Review: Justice League of America: Power and Glory

Quick Summary

Pros: There is a ton of action here with huge moments that both read and look great. The time travel plotline is handled well and enhances the story as a whole.

Cons: There are moments where the League members are characterized poorly.

Overall: This is a book that really feels like a classic Justice League story. Each member of the League has their time in the spotlight while the entire story is about as high stakes and action packed as you can get. It is a grandiose affair that still manages to have an interesting plot to guide it along. Fans of classic Justice League stories will not be disappointed with this one.

Story

Justice League of America: Power and Glory is no small feat by any sense of the word. It is a ten issue blockbuster packed with large scale fights, time traveling twists, and enough action to satisfy anyone. It also features a story that is both fun and interesting at the same time. Overall, this volume is a success as it presents an isolated Justice League story that anyone can get on board with.

(spoilers start here)

The book begins with members of the Justice League receiving strange invitations to different locations. Superman is invited to the Infinity Corporation, where he learns that there is something wrong with the timeline and that he will die at some point in the future. The other League members are called to a power plant where they come face to face with the villain Parasite and have to fight him.

As an opening, this is very well done. It provides enough action to feel like a superhero book while also explaining that there is a much deeper plotline as well. Plus, as we later learn, the fight with Parasite is not just incidental, as it will play a large role in the story’s conclusion. It starts the book off in a way that makes the finished product seem tight and well constructed overall.

The story then begins to detail the arrival of the Kryptonian god Rao. At first, I disliked the way his arrival was handled. Everyone in the world accepted him as a god, despite the fact that he was clearly just using advanced technology. Even Superman believed in him without hesitation, despite not seeing any evidence that he had any good intentions at all. However, as the story continues, this problem was explained; Rao’s technology was not just healing people, it was changing their thought processes in order to make them more obedient.

The Justice League slowly begin to realize that Rao is not the benevolent deity he has set himself up to be. They turn on him and he, subsequently, turns on them. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman have an epic fight against Rao; Cyborg and Batman hatch a plot against him; and Green Lantern tries to dismantle his work from the past. This is also where my favorite moment of the book comes into play. Superman struggles to escape his imprisonment on Rao’s spaceship while Rao proclaims this to be a futile effort. Superman then reveals that he was not trying to escape, he was flying, at which point the entire ship crashes into the moon.

The book ends with a nearly defeated Rao making his way into the Infinity Corporation’s building and gaining control of their time machine. He goes back to Krypton in the past and raises an army there, with which he attacks Earth in the present. The final showdown is huge and filled with the level of action expected from a blockbuster movie. Each member of the League gets their moment to shine in the finale in a way that suits their unique power-set. Overall it is an ending that does not disappoint and is definitely one that feels worthy of the Justice League.

In addition to the main story, it is also worth noting that the time travel in this book is handled very well. The start of the collection shows this as it starts with a dying Superman overlaid with seemingly unrelated narration. Later, this is revealed to be the narration of the Infinity Corporation as they pull a different timeline’s Superman into ours. The later parts of the story are also done well as they play with the fluidity of time and show that nothing is truly set in stone. Rao is even killed by a past version of himself in the book’s final display of time travel shenanigans.

The only major flaw I could find, in this story, was that there were a couple moments where the League was characterized poorly. For instance, upon learning that Rao is going around the world healing people, Batman is upset that he is also healing criminals. It seemed unnecessarily cruel of Batman to say this, as he has never been someone who dismisses redemption.

(spoilers end here)

Art

For the large majority of this collection the art is done by Bryan Hitch. Hitch’s artwork looks detailed, sharp, and heroic. In particular, a multitude of splash pages throughout the book stand out as being very impressive looking. Without spoiling anything, the moment on the moon was probably the most visually appealing moment of the entire book.

The only problem with Hitch’s art is that he occasionally draws faces exceedingly weird. Normally everyone looks fine, but when characters yell or express some sort of extreme strain their faces contort in an almost non-human way. It only happens occasionally but when it does it can throw you off.

Continuity

Justice League of America: Power and Glory is a new series in the DC Comics landscape. Though it has its roots in the Justice League series, it does not directly stem from any one moment in that series. Instead it can mostly be treated as a standalone story at some point between the stories presented in the Justice League series.

This volume also does not have a direct continuation either. However, the Justice League series that started immediately after this one was also written by Bryan Hitch. In this new series, he references the stories from this collection multiple times. The series starts with Justice League Vol. 1: The Extinction Machines (Review), though it directly connects to this book in Justice League Vol. 3: The Timeless (Review).

This volume also references stories from other comic books, all of which are detailed below.

• The fact that Wonder Woman is the god of war is mentioned a few times. She became this in Wonder Woman Vol. 4: War.
• The League’s fight against Darkseid is mentioned. This happened in Justice League Vol. 1: Origin.
• At the end of the story Superman’s death is teased. This actually happens in Superman Vol. 2: Return to Glory but an easier way to read the entire story can be found in Superman: The Final Days of Superman.
• The book also ends with Vincent saying that the Forever Stones were building towards something. This something happens in Justice League Vol. 3: The Timeless (Review).