Justice League #35: “What We Do or Don’t Do in a Few Seconds”

This issue is the turning point in the “Justice/Doom War” as Perpetua has risen and Justice has lost. Marked clearly on the cover, The Legion of Doom name is no longer super-imposed over Justice League but has taken over in full with this issue. The plan has failed, the League is scattered and beaten, and Luthor is on his way to finish this war, once and for all.

For such a crucial issue in the arc, Francis Manapul proves to be the perfect artist to produce this issue, showing both an aptitude for the large scale, multi-page spreads but also the attention to detail necessary to produce the proper impact on the smaller scale moments, such as the depair-filled exchanges between Kendra and Shayne. Manapul also doubles, providing the color work for the first half of the issue, most notably in the sequence of the destruction of Earth-19 (the Gotham by Gaslight earth, created by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola), where he shows a deft hand in adjusting the coloring to affect the overall darker tone of said Earth in its final moments.

While each event in this issue carries a certain gravitas, Tynion and Snyder quietly slipped a small but crucial callback to the first appearance of Starman all the way back in Justice League #7. When Payton arrived, he came with a vision in tow that three Leaguers would die before the inevitable disaster and Jarro waxes on the three dead Leaguers (Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, and Starman). However astute readers know that Aquaman still lives and Martain Manhunter doesn’t seem quite dead, either, but rather lives on as a part of Apex-Predator-Lex so it feels like this briefly mentioned point may hold a number of clues for how the future will proceed in coming issues.

Whatever the future may hold in store for this epic run on Justice League, the sheer vastness of the cameo appearances and crucial players ensure that this crisis will be one to be remembered for generations to come.