Justice League #27
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Jesus Merino, Vicente Cifuentes, and Rod Reis
The short of it:
In Denver, the Doom Patrol is dead and dieing. Scorch and Karma are trying to get out, to meet up with whoever is left, but they find Johnny Quick and Atomica standing over the corpse of Negative Woman. Johnny struggles to kill Karma at first, his powers making him unhittable, so Johnny just blows him up. Scorch gets kicked in the brain by Atomica to die as well. Meanwhile, Niles Caulder thinks it may be time to start over. Doom Patrol, is what it is.
Now, for the things that matter! What’s left of Victor Stone is on a slab in the Red Room, telling his dad to make him into Cyborg again so that he can save the world. His dad doesn’t want to, but Vic can’t just lay there as a limbless torso and do nothing, and it’s not like he wants his full Cyborg self back. He just wants arms, legs, and some weapons. Thomas Morrow agrees with him, that they need to bring down the Grid. They manage to talk Silas into it, but the condition is they go into the real Red Room, not the one they let normal company into. It’s filled with robots, and robot like things. Really, it’s the perfect place for a rebuild. All of his previous tech came from the real Red Room.
He willingly gives up his strength and size in favor of fitting through doorways, and not being a walking tank. Weapons, including his standard White Sound Disruptor, plus new toys like an EMP, and jump jets so he’s not constantly teleporting to Apokolips when his teleporter misfires. The end result is a sleek and modern take on the classic Cyborg. His father apologizes again, for everything, blaming himself for it all, but father and son make peace before Vic heads out looking for Will Magnus. From Detroit to Maryland in a few giant leaps, but can the Metal Men help? Are there even Metal Men to help?
What I liked:
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Cyborg’s new design. It gets rid of the gaudy tank design, but only borrows enough from the classic look to trigger nostalgia without maintaining the silliness of the design. I mean, seriously, classic Cyborg just had random patches of skin held together by metal bands. It was 80’s cool.
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The “Made in Detroit” was a nice touch, too.
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T.O. Morrow and a spaceship from the future. I love that Johns is giving Tom the slow build, because he really could be an A list bad guy, or an A list tweener, but it can’t be rushed into.
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The actual Red Room was just so many easter eggs, loved the spread. Alright, maybe it wasn’t a ton of Easter Eggs, but they had a robotic Ace and a Tornado, that’s good enough for me.
- It’s a good looking issue, no surprise there. Adding Ivan to Justice League turned it from a disappointment into a top tier book. Who knew that the art was the biggest issue?
What I didn’t like:
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I understand that the Doom Patrol doesn’t matter and makes for easy fodder, but couldn’t they have used more marquee characters as fodder? Negative Woman’s corpse was the only thing I recognized.
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Vic’s dad is a selfish idiot. He brought his son back from the dead as Cyborg, but now that his son wants to be Cyborg again he’s all “No, I think you should be a one eyed, armless, legless, partial torso man”.
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There is no power, and Vic is a chunk of torso. How in the hell does he have an issue long conversation with anyone?
Final thoughts:
Atomica makes me want for an actual Atom. I don’t know if I’ve ever been in favor of the Atom before.
I hate that I remember that Niles Caulder showed up earlier in the New 52. The things I read because of Caitlin Fairchild. Remember her? She was around for a bit, and now it’s like Wildstorm never popped up in the first place.
The Doom Patrol is dead, long live the Doom Patrol? I’m assuming we’re getting a new one, likely the classic one. A Negative Man/Woman, Elastigirl, and the brain is telling me Robotman is coming, too. Or, maybe just The Brain.
I have no love or nostalgia for the Doom Patrol, but I still know them better than the Outsiders. That’s sad.
I learned to love T.O. Morrow during 52, same with Will Magnus. Both were completely wasted in the aftermath, but hey, to new beginnings!
In five years of not getting along with his dad, Vic really never played the “I know this room isn’t actually the room” trump card?
I had completely forgotten that Vic’s teleporter would randomly dump them on Apokolips.
Earth 3 doesn’t have the word ‘karma’. That amuses me to no end.
So, he’s not a tank anymore, and he’s got more of the classic powers, but does Geoff dare give Vic back his connection to the grid?
Overall: 8.5/10
