"It All Comes Down To This!" opens with a quick explanation of how
Maxwell Lord created the new Omac Prime, which takes the concept of
Amazo one step further. What follows is an action-packed finish to
the title that brought the Justice League International team back
together.
In the old days, JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL was THE book by DC
Comics. For five years, Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis gave us a
more light-hearted and fun look at super-heroes that highly
contrasted with the dark and grim tales that had become the standard
for comics at the time.
After being together for so long, the main characters of Blue
Beetle, Booster Gold, Guy Gardner, Martian Manhunter, Fire, Ice and
Mister Miracle became more of a family than a team. Much like the
Fantastic Four or New Teen Titans, this group would forever become
tied to one another and worked better together than as individuals.
Seeing any one of them apart from the rest made them seem out of
context.
Over the last several years they have been taken down different
roads. Ice and Blue Beetle were killed off, Fire went back to her
roots as a spy, Guy Gardner answered a higher calling with the Green
Lantern Corps, Booster Gold has been busy trying to re-write history
and Martian Manhunter recently went through a rebirth.
Following the actions of Maxwell Lord (which began way back in
Infinite Crisis) most of the group has come back together to
prevent Lord from killing Wonder Woman (the one hero who had
previously killed him and posed him the most risk). In return, he's
convinced the rest of the world with his mind-controlling powers
that he doesn't exist and that the JLI are outlaws.
Our heroes are taken for a roller-coaster ride that comes to a
satisfying finish. While part of me thought that the solution was a
sort of deus ex machina, coming out of nowhere, it did serve as the
most logical resolution to the fight.
It could be said that Judd Winick doesn't have the history with the
characters that Giffen and DeMatteis have but I think he came up to
the plate and delivered a nice story that re-establishes the team in
the current DC Universe. While Wonder Woman could have used a little
more activity than "helpless victim", he did a good job handling the
rest of the cast.
Aaron Lopresti's art was some of the best you could ask for here.
His work is very solid and full of energy. This is the best I've
seen these characters look in some time. His Booster Gold is second
probably only to Dan Jurgens. However, readers of the Jurgens JLA
that followed the Giffen and DeMatteis run will see that Lopresti's
rendition of the group is more fluid. Meanwhile, he doesn't slack
off on the backgrounds, either, as there is plenty of detail to
enrich the setting.
With a new JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL title looming on the
horizon, GENERATION LOST would be a great introduction to the team
for new readers. And old fans will rejoice at seeing these familiar
heroes rising back to prominence.
