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Mild Mannered Reviews - JLA Comics

JLA: Age of Wonder #2

Scheduled to arrive in stores: May 28, 2003

Cover date: July 2003

Writter: Adisakdi Tantimedh
Breakdowns: P. Craig Russel
Penciller: Galen Showman
Inker: Galen Showman

Reviewed by: Neal Bailey (baileyn@attbi.com)

On the New Jersey dockyards, 1911, Green Arrow pursues a villain. He shoots the firearm out of his hand with an arrow, accidentally hitting a gas tank and blowing the building to smithereens.

Wonder Woman emerges, in flames. A drunk sees, and drops his flask.

Plastic Man, Flash, Atom, and Starman examine the wreckage. Batman appears, telling them about the wino and the woman.

Luthor yells at subordinates about losing what was in the warehouse. He visits Diana, in one of his bedrooms, and tells her that he will help her free her sisters.

In the Batcave, Bruce Wayne finds the Luthor connection, and wonders why the Secretary of Defense would be in on super-flammable material.

At a dinner, Diana tells the crowd how the Germans subjugated her people, and how war is inevitable. Bruce flirts with her, and Luthor tells Starman to blast her to show her skills. He does, and she is immune to fire. Bruce notices the connection.

Later, on the front, Jordan watches as men rush to their death. He feels compelled to act, and he uses his ring to stop the tanks. Yellow German troops arrive, and though Lantern cannot hurt them, he smashes them between two German tanks. The United States is now in the war.

Luthor warns Jordan he may face a court martial, and he tells Lantern that he is responsible for the situation Jordan was in. As they speak, an atomic bomb levels London. Luthor believes the war will lead to US supremacy and his presidency. �Lantern lunges for Luthor. Luthor and Diana try to fight him off, and Luthor embeds an axe in Lantern's back. Lantern sends his ring off to find Superman.

Superman, farming on some far-off world, is surprised to see the ring land in his palm.

The president declares war.

At the humanitarian site near London, the heroes ponder the horrors of atomic war. A comet streaks through the sky, landing in the ground. The League rushes there, only to find Superman.

Batman interrogates a goon and finds out that Diana is working with Luthor.

Superman gathers the league and moves to the forward front. Luthor learns of this, and is furious. He gets his airship and leaves. Diana refuses to go with him. She collapses with guilt, and Batman appears from nowhere, telling her to talk with him.

Luthor communicates with the German Bismarck and tells him to launch his missiles early.

Wonder Woman tells Batman she helped make the bombs, and that she helped Luthor design a death ray to use in taking the Germans out of the equation to clear his way to presidency.

Luthor visits the death ray, and finds it in working order.

The League ambushes the rocket facility, and the Germans launch the rockets. Superman takes two of them, Atom and Flash take the other.

Diana and Batman storm the complex and tell Luthor he's under arrest by order of the president. Luthor tells them that if they arrest him, they stop him from saving the world from the rockets already on their way.

Superman goes after his two rockets, but they separate mid-course. He uses the Lantern ring to stop the first and destroy it. Luthor orders his tech to shoot the other rocket and Superman with the ray.

He does, but Superman is undeterred.

Luthor pulls in more power, but the ray overloads. The building is about to annihilate itself when Diana throws herself into the path of the beam, killing herself. Batman holds her, woeful that another life has been lost to Luthor.

Later, with Luthor in jail, Superman asks him why he did it. Luthor says that it was so he will go down in history.

Superman later addressed the Justice League of Nations, telling them that he will put the Lantern's ring into a special battery, and any nation that makes an aggressive action upon another will be dealt with in force by the League.

Luthor, alone, is executed.

Lois and Clark go home for a long-awaited reunion.

Story - 4: This one was a little better than the last one. Less introduction, introduction, introduction, and more Luthor and Superman going at it. I was surprised that they killed Lantern and Arrow, but it worked to better the story. Also, Diana, they killed her. I wonder why? I mean, Superman had Lantern's ring? Even if Diana flew into the orb, wouldn't she have just been blown far away? She can't control the explosion with just her body.

All in all, this turned out to be a better than typical story in the end. I mean, who doesn't like seeing Luthor re-united with a death ray, with presidential aspirations?

Not too bad.

Killing Luthor was a bit harsh, but it made sense.

Good idea. There were things that could have been explored that were not, but a good idea, and decent execution.

Art - 4: The art was, again, above average, a little distinctive, and very good with character. The Batman is particularly impressive, as is the megalomaniac Luthor.

The atomic bomb scene was well rendered, and the Superman farm was excellent. The work is not exemplary in any particular way, meaning that there is no passage that I will never forget, but the story was well conveyed, and I have to give the artist credit for that.

Cover Art - 3: The last one was pretty cool, but this one takes a scene that didn't occur in the issue, and portrays the League out of context for cheap cool points. Still, it is well drawn, and like I said before, I like this cover format, so not too bad, all in all. Just average.