JLA #118

Genre action Author Geoff Johns and Allan Heinberg Publisher DC Comics External Links DC Comics

Despero attacks. The League votes. And another member resigns. With a crisis brewing in the DC Universe, it looks more and more like its the end of the League as we know it.

But its not an alien invasion or some new villain with power unimaginable. The seeds of the team's potential destruction were planted by the League itself, when they decided to mindwipe a handful of enemies.

It's been interesting to watch Johns and Heinberg play out ever widening ripples of repercussion to that one decision. The mindwipes were an act the League has never much discussed. And it cast these heroes in a new light, as flawed and human. Because the victims of this memory swiping had done all kinds of bad. Once it got personal, once Dr. Light attacked Sue Dibney, that's when the League chose to take a more drastic stance. Were his other victims not worth the same kind of response?

Watching this story slowly roil to a bubble isn't the only reason to pick up the book. Aquaman, the perennial team joke, the mishandled King of Atlantis, has a mere four pages of real screen time. But what a four pages they are. Tough, no-nonsense, he comes to J'ohnn's, a nice nod to the friendship that Mark Waid established in JLA: Year One. And you realize that maybe talking to fish isn't such a lame power after all.

Chris Batista's artwork deserves comment as well. I can't help but feel like he's channeling some of the recent great DC artists, notably John Byrne, Jerry Ordway, Adam Hughes and George Perez. The issue ends with a promise of a full-blown Leaguer versus Leaguer battle and I'm looking forward to seeing him tear loose next issue.

And I can't help but think that the League is going to lose a long-standing, green skinned member before all is said and done.