It’s rare for me to read a JLA book.  It’s nothing against recent runs, or specific characters.  I just find them, generally, unfocused and hard to keep track of.  But I read all the other books with the Brightest Day banner on them, so far, and enjoyed them, so I thought I’d give this a shot.  And I’m very glad I did.

This is a really focused JLA book, in the way that Identity Crisis, which is technically a crisis book but really a JLA story, and Tower Of Babel were focused JLA arcs.

I feel that Infinite Crisis was dissapointing to me because I thought the plot developments that led up to it were awesome (and I don’t mean “awesome” as in “totally, radical, dude” but as in “actually awe inspiring”).  There were great character opportunities, and chances for the plot to resonate.  But then they threw a whole bunch of Events at me, and I wasn’t as moved by the deaths of Blue Beetle and Maxwell Lord as I feel I should have been.

This issue is the issue I wanted at the end of Infinite Crisis.  A coming together of JLA & JLI ers for a specific mission.  And THEN an unexpected turn that sets an entirely different (but still focused!) plot in motion.

Giffen has long been one of my favorite superhero writers (if you haven’t picked up his parody work Hero Squared, you should).   I don’t dislike Winick as much as many others seem to, and he certainly does no disservice to Giffen’s work here. 

Lopestri’s pencils on this were flawless.  There’s very little panel breaking or complications to his layout, but his straightforwardness really pays off.