lot of it is exposition, especially the future scenes in which Karla recounts the time between and even the initial scene, which just tells us how and why the heroes got into their predicament in the first place.  It is necessary information, however, and it is interesting to see what happens, but it is the set-up.  Next issue we should get the story of the escape and the change in the timeline that returns everything to normal. 

It is interesting to note that Mr. Terrific calls Superman Clark when he first sees him, but calls Batman, well, Batman.  This is so weird.  You would think that after 20 years of not being in costume, they would refer to him by first name.  The only thing I can think is that Willingham wasn’t sure if it should be Bruce (the past and probably future Batman) or Dick (the current Batman at the time this issue was released).  At the end of the issue, I can understand why they used the name Blue Beetle before adding Jaime, as many readers may not know the identity of the current Blue Beetle.  Although I have to wonder why they didn’t bother to provide more close to the identity of Danny Cassidy (aka Blue Devil)

Is the one with the long hair and goatee supposed to be Green Arrow?  Who would be the one with the hat?  I am guessing the one with the sunglasses would be Dr. Mid-Nite.  There are also a couple of others in the background, but aren’t given dialogue so who knows if they will be important in later issues of not. 

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