By: Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi (writers), Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark and Joe Prado (artists), Vicente Cifuentes, Tom Nguyen, Rebecca Buchman, David Beaty and Patrick Gleason (inkers)
The Story: The twelve resurrected are still trying to figure out why they’ve been brought back and what’s going on. Hawkman and Hawkgirl discover something more menacing about Hath-Set. Boston Brand (the former Deadman) sees some really weird stuff happening around Aquaman. And something is definitely wrong with Firestorm.
What’s Good: Each of the episodes (Martian Manhunter, the Hawk-couple, Firestorm, Deadman/Aquaman) has momentum and as the mystery deepens, each becomes more intriguing. Johns and Tomasi continue to deliver pretty crisp, realistic dialogue (except for some of Brand’s whining). They have obviously mastered the creation of tension. They also knew how to drive things up a notch with the final double splash page that has to be seen!
Artwise, once I got over the changing styles (5 artists and 4 other inkers), I found a lot of quality work that held my eye as I read. Since I don’t know who drew what, I can’t give credit, but the team drew some evocative effects, especially the Jason-Firestorm connection, the Firestorm Matrix, the Hawkman/Hawkgirl splash page, and the final, surprise splash page.
What’s Not So Good: The changing of the art styles seemed to emphasize the episodic nature of the story itself, so the experience wasn’t one of reading a cohesive epic, but one of perusing a bunch of parallel tracks, none of which had any beginning or end in this issue. The absence of Green Lantern, the White battery, Sinestro, or Hyut also robbed this issue of a unifying theme or image. This made the reading experience a bit difficult and nothing stood out as the defining moment of the book until last page, but that surprise was for Brand alone, and couldn’t be said to cap off what’s going on with Hawkgirl or Firestorm.
Conclusion: The slow development of this mystery means that following this series so far is an act of faith that there will be a big payoff in the end. I haven’t stopped reading, but this issue felt more like a puzzle piece than a story.
Grade: C
-DS Arsenault
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Conclusion