Review: Justice League Vol. 8- Darkseid War Part 2

Quick Summary

Pros: The overall story is great and is interesting from start to finish. Characters are written very well, especially Jessica Cruz and the collection’s main villain. The artwork through the entire book is beautiful.

Cons: The ending feels rushed in places.

Overall: This is an entertaining and beautiful book that provides a worthwhile conclusion to the Justice League series. Both the story and the characters are compelling and make the collection fun to read. There are some parts where the story stumbles but these moments are few and far between. Overall, this book delivers a resolution that will satisfy fans.

Story

In Justice League Vol. 8: Darkseid War Part 2, Geoff Johns finishes the epic saga he started way back in Forever Evil (Review). A number of plotlines come together here in a wonderful way, giving weight to this story and additional meaning to earlier storylines. In addition, character development is handled very well, especially when it comes to characters like Jessica Cruz and the book’s main villain. The only problem with the work is that the ending feels rushed in places, causing a few plot points to feel as if they come from nowhere. Overall though, this is nearly as good as the previous volume and definitely a worthy conclusion to Johns’ run of the League.

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The volume begins by dealing with the fallout from the previous volume. Darkseid is dead, the Anti-Monitor is missing, and everyone is scrambling to figure out what will happen next. From here, we see the League start to deal with some of their newfound powers while also fending off Darkseid’s children. This provides a nice mixture of exposition and action that helps ease readers back into the saga’s narrative.

Once this is taken care of, and the League returns from their adventures in Power of the Gods (Review), we start to see that the War is not over yet. Grail’s mechanisms and the Anti-Monitor’s resurgence give the story a new threat. To deal with this, the League teams up with the Crime Syndicate. This is a treat for every fan who has been following the Justice League storyline since Forever Evil (Review), as it raises this story’s stakes while also solidifying Forever Evil (Review) as an important piece in this League’s history. It also leads to some excellent moments, like Ultraman going head to head with the Anti-Monitor and Owlman hijacking the Mobius Chair. The Crime Syndicate is a hoot every time they show up and this appearance is no different.

Right before the book’s climax, the book takes a momentary reprieve to tell the story of Grail’s past and everything she has been through. Here Johns is somehow able to take this otherwise pure evil character and make her sympathetic. He shows how hard Grail’s life has been and how she reached the point she is at today. It give the villain, and thus the entire story, more depth and is a well executed move overall.

Alongside this, Johns also does a fantastic job with Jessica Cruz’s character. Trapped inside her own Power Ring, she is forced to overcome a host of fears and phobias to make her way out. Her journey peaks as she sacrifices herself to save the Flash’s life, finally overcoming the darkness which has held sway over her entire past. Though her death turned out to be only temporary, her sacrifice was still genuine and thus makes her resurrection feel appropriate.

However, near the book’s end, some flaws start to develop, as the conclusion feels rushed and lacks explanation in select places. Each member of the Justice League loses their godlike powers in an instant, with little to no problems stemming from this. It happens too quickly for the gravity of this action to be felt and hurts this portion of the book. In addition, Superwoman’s child transforming into Darkseid is a bit of a stretch, even for comic books, and receives little explanation beyond magic. Then Darkseid transforms back into a child, with an equal level of explanation. So much is going on here in such a short time that logic is stretched to the limit, making it all feel just a bit messy.

This does not mean that the book’s conclusion is bad though, there are just as many positives as there are negatives. Batman’s interaction with Green Lantern is meaningful, Mister Miracle and Big Barda are tragically wholesome, and Wonder Woman is at the top of her game the entire time. Plus, the collection ends with a number of tantalizing teases that got me excited for the upcoming era in DC Comics. Though there are problems with this conclusion, it still provides a satisfying ending for this series and helps to push it into the future.

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Art

In our review of Darkseid War Part 1, we raved about Jason Fabok’s fantastic artwork and everything it brings to the story. In this volume, this same level of quality is preserved. Characters and backgrounds are incredibly detailed and make the battles pop right off the page. Brad Anderson’s colors also add to the book, providing a palette that works perfectly with everything else going on.

In addition to Fabok’s work, this collection contains two chapters drawn, inked, and colored by Francis Manapul. These chapters are transitional and designed to react to events from the conclusion of Darkseid War Part 1 and tie-in to Power of the Gods (Review). Because of this, Manapul’s more stylistic take on these characters works well and gives readers a visual confirmation that the book has changed for this portion of the read. Specifically, I thought that Manapul’s depictions of Apokolips were simply stunning and possible the best looking moments in this book. These are issues where the dynamic scope of action is not as important, so the focus is instead placed on simply appreciating the inherent beauty of these characters. Manapul excels at this and thus provides a wonderful compliment to the rest of the work throughout this book.

Continuity

Justice League Vol. 8: Darkseid War Part 2 continues the story from Justice League Vol. 7: Darkseid War Part 1 (Review). In addition to this, Justice League: Darkseid War- Power of the Gods (Review) takes place between Justice League #46 and Justice League #47.

The main storyline in the Justice League series ends with this volume, it is continued in Justice League Vol. 1: The Extinction Machines (Review). Multiple additional storylines are also started here and continued in later comics:

• The mystery at the end continues in DC Universe: Rebirth (Review).
• The story surrounding Wonder Woman continues in Wonder Woman #32.
• Superman’s story continues in The Final Days of Superman (Review).
  
• The story surrounding the Joker has not be continued since this storyline concluded.

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

• This entire saga seems to, for the most part, use the New God’s original history from Jack Kirby. These histories can be found in books like Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby and New Gods by Jack Kirby, or can be read together in the Fourth World by Jack Kirby Omnibus.
• The events of Forever Evil (Review) are mentioned a few times.
• Wonder Woman’s updated origin comes up again. This origin is told in Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood (Review).
• Joker’s connection to ACE Chemicals is explained in Batman Vol. 4: Zero Year- Secret City (Review).