What I Didn’t Buy Today (And Why I Should Have/Shouldn’t Have) – Justice League #18 (WARNING – SPOILERS)

So I thought, as a little something special, I’d talk about one comic that I was kind of on the fence about buying, but ultimately decided not to. There were a few reasons that I could have bought it, though, and that’s what I’d like to cover here. So with that said, let’s look at Justice League #18.

So why should I have bought it? Well, for starters, there wasn’t much in the way of Superman/Wonder Woman romance, so detractors of that relationship would be happy. But I think the big attraction here is the LARGE cast of characters. Basically, after the last issue where the Justice League put the kibosh on the Atlantis invasion, Batman realised that it was likely that their enemies would start joining up against them, and that the government would lose faith in them. Thus, Batman and Cyborg explain that Cyborg has a network in his mind keeping mental track of lots of the known superheroes in the world called The Grid, hence why he was able to call for help when the others were in trouble. They then explain that they should consider recruiting some new members, and Flash suggests it might be a fun idea to have them come up to the Justice League Watchtower for a little meet and greet. As such, we are treated to seeing them meeting and conversing with Nightwing, Black Canary, Firestorm, Goldrush, Vixen, Element Woman, Black Lightning, Platinum, and more.

Anyway, for some weird reason, Platinum goes haywire, attacking everyone. They need to try and shut her down, but no one can get close, so Element Woman and Firestorm try to hold her off, Firestorm using his powers to try to force her back into her liquidy state and thus revealing…I think it’s her central processor, I’m not sure. Anyway, once it’s revealed, it gets taken care of with the emergence of The Atom. However, if you’ve been following along with news as of late, you’ll know that this is a new Atom, and…and…

Rhonda Pineda, AKA The Atom

…A-And, um…I, uh…

*slaps myself HARD* ANYWAY! So yeah, Firestorm, Element Woman, and The Atom are recruited into the League, mainly because they’re available full-time (what with Firestorm’s book getting cancelled, lol) and because they pretty much saved everyone’s asses. However, all is not well as someone sends an anonymous threatening message to their computer, thus setting up for the next arc which is promised to be lead-up for The Trinity War, the next big crossover event for DC.

So, why didn’t I get this? Well, admittedly this is kind of biased on my part, but I can sum it up in one word: Shazam. I hate the crap out of the Shazam mini-series that’s been included in Justice League ever since the beginning of the second arc of the book. It really centres around the fact that I don’t like what they’ve done with Billy Batson‘s character, changing him from a sweet, innocent boy who wanted to do the right thing and be a hero into a little punk who cons people out of their money. However, as I understand it, that story will be coming to a head in Justice League #21, thank goodness. If you like it, fine, I won’t argue with you over it, but me personally, I’m counting down the days until that subplot is over.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on this comic. Feel free to leave your own, and hey, maybe I’ll do this more often in the future. Ja né!

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• Johns Teases Metal Men For “Justice League” #18 (comicbookresources.com)
• Rhonda Pineda (comicvine.com)