NO JUSTICE, PART 2: With Brainiac dead, the mixed group of heroes and villains must find a way to save Brainiac’s homeworld from the cosmic elders or else Earth may be next!
JUSTICE LEAGUE: NO JUSTICE #2
Authors: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson
Artists: Francis Manapul, Marcus To
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letters: Andworld’design
Publisher: DC Comics
What You Need to Know:
The Source Wall, the barrier between the known DC Universe, and everything outside the DC Universe is breaking, thanks to the League’s actions in Dark Nights Metal. This fracturing of the wall has awakened four brothers: Entropy, Wonder, Mystery, and Wisdom. Millions of years ago, they planted seeds on planets. When those seeds mature, they would arrive to consume those planets.
Brainiac’s homeworld has one such seed and one of the brothers has arrived. In order to protect his planet, Brainiac captured heroes and villains on Earth to force them to fight for him. To offer proper motivation, he also activated the seed on Earth so that if they fail on Colu, Earth would be next. The brother Wisdom is poised to consume Colu but Brainiac has a plan: to re-activate the other three seeds for the other three brothers on Colu to cancel out Wisdom’s calling.
Unfortunately, before Brainiac can fully explain the details, General Waller on earth uses her telepaths to pull all the information she can from Brainiac, resulting in his head exploding.
What You’ll Find Out:
General Waller is nearing the Fortress of Solitude thanks to the information her psychics gleamed from Brainiac. However, she is stopped by a single green arrow. Pretty soon the man who fired that arrow is in front of her, demanding to know what happened to the League.
On Colu, the planet is panicking and the League is busy fighting off the robot defenders who are programmed to attack anything or anybody associated with Brainiac. Then, Harley Quinn spots the Tree of Wisdom, towering above the city. For some of the League, their suits are calling them towards the tree, but others feel pulls in different directions. Batman’s initial thought is to reform the teams how they want, not how Brainiac intended, but Luthor and J’onn have other ideas.
Luthor reminds them that Brainiac is one of the most intelligent beings in the known universe. And ultimately, if he intended the teams as they are now, there must have been a reason, possibly a benefit to restarting the other three trees to cancel out Wisdom. The League isn’t crazy about working with the villains but as there is already at least one League member on each team, Batman and the others agree.
On Earth, Waller explains to Green Arrow that she is seeking the seed that Brainiac activated on Earth because she knows that Brainiac blackmailed the Justice league into helping by putting Earth directly in the path of the elder brothers. But then Green Arrow reveals to Waller something she didn’t know: the other heroes who weren’t teleported to Brainiac’s ship were put into some sort of stasis by Brainiac. There are no more heroes on Earth.
On Colu, the teams have split into their smaller groups to tackle the four trees: Entropy, Wonder, Mystery, and Wisdom. Each begins to face their own struggles. But even with the threat, they’re facing, they still find time to bicker amongst themselves (especially between Sinestro and Starfire). Finally, J’onn enlists Starro’s help in broadcasting a message to everybody. To say that they must find a new way of fighting. They must do the unexpected. And as of today, heroes or villains, Titans or Suicide Squad, they are all the Justice League.
And with that speech, the teams seem to work. With Sinestro, Starfire, and Starro working together, they are able to blast their way into the nursery housing the Tree of Mystery. They find countless planets housed inside, planets hidden from the four brothers. J’onn realizes that their mission is to wake and free the planets.
At the Tree of Entropy, Batman’s team is dealing with escaped convicts from the Colu prison. But even as most of the team gives in to their violent tendencies (it’s made up of Batman, Lobo, Luthor, and Deathstroke), Beast Boy is stuck, feeling like he doesn’t belong. Until Lobo (of all people) convinces him to just let loose.
And let loose he does.
Batman realizes there is too much guarding the center of the Tree of Entropy. There must be something worth guarding. And when they open it, they find Vril Dox: Brainiac 2.0.
What Just Happened?
Did you like the previous book? No? Then you probably won’t like this one either. Yes? Then you’ll probably enjoy it as well.
After all, the art and the storytelling style were both pretty much the same.
And overall, I’m okay with that.
You’re not going to necessarily get anything out of this book that you haven’t gotten somewhere before. In fact, the danger very much reminds me of an amalgamation of Galactus and the Celestials. And yet somehow, despite this plot that’s been done before, Snyder and company manage to make it interesting and fun.
We get a little spotlight on Beast Boy, some focus on Martian Manhunter, a nice soliloquy from Lex Luthor, bickering between Starfire and Sinestro (yes…again), a shining Starro (I make no apologies for that pun)… These are characters I would’ve not expected in a Justice League book (except maybe Manhunter) and despite the large cast, Snyder et al gives you what seems like a full experience from every one of them, even if all you get is a single line.
And perhaps the best part comes from J’onn J’onzz: “Today we are four new teams. But we are all Justice League.” That rallying cry turns what is beginning to look like defeat into victory as even the staunchest of enemies (see the two from Tamaran) are able to work together.
It’s ultimately this coming together that really gives this book its feels. This is really what the Justice League is all about.
Rating: 7/10
Final Thoughts: It’s more of the same from Snyder and company. There’s nothing really new in this issue, but it’s still a fun read and if you’re just not feeling it, you’ve either become too jaded…or comics just aren’t your thing.
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