Justice League Unlimited #8 review

Well here we are at the end of “We Are Yesterday,” a crossover between World’s Finest and Justice League Unlimited. Fittingly, the reviews for this crossover, was also a crossover between its respective reviewers, Jackson and me. It was a blast doing my first crossover review and I hope Jackson had fun as well. So let’s drop into the final part of We Are Yesterday and as it has been in this saga, Jackson’s text is in blue while mine will be purple.

One More Time…Until the Next Time

So, with the entire Justice League compromised by the Legion of Doom led by a now “Darkseid-powered” Grodd, what else is there to do to save the League but go back in time? (except for Batman Beyond whose from the future) 

What did you think of the idea to suddenly bring in a host of characters, several of whom are alterations of existing ones, to this moment in time to battle the Legion of Doom?

Seeing Zero Year Batman (curious what the upcoming “definitive” DC history will have to say about him) fight alongside the likes of Superman Blue and Jonah Hex is the kind of goofiness that makes comics fun, but the fan service also feels a bit superficial. 

It fits into a category of story beat that’s become really common in Waid’s World’s Finest. That being an excuse to draw a bunch of different heroes in splash pages. We even saw some of that in this event already. Don’t get me wrong, it can be an exciting moment (especially when Dan Mora is the one drawing it), but there are only so many times you can play that card before it starts to lose its effect. 

This moment where a young Barry runs in to save Arthur before he’s impaled *chef’s kiss*

I will say this at least for the issue – the opening fight is choreographed really well. I think that’s more due to Mora than Waid, but clearly they both had roles to play. That said, after a point it started to become a bit too crowded. Which is saying a lot considering this book already felt like that from the start.

It’s like they heard your complaints about there being too many people in the JLU and decided you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Not only is every present hero on the team, but so is every past and future hero. The next issue will just be a reprint of the DC Encyclopedia. 

Honestly, there isn’t much to talk about regarding the battle. Yes it looks good and all but mostly lacks emotional stakes (which is bound to happen since most of these characters fighting are displaced time travelling versions of themselves). But there is one guy who does have some emotional connection to all of this – Air Wave who tries to redeem himself after being misled by Grodd. Does he succeed in your eyes?

A little bit. I still don’t feel as invested in his character as the story wants me to be. You’re right that he’s the only one who seems to have an emotional presence beyond being interchangeable action figures all hitting each other really hard (Wonder Woman’s words, not mine). When you have this many characters, a lot of it just becomes colorful noise. 

“You betrayed us!” “I was tricked!” “Oh ok.”

I think I would actually be more engaged if Air Wave had more time spent on him. Let us get into his headspace and connect to him as a character. With how rushed this crossover has felt, there was hardly any time to do that. Maybe they felt he had enough development in the first few issues of JLU.

Oh c’mon how could that happen? We have to show off a million superheroes so that this League feels unlimited.

Grodd also devolves into stereotypical villainy for me. He loses every bit of “aura” for the lack of a better word and becomes a stereotypical Silver Age villain rambling about how he was going to destroy humanity and how he was a god. Truly disappointing considering he was arguably the best part of this crossover.

Yeah, despite how ridiculous it was, part of me really enjoyed “I am the Gorilla God”. I only wish they had gone the extra mile and spelled it “Godd”. 

Grodd may be the only old school villain that’s still somewhat relevant

Aside from that, he definitely became a servant of the plot. He just starts raging out and fighting the heroes through brute force and is in turn defeated by everyone essentially bum rushing him. The time for planning and plotting is over. 

I felt like I got whiplash from how quickly his story ultimately gets resolved. All that build-up and then he’s safely in chains after a single brawl. The whole issue has so much stuff happening so quickly that it’s almost disorienting.

So, I guess that brings us to the last two things that happen in this issue, which are probably the only things this crossover will be remembered for – stranding a bunch of time-displaced characters in the present and kicking off the next stage in the overall All-in saga. 

I will make no bones about it. I hate that all of these characters are stuck here. Time-travel plots are notoriously difficult for even the creators to keep track of, as noted by Superman Blue showing up without warning at the start of this issue. I would hate it if even one of the unique ones like Jonah Hex or Ultraa was accidentally left behind and spun-off into a solo series. But all of them? By my count we have

• World’s Finest Superman
• World’s Finest Batman
• World’s Finest Robin
• Zero Year Batman
• Year One Barry Allen
• A Robin with knee pads that I cannot place
• Superman Blue
• Jonah Hex
• New52 Harley
• 90s Aquaman complete with hook hand
• 90s Wally West with the white eyed mask
• An unknown Wonder Woman, who I’m guessing is George Perez’s Diana based on her hairstyle
• Batman Beyond
• Ultraa, the Multi Alien
• Terrifics Mr. Terrific
• Terrifics Plastic Man

Also, these characters who were not seen in the second last splash page

• Abin Sur
• Terrifics Phantom Girl
• Terrifics Metamorpho who has been left horribly fused with Bizzarro
• Oh and the entire past Legion of Doom because they didn’t get teleported back. And Pythoness is out there because I’m sure she’s going to be a big deal later.

Also Abin Sur is canonically Sinestro’s brother-in-law and they always respected each other…and here they are caught in a beam-o-war like they are Hal and Thaal

I don’t know what was the plan here. To confuse readers further?

I think it’s just to throw more toys on the pile for an even bigger event down the road. The specifics of who’s actually there aren’t important; they just picked a bunch of recognizably out-of-time characters. I don’t think it bothers me as much because it feels pretty standard fare for when DC wants to set up a Crisis-like event. There will be a big fight with some more splash pages of a bunch of popular characters from DC history, and then everyone will be sent home. 

Well, might as well talk about it. We get the return of Doomsday Time Trapper and the World Forger as they learn that time is quite literally up. Maybe I have seen too many Crisis events in one lifetime, but this was really underwhelming.

It feels like a lackluster version of Crisis on Infinite Earths is being set up, which despite all its flaws felt epic. This was nothing. It could have been the Monitor and Rip Hunter, the Anti-Monitor and Black Beetle, or any number of time travelling or deity-like characters in this scene. It’s all so shallow.

I don’t necessarily disagree, and the setup felt rushed for sure, but I don’t want to say too much on how they’re handling these new villains specifically until at least next month’s epilogue issue.

Well at least it was nice to see Dan Mora back to drawing this comic.

Agreed. Like I said, even if it’s just splashy, colorful action shots, it can still be enjoyable to read when they’re drawn well enough, and Mora is one of the best at DC right now. The action is dynamic and full of energy, and each individual character has the detail put into them that they read like full characters with emotion.

I was having a lot of fun in the beginning as this was the best fight so far, compared to the laser shootout in the previous issue. But at some point when I start to think about the overall plot it falls apart for me.

Recommended If

• You wanted to see a cool Dan Mora illustrated, well-choreographed fight scene.
• You wanted some payoff for the Grodd and Air Wave stuff
• More heroes! Run for the hills folks or you’ll be up to your armpits in heroes! (Comment below if you are old enough to recognize that reference)

Overall 

Jackson: The finale to Grodd’s master plan feels less like the culmination of a carefully laid scheme and more like a frantic brawl. With the Omega MacGuffin in hand, the issue turns into a slugfest with about as many recognizable DC characters you could fit on a page charging one another. It’s a very well drawn and visually exciting slugfest, but there’s no room for a satisfying climax to the narrative.

Score: 6/10

Akash: I wanted to rate this one much higher than I ended up doing solely based on that stellar opening fight scene. But the overall poor pace, ever expanding cast, and lackluster resolution only to set up the next big thing just left me disappointed. My harshest criticism for this issue and series as a whole is that it’s comparable to a kaleidoscope. Lots of brightly colored patterns but it’s all just an illusion in the end.

Score: 6.5/10