Justice League Odyssey is all about deep space drama if you ask me. Darkseid is attempting to thwart any threat to his plans, he has enslaved Cyborg, and the Lord of Time is one of the only things that stand in his way. Green Lantern Jessica Cruz serves as the main character in this team book by Dan Abnett and drawn by Cliff Richards, where Jessica must figure out what to do next, but first, she must stay alive as Darksied’s latest mind-controlled soldier Azrael tries to kill her.
This is an interesting read given the month-long gap. A good deal is explained, a new direction is decided upon, and the story arc is pivoting. I suspect most readers will be able to pick this up and carry on, even if what came before isn’t completely recapped. We do get a bit of time travel, though, which helps add context to the very real dangers in play.
Green Lantern fans will dig Cruz’s journey in Justice League Odyssey
Abnett does a good job putting us in Jessica Cruz’s head and in a lot of ways this series is building up her character well. She’s a leader, she’s dealing with real stakes, and lives are on the line. Many of the characters in the book are relatively new, and some are plays on the Guardians of the Galaxy (read Ritesh’s breakdown of those characters) which further adds stakes — any of them can die, since they’re not tied to any other book.
This dude says “Darkseid” is like, 30 times. DC Comics
Art by Richards, and colors by Rain Beredo, have a darker and edgier tone. This is a life or death sort of story with a haunting possibility that Darkseid could win, so it fits. It can be a bit muddy to look at, though, especially compared to previous issues. The time travel bits work well, using a translucent Jessica to convey her jump and there’s some nice 9-panel layout work.
This issue suffers a bit as it explains a lot while characters stand around. The pace of the book slows to a crawl as Jessica plans and gathers info. A B-plot could have saved the issue as then it could cut away to some action.
Overall, this is a good continuation of Jessica Cruz’s journey as she leads a team and believably builds a plan to defeat Darkseid. This issue has some faults, but overall it’s an interesting sci-fi story.
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