DC Comics: Justice League: Cry for Justice #3

Rating: **

Here is another series that started off great, but is slowly going downhill.  The one saving grace is the artwork.  Mauro Cascioli is doing some great work here.  I particularly like his work on Congorilla.  In this issue we have two back-to-back splash pages that show Congorilla and Starman fighting off some bad guys and it looks absolutely awesome!  When I heard Conogrilla was going to be a part of this team, I thought I wouldn’t like the character, but so far I like him and think he would be good on the Justice League for a while.  Now to the story.

In our last issue, we saw Green Lantern’s pro-active Justice League taking shape.  GL and Green Arrow met up with the Atom, Shazam, and Supergirl.  In a weird scene, the issue opens up with GL questioning Supergirl on whether she’s here as a hero or a villain.  He asks her this because of the recent events in the Superman books with New Krypton and some of the Kryptonians acting like bad guys.  Instead of having Supergirl stand up to GL and say she’s a hero and her own person, she begins to cry!  I know Kara is a teenager, but come on.  It’s bad enough that female characters in comics have tough times being front and center of things, but to have her cry is just wrong and it makes her look weak. 

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DC Comics Review: Justice League: Cry for Freedom #2

Rating: ***

When the original concept of a Justice League book written by James Robinson first surfaced, I became very interested.  After a long delay, the series finally began last month.  It was originally supposed to be an on-going series, but it’s now a mini-series which lays the groundwork for when James Robinson takes over the current on-going Justice League book. To review this issue, I have to give a little background on the last one.  Hal Jordan is tired.  He’s tired of seeing his friends die at the hands of super-villains.  He’s tired of reacting to their criminal acts and wants to act before they do.  He wants to go on the offense and not stay on defense.  He wants justice!  The rest of the League think Hal is acting irrationally - all except Green Arrow.

Other heroes in the DC Universe share Hal’s desire for justice.  Heroes like the alien Starman Mikaal Tomas who sees his lover Tony die at the hands of super-villains; Congorilla who sees his gorilla friends and the hero Freedom Beast die at the hands of hunters.  Is there a connection?

We shift over to issue two where Green Lantern and Green Arrow are in Gotham City and they meet up with Jason Bard.  For those who are not aware of Jason Bard, he’s a private investigator who worked with Batman.  Bard hears that Green Lantern and Green Arrow are out looking for some super-villains.  He tells them that Prometheus and a bunch of other villains are in town waiting for instruction from someone.  Hal and Ollie leave Bard and go after the bad guys.

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