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Mild Mannered Reviews - JLA Comics

JLA #123

JLA #123

Scheduled to arrive in stores: December 14, 2005

Cover date: February 2006

Writer: Bob Harras
Penciller: Tom Derenick
Inker: Dan Green
Cover: Daniel Acuna

"Key Encounters"

Reviewed by: Barry Freiman

Click to enlarge


Donna Troy, Wonder Woman's "sister", is alive.

She has come to assemble a strike force of super-powerful heroes to face the Crisis in deep space. Supergirl and the Red Tornado agree to join her.

Aquaman decides to return to Mera's side, and John Stewart gives him a lift in a green energy bubble.

Now the only heroes available for a re-assembled "JLA" are Green Arrow and Black Canary.

Suddenly, GA is attacked by one of Dawn's astral projections begging him for help. Dawn is still a prisoner of the Key. The Key tells Dawn about his past. When Dawn tries to attack the Key, he uses his telepathic powers to flood the millions of voices he hears into Dawn's head.

Meanwhile, in the Batcave, the Batman tells his faithful butler, Alfred, that he's figured out the bad guy who's killing all these people is the Key. Batman realizes he may have erroneously written off the Key as only a minor threat.

GA and BC follow Dawn's astral projection through the Metropolis sewer system.

The Key smacks Dawn when he realizes she's been using her powers to get a message to her teammates. The Key's robotic Key Man tells the Key that GA and BC are approaching. The Key orders his robot to deal with them so he can continue planning destiny.

Batman goes to Arkham. The Key's doctors are still telepathically unable to distinguish the dummy in his bed from the Key himself. An angry Batman discovers the truth that the Key had escaped the asylum some time ago.

The Key Man attacks GA and BC. Using the explosive end of an exploding arrow, GA blows up the Key Man.

The Key orders Dawn to teleport them away from Metropolis. Meanwhile, GA goes on after Dawn, leaving behind a woozy BC to recuperate.

As the Batman considers that the Key could be anywhere by now, the Key ironically materializes in Gotham City with plans to combine Dawn's powers with his own to "cleanse" the world and "bring lasting peace to mankind... once and for all!"

To be continued.

2Story - 2: This concept of showing what else is happening around the DCU that leads into Infinite Crisis and having that form the crux of the "JLA" title has officially gotten old. How many different ways must I see Donna Troy assemble heroes to fight a cosmic storm? Events in "Outsiders", "Firestorm", and "Superman" have already taken Donna's team into space. I get it. Something major is happening in the outer reaches of the galaxy which is going to leave Earth without some of its most powerful heroes in a time of crisis. Next.

3Art - 3: The art is still the best thing about this story. That's a crisis.

2Cover Art - 2: Every month, I split up my comic books into two piles when I'm done reading them. There are the comic books that are so good that I know I want to keep them - at least temporarily. Then there are the comic books that I can use to help subsidize my comic book addiction by re-selling on Ebay. This month's "JLA" wound up in a pile with the previous issues of "JLA" that are all part of this "World without a Justice League" storyline. I meant to keep this month's issue separate from the rest of the story because I knew I'd be writing the review this weekend. The only reason I made the mistake of mis-filing this month's issue - a cover that is way too evocative of previous covers in this storyline. The dull yellow background, the heroes splitting up, it's giving me a screaming case of "déjà vu".


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