Justice League United #6

Justice League United #6
A review by Kyle "Metropolis Kid" Benning
"The Infinitus Saga: Part 2 of 5"
Written by Jeff Lemire
Pencilled by Neil Edwards
Inked by Jay Leisten
Colored by Jeromy Cox
Lettered by Travis Lanham
Edited by Brian Cunningham
Cover by Andrew Robinson

Synopsis:
Picking up the story where Part One left off at the conclusion of the Justice League United Annual, we find the JLU team fighting on two fronts. Martian Manhunter, Equinox, Alanna, and the members of the Legion of Super-Heroes (Mon-El, Brainianc 5, Saturn Girl, and Phantom Girl) are on Earth fighting the team of mercenaries known as The Cadre, sent by Byth to capture Ultra the Multi-Alien. Meanwhile, on Rann's moon of Ryngor, the other members of the JLU Supergirl, Green Arrow, Animal Man, and Stargirl square off against Byth's cult forces, including a resurrected and brain-washed Hawkman. Just as it looks as if the JLU and Legion teams are getting the upper hand on both fronts, Cadre member Overmaster learns the location of Ultra from a telepathic attack from Saturn Girl. He alerts his teammate Black Mass, who quickly teleports to where Ultra is hidden. Black Mass quickly captures both Ultra and his JLU guardian Equinox. He teleports to Byth's location on Rygnor before Martian Manhunter, Mon-El, and Phantom Girl can stop him. Speaking of Byth, he and Hawkman have held off Supergirl and the other JLU members long enough to unleash a massive energy force made up of demonic hard light constructs. These quickly attack the regrouped JLU team. The Earth-bound members of the JLU and Legion contact Rann and scientist Sardath, hoping he can teleport them to the moon in time to save Ultra. However, he is unable to calibrate the Zeta Beam to the moon's coordinates due to the energy disturbance from Byth's new army. Just as all hope looks lost, Brainiac 5 comes through, informing the JLU that he's called in his own team for back-up, the so-called Legion Lost!

 

Thoughts:
This is a pretty action-packed issue. The entire comic is devoted to continuing the battles started in the last half of the Annual, Part One of the story. Really the only character development in the issue occurs between Ultra and new team member Equinox on the first two pages of the story. The art is very clean and is the pretty typical current DC house style. There is a lot of negative space in a number of panels. The art team that tackled the first part of the story in the Annual put in much more detail in the background that what is in part two in this issue. The few panels that do flesh out some of the background have story errors in them. For example, the title page, which is on the third page of the issue, shows the combined Legion and JLU team fighting the Cadre on Earth. The problem is that Supergirl is included in this otherwise gorgeous splash page, despite actually being in a different star system and fighting Byth while this battle on Earth is taking place.

These nitpicks aside, the story is still interesting and engaging, and I'm very excited with the cliffhanger introducing the Legion Lost to the fray. The issue isn't as strong as the Annual was in the plot, characterization, or art department, but it moves the story forward and I'm looking forward to seeing where this 5-Parter is going to lead.