I’m a bit torn about this series ending. On the one hand, do I want the JLI to stay in some kind of prominent position within the DCU? Hell yes. But I’m not actually sad about THIS book ending with issue 24 instead of running for another two issues, as was originally planned. In fact, if it had been cut to about 18 issues, the pacing probably would have been loads better.

Why am I bringing this up now, in the penultimate issue? Because there’s really no excuse for a fixed-length series having a second-to-last issue as slack as this one. Take the way Batman was handled here: Bats gets barred from doing anything useful within a few pages. I’m not saying “I wish Batman had been in this book more.” I’m saying “Having Batman show up, immediately solve a problem, and then get written out was a waste of pages.”

Also, I know I’ve harped on this before, but Winnick, please stop dumping your stupid, juvenile “witty” dialogue on poor Max.

I do like the left turn the book takes with the OMAC attack, and it looks like Booster’s gonna get to be a badass next issue. So there’s that. But overall, this issue was very disappointing, and it in no way got me excited for the conclusion.

Today on IceWatch: She, uh, picked up a hooded jacket somewhere in the nonexistent time lapse between issues. By this point, I’m honestly wondering whether the artists are changing her costume on purpose, just to mess with readers.

Dagnino’s art, otherwise, is pretty much what it’s been for the whole series: lumpy, but serviceable.  On the bright side, we’ve got Lopresti for the final issue! That’s worth getting excited about, at least.