Justice Society of America #49

This is a title that has been in a bit of turmoil for the past couple of years.

After several years of stories about an extended family, in more recent times the Justice Society of America has been more like an army - and a dysfunctional one, at that.

I get that writer Marc Guggenheim has been tearing the team down in order to (hopefully) build it back up, but so far the process has been pretty painful.

We've seen the city of Monument Point torn apart. (Does DC really need another fictional city?) We've seen Green Lantern (Alan Scott) crippled, Mr. Terrific is losing his intelligence, one hero (Lightning) is at death's door, and numerous others have been badly beaten.

This issue marks the final chapter in this opening salvo, so we get some resolutions here, but it mostly feels like it's setting things up for next issue's milestone (50 issues).

I really like this team - it is in many ways the foundation of the DC Universe, with characters from the Greatest Generation teaming with (and teaching) today's heroes, and that's a great dynamic.

Hopefully one of the first "fixes" we can look for will be for the original Green Lantern, who returns to action here in what has to be the most hideous costume I've seen in quite a while - which is surprising, since Scott Kolins is such a talented artist. The new design looks like a cross between a robot and a pot-bellied stove.

The rest of the issue is filled with dark, intense artwork, loads of action and enough characters to choke George Perez - but Kolins handles it all with great skill.

I'll certainly be hanging around to see what happens next, hoping to see a return to past glories. But I'd love to see more emphasis on the characters and less on the carnage.

Grade: C+

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