writer: Geoff Johns / pencils: Dough Mahnke & Ivan Reis
After months of posturing and table setting for how Lex Luthor is going to fit with the Justice League or how the Justice League was going to take down Lex Luthor, Johns throws a very welcome curveball in presenting a threat that comes to not only Luthor and the Justice League, but to the general public as well. I mean, we think it threatens Luthor. It’s hard to tell if the target is in fact Luthor or if this is a ploy of his (we’ve seen Lex do this before), but it does seem that the much larger threat presenting in the last pages of the book doesn’t seem to be any part of Luthor’s plan.
Previous to physical drama that takes place in the last third of the book, the highlight continues to be chess match between Lex and Bruce Wayne. They have always had these parallels of being genius, but “unpowered” humans and Lex takes every opportunity to mention this when trying to earn Wayne’s trust. But as Clark says, no one hides anything from Batman, so Wayne’s counters are always timely and cutting, making their back and forth worth the price of admission.
Also, this book welcomes back Mahnke (with Reis) to bring some consistncy back to the art. I wouldn’t call this a particularly gorgeous book, but this is back to a high bar that is befitting of the Justice League as opposed to last month’s effort.
A funny thing happened on the way to our original crash course and the surprising event is refreshing for this book. It still remains to be seen if this is a threat against Luthor as much as the rest of the Justice League or some ruse. I mean…Owlman is still out there.
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