Review:
Note: My review of Wonder Woman and the Justice League America volume 1 was published several months ago and can be found here.
Overmaster is back, and with his amped-up powers he threatens to kill every living thing on the planet. His citadel lands atop Mount Everest, causing global tectonic tremors and disasters that pull our heroes into rescue missions, and dividing their forces, making a direct assault on Overmaster that much less likely to succeed.
This extra-thick trade paperback collects the entire 7-part story of the Justice League's battle with Overmaster, crossing all three of the then-current Justice League titles. It's loud, it's brash, conflict and super-powered slam-downs jump from nearly every page.
Wonder Woman gets top billing in the title of this collection, due to her leadership role with the Justice League America. Unfortunately, her minor role within the story consists mostly of convening team meetings and arguing with Captain Atom, whose hot-headed reactions and unwillingness to follow her direction further fragments the team at this critical moment.
Dan Vado and Mark Waid take turns telling the tale in their respective books and do a solid job of weaving together a consistent and coherent narrative. The action directly continues across all three JL titles. You have to read all the issues to get the story from beginning to end, there are no "meanwhile, in another part of the world" tie-ins here! That makes this collected TPB essential to get the full story from beginning to end - back in 1994 when these were published, you'd have to make sure to pick up each book every month and read them in the right order.
Vado and Waid also put these characters through the proverbial wringer too. Ice spends most of the story under the mental control of Overmaster and actively working against her former teammates, before ultimately being slaughtered by him; Metamorpho sacrifices himself to save the team; Booster Gold is badly hurt in battle and dies in the hospital operating room - sort of.
Since we are in the middle of a series of reviews related to Booster Gold and his history and evolution, this is a significant moment that we need to include.
After Booster's futuristic suit was shredded several issues back, beyond the abilities of late-20th century tech to fix, Ted Kord builds him a heavy suit of armor. After years of the sleek, image-conscious playboy hero, the visuals of this chunky battle-gear are jarring, even if the chest star and general blue-and-gold color patterns remain.
His memory of historical events is also crystal-clear here, a rare case. Booster has always leveraged the fact that he came from the future in enhancing his wealth and celebrity, but more often than not has had to rely on the memory banks of his robo-sidekick Skeets for the details. And fair enough - how is your own memory and knowledge about events that happened 500 years before you were born? But here, he has much better recall - THIS was a climactic event in Earth's history and, even clearer in his mind, he himself would play a critical role. This was his moment!
But maybe history is not so pre-determined and set in stone? Or his memory is faulty? Because that's not how it turns out. Not only is he not the hero of the day, but Booster Gold is also soundly defeated and critically injured by the battle-ax-wielding Devastator. With his left arm severed at the shoulder and a major gash across his chest, Booster loses too much blood and, despite Captain Atom's efforts to get him to a hospital, Booster dies. But only for a few panels - it seems Overmaster's influence on the Earth has somehow temporarily paused dying. It gives Booster a chance to return to the frontlines of the battle, but once Overmaster is defeated, will he return to being dead?
The art in this collection fits perfectly with stereotype characteristics of the mid-90s comics scene. The men are extremely buff, the women lithe and sexy, the battles blast-heavy and everything strongly inked. From these pages, the work of Marc Campos really stands out. His images pop from every page that he draws, with an intensity three notches above the other artists. And nearly every one of his pages boldly breaks the bounds of the typical rectangular layouts. He often forgoes panels altogether, overlapping and blending his images together into a cascade of intense action, emotion and colors.
Description:
Comics writers Mark Waid and Dan Vado are joined by Marc Campos and a team of veteran artists as they present one of the most action-packed stories in Justice League history with WONDER WOMAN & JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA VOL. 2.
With Wonder Woman leading the Justice League America, the team has had to battle enemies from within and outside threats too big for any one hero. Now they have to contend with the return of the Overmaster and his Cadre, who are more powerful than ever before. The only way to defeat this cosmic
threat is for Wonder Woman and her team to join forces with the Justice League International and Justice League Task Force! But will the cost of victory be too high?
Collects: JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA #86-91, JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #65-66 and JUSTICE LEAGUE TASK FORCE #13-14
Authors: Dan Vado, Mark Waid
Artists: Marc Campos, Others
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: Oct. 10, 2017
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN: 978-1401274009
Pages: 192 pages
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