“All right, Supergirl gets today’s MVP award.”
Inferno has been making sure that the new Justice League is putting in the work, thriving on their unpredictability to incite paranoia in our team of heroes. After narrowly averting a global ecological catastrophe, the mysterious cabal strikes directly at a squadron of Leaguers prepped to defend the annual G20 Summit. Inferno makes yet another unanticipated play, but this time it causes us to wonder just where all the setup is going beyond the upcoming “We are Yesterday” crossover with World’s Finest.
Most notable from the beginning is Waid’s use of Impulse, his very own creation, who is essentially the protagonist of this tale. Much like in Waid’s classic Flash run, the dynamic between him and Wally — who is the apparent leader of this squadron — is accented by a strained trust due to Bart Allen’s hyperactivity and general immaturity in more tense situations. Despite Wally’s misgivings about his (sort of) nephew, the young Allen proves invaluable to the team’s plight. If anything is to make this book feel like a true successor to Waid’s work in the ’90s, look no further than here, even down to the return of Bart’s classic speech bubble gag.
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Aside from Bart, Mora and Bonvillain’s other dimensional psychedelic backdrops and power visualizations take center stage. Unlike previous issues, this one has the advantage of less jumping around from team to team, so we get to spend the most panel time with our central squad: Flash, Impulse, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Star Sapphire, and Thunderlord. It would truly be a wonder if this art team ever got the reins to a Green Lantern book. Also, background cameos of characters from Mora and Bonvillain’s Once and Future is a fine touch.
So far, Waid’s strangest weakness comes in the form of The Atom Project. Imagine this: you’re opening up Justice League Unlimited and Ray Palmer, The Atom, shows up to help a tormented hero get their powers back. You think “How noble! He and Ryan Choi are using their genius to save other heroes!” Now imagine seeing scenes exactly like that for almost five issues straight with a small editor’s note telling you to read another book. To defend Waid, it was clear from the beginning that Justice League Unlimited was going to focus on setting up other books, but the way they’ve gone about it so far feels awkward and insistent, somewhat detracting from the story at large.
DC
Now, before Justice League Unlimited really got rolling, the last American election struck, which lead to Waid prefacing that his work would probably lose steam amidst these disheartening times. While we wouldn’t suggest there’s been a drastic drop in the quality of this script, especially since mysteries such as the double agent and Martian Manhunter’s missing powers are coming to a head, we can’t help but feel that it lacks the kinetic energy that the series has so far strived for. It also feels like some of their momentum halted by revealing that this entire first arc has been leading into the World’s Finest crossover, which begs the question of just how impactful these plot threads will be once the crossover is done.
In conclusion, Justice League Unlimited #5 is a wild ride with love for its strong cast of characters, a fun story, even more engaging usages of action and panel work, but does fall flat in a few areas. We’re sure Waid and co. can pull through with this upcoming crossover, but there is a certain weariness carried with it. All together, though, this is another successful comic from DC’s golden creative trio.
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