Justice Society Of America #21

I want to like this issue as much as my buddy Paul Montgomery does, but... it's not quite there for me. This review is my response to his review.

In my Secret Invasion review, I note that Geoff Johns understands how to handle the big moments. And there are some good ones here. Superman punches a bolt of lightning. Citizen Steel refuses to kneel. And even Magog gets a twist cliffhanger on the last page.

But all of that said, I still feel like this is just a "pretty good" comic. Plot is adequately revealed. But it's pretty much by-the-numbers. Did anyone not see any of this coming? And it's OK if you did, but... is there really that much here to hang onto? A lot of the elements feel "crafted" to me. And by that  mean... Alex Ross really wants you to know how the characters could look the way they do in Kingdom Come. Flash is altered here. Alan Scott dons his armor. Even Northwind appeared last issue. Wildcat's son has been introduced. That's all well and good, but I feel a little beat over the head with it. I'm way to conscious of the plot devices being used to create Alex Ross' lovely little painted icons of the future.

The artwork here, apparently tossed back and forth between Ordway and Eaglesham is a bit awkward and uneven. It gets the job done, but it's nothing really remarkable. Both artists have done much better work.

This is not bad comics, but it's not great comics either.