Justice #12 (August 2007)

Well, this is it. Over the last year, we looked at a maxi-series that chronicled the Justice League of America's greatest battle against the Legion of Doom. Over the last year, we saw their identities get exposed to the world, and seemingly outdone by the Legion of Doom, driven by a dream of nuclear destruction. But as time went on, we discovered that dream had a dark twist to it, and only the Justice League could end the true madness behind it all...with some help from their friends, of course. So, how does it all end? Do the Justice League truly end up saving the day? Let's find out in Justice #12!

The cover is, naturally, an Alex Ross piece. It depicts a bunch of heroes flying into action, most notably Zatanna and Red Tornado in the center. It is a bit of a basic cover, I admit, but I do think that Ross gives it a grandeur and power that makes it still an eye-catcher.

"Chapter Twelve"
Writer: Jim Krueger
Pencillers: Alex Ross, Doug Braithwaite
Inker: Alex Ross
Colorist: Alex Ross
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editors: Stephanie Buscema, Joey Cavalieri
Executive Editor: Dan DiDio

The story begins with Superman making his way through Toyman's toy-themed forces with ease. As he does so, he thinks about being bulletproof. Thing is, bullets have long been shown to bounce off him as easily as a rubber ball bounces off a tile floor. But as Superman points out, the bullets that bounce off him still will go somewhere, and possibly hit someone else. It's something he has to live with every day. But it doesn't stop him. He's Superman. And he has a responsibility to save the day. 

Toyman taunts him, saying the Man of Steel will die. The dream (from the first issue) showed that. But that doesn't deter the Metropolis Marvel, either. He can hear him. He can see him. And that allows Superman to find the Toyman. And he finds Winslow Schott in...a state.

"Hey, Superman. You got my Funyuns?"

Superman compares Brainiac's plan to Winslow's state. Schott has hooked himself to a machine. In a way, similar to what Brainiac plans to do: make people into machines.

Toyman asks Superman where he'll take the children. The cities are their only haven now, as Brainiac has control of all the world's nuclear missiles. But Superman's going to stop Brainiac. The League will save the world, and the children will still be safe.

Elsewhere, Luthor tries to justify his actions to Batman. He claims he was trying to save humanity by putting people he considered "undesirables" in the cities, leaving Earth only with the people he considered disciplined and strong. yeah, that's totally not tyrannical.

Batman taunts Luthor's justifications by pointing out he trusted an alien robot who ultimately planned to nuke the Earth and kill every living person on it. Batman orders Atom to give Grodd the yellow power ring. The ring's charge is gone, but Luthor has the battery. Brainiac shrunk it down and gave it to the bald madman as a failsafe. Luthor is still free from Brainiac's nanites. He still can make his own decisions. And as such, he can choose to save humanity. This is Batman choosing to play on Luthor's ego and his delusions that he is humanity's savior. 

Back in the Scarecrow's city, the League and their allies are trying to stop the crowd from tearing each other apart in fear. Superman bursts in, and the heroes deal with the fear gas. Zatanna gets the Marvel Family to help rescue the children from Toyman's city. The Man of Steel asks Brainiac how they can stop him, but he moved his program to another body.

Superman asks if Scarecrow used the teleporters to escape, but Zatanna informs him that only Black Manta did. Yeah, Manta has Arthur, Jr. Superman orders everyone to get the people off the cities. The Scarecrow makes his escape, but encounters the Joker, who wants to show off his Dracula cosplay.

"It was a pain finding a costume shop here."

He then bites the Scarecrow with some gag fangs. The heroes go to the cities. Supergirl leads a strike team to Poison Ivy's city. Aquaman heads to Black Manta's city to evacuate the people...and to get his son. Wonder Woman leads a team to Cheetah's city...while touching upon her dying from the centaur's poison. I don't think that plotline's been spotlighted in a while. She senses that she's being hunted, so she has a plan.

She'll draw out the Cheetah, allowing the others to get the evacuation done. The Cheetah tries to ambush the Amazing Amazon, but despite her condition, she gives a good fight, and manages to take down her former friend.

Zatanna takes the Red Tornado and Superman to the Brainiac factory that Hawkman and Hawkwoman destroyed. Brainiac possesses the destroyed bodies that littered the ground. 

"Against the Justice League? Regular zombies would not be enough."

That panel brings the creepy zombie vibe. The three heroes wreck the robot bodies. Despite that, Brainiac escapes again. In Poison Ivy's city, she managed to get her vines on Green Arrow, Black Canary, Supergirl, and Metamorpho. Arrow feels his will to fight slipping away. Metamorpho points out that there's an imbalance in the air caused by her plants...and it's basically getting him high. Wheee...

Supergirl and Metamorpho easily deal with Ivy using a mix of his elemental-changing powers and her heat vision to make an explosion that knocks the crazed botanist silly.

Meanwhile, the Martian Manhunter uses his telepathic powers to link Luthor and Grodd's minds. This will allow the Martian to use Luthor's knowledge of weapon systems and command the yellow ring (Grodd can mentally control the ring). This will hopefully shut down the nukes. Atom warns that the city's still sinking.

Meanwhile, Aquaman is in hot pursuit of Black Manta.

This reboot of "Taken" is weird...

The King of Atlantis gets besieged by the Manta's men, all acting more robotic than human. The Manta has Arthur Jr. and threatens to kill him if Aquaman surrenders. If Aquaman does so, the Manta will return him to Mera unharmed. Aquaman drops his trident, and Manta's men swarm the Sea King. As his men tear away his armor, Manta asks Aquaman how many of his people were beaten in front of their children? How many times his people suffered because of the will of others? 

This requires a bit of context. Remember, this miniseries is paying tribute to the Silver/Bronze Ages of DC Comics. In the pages of Adventure Comics #452 (), it was first revealed that Black Manta was an African-American man who wanted to dominate the ocean for black people, but became consumed with his own lust for power. Yeah.

Arthur points out that Manta being a hypocrite. He's acting no different from those who tortured and enslaved his own people in the past, using his suit to make his men follow orders. An infuriated Manta beats up Arthur and orders his men to kill the baby. However, he gets a surprise reaction.

Manta pauses for a moment hearing this, but then whips out a blaster at tries to shoot Arthur Sr. It goes as well as you'd expect.

Superman, Zatanna, and Red Tornado are still tracking Brainiac. Over with Batman, Atom, J'onn, Luthor, and Grodd, they have managed to use the yellow ring to change the course of the nukes. But it's now up to Hal to do his part. Luthor teleports away. He went over to Brainiac's ship. Brainiac finds himself back in his original body. But that was part of Luthor's own plan. He knew the Coluan criminal would betray him, so he reprogrammed one of Brainiac's bodies to bring him back to his ship. He just wanted to brag about how he saved humanity from another alien menace. 

He tries to leave as Superman, Zatanna, and Red Tornado arrive, but he's stopped by Zatanna's magic. It's revealed that the yellow ring's charge had run out after it diverted the missiles...and erased the Legion of Doom's knowledge of the Justice League's secret identities. Brainiac tries to flee, but is stopped by Superman. And the Green Lantern Corps arrive to grab the nukes. Superman gets Zatanna back to Earth, as she can't breathe in space. 

Over in Paradise Island, Hippolyta prays to Aphrodite to heal and restore the dying Wonder Woman. it works, and Wondy is good as new. Back in the Batcave, Batman ruminates on these events. The Green Lantern Corps tossed the nukes into the sun, Brainiac is incarcerated in his ship which has been put in the Bottle City of Kandor, and the other villains are heading back to Arkham. Batman points out that more nukes will be built...but maybe in some way, this will inspire humanity to progress further and move forward from this near-tragedy. That humanity can truly be better. He sees that in his friends, the Justice League.

This was a great ending. It was very action-packed, tied everything up, and ended with a note of optimism and hope. One thing I did like about the ending is Batman's monologue at the end. It's nice seeing the Dark Knight occasionally show some moments of optimism. I think that's why he's better when he has his Bat-Family and the Justice League. They remind him that he's not alone in the world, that he's not the only one that is fighting to make a better world in their own way. The cameo of the Legion of Super-Heroes symbolized that Batman's hopes are not misplaced, which I thought was nice. 

I do wish the series did focus a little more on Wonder Woman's dying from the centaur's blood. It wasn't focused on much but considering the epic scope of the story and the large cast, sometimes stuff will end up falling by the wayside, unfortunately. It just seemed like a bigger deal in the earlier issues. I also was a bit mixed on the Joker's appearance. I did feel it was a bit unnecessary, but at the same time, it kind of fit him. Joker is an egocentric agent of chaos, and I don't think it would be completely out of character for him to just show up and cause chaos because he wasn't invited to join the Legion of Doom. 

When it does come to the art, Ross and Braithewaite turn in A+ work. As I said before, they manage to do a fantastic job making the colorful characters of the DCU look like they stepped right out of the real world while also still making them jump out of the pages of the comics.

All in all, I have to say, Justice is a great maxi-series. I highly recommend it. If you want to read it for yourself, track down the 2011 trade paperback Justice. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves, and each other! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, wash your hands often, wear a mask, and get your vaccine/booster! See you next time!