The peace talks have begun. But can everyone bury the hatchet in the name of mutual survival?
Injustice 2 #68
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Bruno Redondo & Juan Albarran
Cover Artist: Bruno Redondo
Cover Colors: Alejandro Sanchez
Colorist: Rex Lokus
Letters: Wes Abbott
Publisher: DC Comics
What You Need to Know:
In his quest to save the planet from mankind, Ra’s Al Ghul forged an alliance with King Solovar and Gorilla City. Setting into motion a devastating chain of events, including the release of AMAZO, the deaths of several heroes, and the death of the United States president. After a conversation with Athanasia, Batman’s daughter, Alfred suggests to the Dark Knight that they pursue peace for once rather than violence. Harley Quinn has given Ra’s an olive branch of peace. Now they just need to speak with their mouths rather than their fists.
What You’ll Find Out:
We pick up this chapter with the Brainiac Drone that was sent to Earth making landfall in Africa. It comes across a lone Gorilla and promptly murders it, having expected more advanced life forms. Something Grodd takes offense to before suggesting that robots and androids aren’t welcome in his jungle. Giving the order to his outcasts to attack the Drone. We don’t immediately see the results of the fight as we shift over to Atlantis. The remaining leaders of the world and assorted other major groups have come to Atlantis as a neutral ground to have their peace talks. President Black Lightning thanks Mera for allowing them the honor but Mera isn’t convinced. Believing Atlantis would’ve been left out of the talks had they not been the site of the talks in the first place. A sentiment Poison Ivy agrees with. Claiming the world leaders don’t care about the planet. Green Arrow, naturally, snarks about the less than ideal foot they’ve started these peace talks on.
Right out the gate, the United States requests Aqualad be returned to them to face trial. Having fled to the sea after his attack on the US government that killed numerous of its top officials including the previous president. Mera brings up how the surface world is ruining the seas somewhat randomly and spitefully. Aquaman remains focused on the task at hand and acknowledges his actions were extreme and he was radicalized by Ra’s. But that Aqualad will be dealt with by Atlantis. President Black Lightning asks if they aren’t going to give him any punishment for his crimes and Batman adds that Aqualad and Ra’s should both pay for the genocide they committed. Ra’s jumps to the natural conclusion that this was all an elaborate trap to get him on trial and prepares to leave. Only stopping when Aquaman makes him stop. Tensions continue to rise as King Solovar questions Aquaman’s claim to the throne when he’s a half-breed. President Black Lightning surges with electricity as he orders Solovar to stand down. This, in turn, sets Batman, Black Canary, and Green Arrow on a warpath to defend the world leaders. The ensuing battle is cut short early by Harly Quinn who gets Poison Ivy to use seaweed to ensnare everyone.
Now that nobody has a choice but to talk, Harley takes the lead. Suggesting that rather than try to save the world in a single day when everyone clearly still hates each other, they do a month-long ceasefire. She then goes on to ask if anyone actually asked if Aqualad was willing to face judgment for his crimes for the sake of peace. That Batman, Ra’s, and even she needs to face judgment. With everyone now calm, Ivy releases the group.
While peace has been made in the seas, war wages in the Jungle as the Brainiac Drone fights Grodd and his Outcasts. Seeing Grodd as sufficiently advanced, the Drone grabs him by the throat and flies off. But not before disabling his Inhibitor Crown. Allowing the mad gorilla to speak with Brainiac directly. Whether he liked it or not, Grodd was now working with Brainiac…
What Just Happened?
This was a bit of an odd chapter. The idea of doing peace talks for the first time in Injustice was interesting given how poorly that’s gone in the past. We even got to see how it almost spiraled into chaos. After all, with everything that’s happened it’s only natural they wouldn’t get over it in a single afternoon. Harley showing her skill as a psychologist to properly mediate everything was also a nice touch. Something that Injustice has been good at showing with her character. We also now know how Grodd first came into contact with Brainiac which was never properly explained in Injustice 2. The art remains quite good but special notice goes to the dramatic and sinister lighting Brainiac and the Brainiac Drone get. It really sets how dangerous and terrifying both are and can be.
On the flipside, Mera was a problem for me. The first time she was hostile towards the surface world, it made sense in starting the bad vibes within the group. But then her next bit about pollution, while not wrong, had no reason to have happened. You could cut that panel and things would flow far smoother. It could’ve been a proper segway if she got more lines to go along with it. Like saying Aqualad did what he did in response to the pollution that was slowly killing them. Right now it reads like “I’m not giving you Aqualad, also you guys are polluting a lot and slowly killing us”. It feels clunky like it’s meant to be a comment on real-world pollution but its lack of subtlety and a proper setup just makes it odd. Like Mera is trying to be antagonist just to be antagonistic at the cost of world peace.
Everyone’s spiral into hostility also felt a bit odd. Tying back into earlier, it’s understandable that not everyone would be willing to just talk or even like each other. But following Mera, everyone just spiraled horribly into hyper-aggression. Solovar worked with Ra’s and Aqualad so him calling Aquaman out on being a half-breed was odd. You’d think he’d be supporting not having his former ally arrested. Black Lightning going straight to battle mode only makes sense if his reasoning was because of how his kids were kidnapped by Ra’s. But that was Ra’s, not Solovar, and at best he was just an accomplice. Batman and his allies going straight to violence, on the other hand, makes perfect sense.
Rating: 5/10
Final Thought: This chapter had potential but a lot of odd decision making holds it back from what it could’ve been. Instead of showing us shades of grey we got a forced largely black & white shouting match. If this had been split across two to three chapters and we got to see all sides of the conflict, something Injustice has been great about in the past, this wouldn’t be so glaring. But right now it just leaves me with mixed feelings. As Harley put it, how is everyone so bad at diplomacy?
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