Skip to main content

Justice League # 2 (2018)

By Mark Rodriguez

For eons a comet has been headed towards the Earth, and with it the secret knowledge needed to either save or destroy the world. The Justice League thwarted a global attack by Vandal Savage not knowing he actually meant to move the Earth out of the way. Savage was attacked by the new Legion of Doom, led by Lex Luthor, who now want the knowledge for themselves.



The comic starts 3 months back when Lex went to visit a little shack called the Legionnaire's Club in Kansas, to which his father would abandon his family to go drink. He is there to buy the bar and fill it with explosives. The place is supposed to explode in 30 seconds, and his suit is bomb proof. The men in the bar run out and Lex sees a glowing door with a strange symbol on the doorknob. This started his quest for the truth.

John Stewart is in space, taking the criminal Greelok with him. Greelok can sense the source wall being destroyed and ancient energies being released. John has a plant with him called the Blue Moebius, used to block out bad thoughts.

The planet suddenly turns into Swamp Thing saying he brings a message. The plants turn from Swamp Thing to Batman to tells John to join the Justice League. Batman explains an energy source containing all the power of the Source Wall landed in the Nevada desert and it created a protective shell around itself. Batman says it broadcasts a code that Jon might be able to help out with. John is unsure but Batman tells him Hal Jordan is busy with his own missions. The Justice League Dark has done their best to keep the Totality a secret but word is getting out. The other day, Killer Croc of the Suicide Squad went into the energy shell and was warped near Belle Reve Prison and was transformed.

Croc has turned into a giant monster, keeping the Justice League at bay. He is able to exhale oxidized Kryptonite to keep Superman back, and he can tamper with the Speed Force to mess up The Flash. Batman tells Jon he needs to step up and stop being a soldier. He also says Martian Manhunter has forgiven him for the past events at Xanshi.



Martian Manhunter turns into a giant ape and smashes into the Godzilla sized Croc while Wonder Woman and Hawkwoman pull him down with the Lasso of Truth. Croc is knocked out. Manhunter asks Batman how things went and Batman says Jon might be thinking about it.

Lex leads Cheetah, Black Manta and Gorilla Grod to a hidden underwater base that not even Black Manta knew about. Lex shows them the doorknob with the strange symbol on it. He says the Totality is the key to everything, and to control it they need to find the seven hidden forces of the universe. He tells them that each one is something they've been looking for their entire life, even if they never knew about it.


Lex shows them the first source, which will help Grodd defeat The Flash. He shows him a baby, and Lex tells him that when he connects mentally to him to find out who he is. Lex says Siniestro is out in space looking for the second source. Lex says the stars are fireflies to them and the wall was built to protect them from humanity.

At the Hall of Justice, Flash is fixing up a car that can ride on the Speed Force so that the Titans can use it to stop an enemy of his called Turtle that uses the Still Force to stop the Speed Force. Manhunter and Superman arrive and they can't wait any longer, they have to enter the Totality now. Batman explains that Flash has to stay behind since his powers might fail at a critical moment, but also anything that enters the Totality will get twisted and mutated. The only ones that can withstand this are Martian Manhunter and Superman.

Currently Batman is in a miniaturized vehicle injected into Superman. Manhunter also has such a vehicle to be inject inside himself which he wants Kendra to pilot. Kendra says she is too busy trying to discover her own body as Hawkwoman to be trusted with this.  Flash says she can have that mission. Manhunter says when it comes to the Totality, they can't wait any longer.


John is still in space when he finds Siniestro. Siniestro has now unlocked the Invisible Emotional Spectrum and he wishes to recruit him.

Superman and Manhunter arrive at the Totality and the rest of the League can see though cameras in their special suits. They found the protective shell and it has markings that Wonder Woman and Aquaman can recognize from their culture. As Supes and Manhunter enter the structure, they lose contact. Suddenly John Stewart smashed into the Hall of Justice, saying he now belongs to the Ultraviolet Corps, and is ready to kill them.

Gorilla Grodd is still trying to gain knowledge from the baby. Cheetah thinks Lex is lying about his quest for the truth and hacks his face off. Lex turned out to be a robot. Lex is actually within his own miniaturized vehicle, injected into Superman, and now both him and Martian Manhunter force their way into the Totality!



My Opinions

Things are heating up as we get closer to discover exactly what the Totality is and what secret it hides. Will it help save the multiverses, or will destroy everything? There is obviously a lot of lore I missed out on here since I missed out on any event dealing with the source wall and dark multiverses and Omega Titans and whatever else, but it keeps me interested nonetheless.

I see Hawkwoman has a similar story to Archangel, when she had normal feathered wings and now has metallic wings and is dealing with it.

The line up is mostly following the classic WB cartoon, with Batman trying so hard to enlist John into the team without flat out saying 'We need you so we can resemble the 90's cartoon. We already have Hawkwoman on here!' This is interesting since at the same time the Legion of Doom is a callback to the 80's Super Friends cartoon. Similar enough, The Flash is also kind of a joke character here again, like the cartoon. The whole scene of him basically whining of why he couldn't come along, only to find out that Batman and Hawkwoman would be going by being injected into Superman and Martian Manhunter, then feeling glad he wasn't involved felt like something straight out of the cartoon show.


Oh and they had to do 'Batman inside Superman' joke, didn't they? I can't say anything, it brought me a small chuckle. I would have wondered how they would have slid that kind of joke past the cartoon show.

The story is moving along and now we're going to have an evil John Stewart to deal with, as long as whatever lies beyond the Totality. I can't wait for next issue.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

SNK VS Capcom Chaos Volume 1

By Mark Rodriguez We'll be seeing a few crossovers this month, and we're gonna start with one based on a crossover videogame. If you think the Malibu SF comic series was kinda sloppy, this one was literally all action, pin ups and splash pages, and what little story in it is just plain weird. I'm talking about the SNK VS Capcom Chaos comics made by Happy Comics, translated by Japan and produced with supervision from both SNK Playmore and Capcom. But first a brief explanation on the game this was inspired from. In 2000, Capcom produced Capcom VS SNK Millenium Fight 2000 which would throw the fighters of Capcom and SNK at each other. Unfortunately, aside from Morrigan from Darkstalkers and Nakoruru from Samurai Shodown, the game felt more like Street Fighter VS King of Fighters. Capcom later made Capcom VS SNK 2 Mark of the Millenium with even more characters and variety as well as different modes of play. SNK made their own game, SNK VS Capcom Chaos and it offered a bit more...

Arachna# 1 Review *Spoilers*

 By Mark Rodriguez Here's another awesome comic from independent artists that opened up an Indiegogo to get it started. I usually don't chip in unless it looks real good, like you just know they're gonna hit their goal. Arachna, a sexy superheroine with a split personality and an amazing art syle, sure looked like a good pick for me.  With lots of clever marketing in advance, even getting a person to dress as Arachna herself to bring the character to life, they hit their goal the same day they actually opened the Indiegogo for donations. I chipped in for the comic and the shirt, and here is my review on the latest superheroine that's bringing sexy back to comics, Arachna! Also note, while I'll try to keep my language as tame as I can, this book deals with way more adult stuff than I usually discuss on this blog. The Adventure Begins The issue opens with Jennie lying in bed naked in her apartment, a noticeable pile of sketches lying on the floor. She awakens to a voi...

Goshawk and Falconet # 1 (heavy spoilers so beware!)

 By Mark Rodriguez Brought to you by the same studios that brought you Arachna # 1 and 2, we get a brand new superhero duo, Goshawk and Falconet. Let's check it out. The story opens with Goshawk and Falconet soaring through the sky just above Santa Monica Bay. They fly towards a ship that is being robbed. Goshawk tells her to secure the cargo while he keeps the guards busy.  The robbers are working for a villain named Black Parrot. Goshawk lands between two of them and bashes their heads together. Just then a third man pulls a gun on him from behind. Goshawk retracts his wings which knocks the gun out of the man's hand. Goshawk knocks the guy out while Falconet kicks the guy protecting the cargo. Falconet uses one of her claws to pick the padlock and finds a room full of captured women. She assures them that they're alright now. On the lower decks, Black Parrot and a woman named Secretarybird think their mission is a success. With the harbormaster being bought and paid for ...