What Might Replace "Justice League International" In September?

Last week when DC announced their August solicitations, Justice League International #12 was marked as “FINAL ISSUE.” Now this series is nowhere near the bottom of the sales charts, so the question must be asked: “Why is it being cancelled? And what will replace it?" Well speculation has risen for many different options.

“Justice League Elite” or “Extreme Justice”

The U.N. brought the original team together, but after the team’s failure on the U.N.’s front yard they officially disbanded the team. Since the second story arc takes place immediately after the first, it would be hard to change their team’s name so quickly, but would it be such an outrageous assumption that the team might be changing their name to disconnect themselves from the U.N. for the 13^th issue and third story arc of the series? It sure seems to be okay for the Thunderbolts changing to the Dark Avengers over at Marvel.

“Cyborg”

The entire main Justice League team has at least one solo series right now…except for Cyborg. He has been moved up to one of the World’s Greatest Heroes Sure, that was usually the case when Martian Manhunter was a leaguer, but does that mean that Cyborg shouldn’t have his own series? The thought is something I wouldn’t put past Didio, Lee, or Johns, even if it is a stupid one. 

"Booster Gold"

If DC won't give us a new series starring multiple characters from the JLI, then I'm sure most fans would be perfectly fine with Booster getting his own solo series. He's done it in the past, and I'm sure he could pull it off again. And not only that, but Dan Jurgens is out of a writing job and Aaron Lopresti is out of a penciling job...and I would really love to see a Booster solo series from those two. 

"Brave and the Bold"

DC's other anthology title, DC Universe Presents, isn't a huge smashing success like it could have been. But what did DC expect? Poor advertising, lack of big-name talent, and so on and so forth. What with people knowing about the Batman: The Brave and the Bold tv show, it would probably be an easier way to success. The first story arc could even be about the JLI, for us fans. 

And I'm sure there are many more options. But I'm just not creative enough to think of them at the moment. Those are the most obvious ones that I can think of. Thoughts? Sound off below.

Justice League #9 Review!

Justice League #9

Written by: Geoff Johns

Art by: Jim Lee, Scott Williams, & Gary Frank (back-up story)

Summary

Justice League

-Apparently four years ago, David Graves was really old and sick and then killed his doctor and began his "journey"

-Back in the present, Steve Trevor (who is my least favorite character in this series now) is getting too much press

-Batman is in the Cave and learns that they Key broke in to Arkham

-Clark feels left out from lunch plans at the Daily Planet when Bruce "invites" him to lunch

-Then, shortly after at Arkham, Superman and Batman are taking down a bunch of inmates at Arkham, trying to get to the Key

-Then Steve Trevor gets kidnapped

-GL and Flash just took down Weapons Master

-Flash wants to be bad cop

-Fails miserably

-They call in Wonder Woman

-Supes, Bats, and Cyborg find Key in Arkham and he says that he wants to be locked away

-Key & Weapons Master both say that a man took everything they knew about the League and his name was Graves

-Trevor gets tortured and the new baddy claims that unless he tells him how to get onto the JL's satellite that he will kill Trevor's family

-Trevor tells him that he will tell him everything

Shazam!

-It's Billy's first day of school

-Some rich kids are bullying his foster family

-Billy kicks their asses

-He nearly gets expelled

-Billy threatens the kids again with their dad around and he grabs Billy and tells him that if he "even looks" at his kids again that he'll have to deal with their dad

-Billy's foster dad shoves him off 

-Billy tells him that he could've handled it himself

-Doctor Sivana comes across what seems to be the Tomb of Black Adam

-He gets shocked

-A lightning bolt star over his eye appears

-He claims he can see magic now

Thoughts

I really, really loved this issue. Idk what else to say, beyond that the art was great and that the story seems pretty good. Especially if Steve Trevor dies in this storyline. That'd be great, honestly. Can't wait for the rest of this storyline. I loved the character development. Can't wait for #10. Oh and my only issue with the Shazam story is that we haven't actually seem Shazam himself in a long ass time. This issue gets a 9/10.

The Flash: "All right, Weapons Master. You better, uh, talk or..."

Weapons Master: "Or what?"

The Flash: "Or I'm going to...I'm going to get really... Upset."

Weapons Master: "*tt* I'm not telling you anything."

New Reviewing Style

Okay, all, so I'm basically just going to be ripping of X-Man's review style from over at X-Man's Comic Blog. It's basically set up like this:

Summary
-Some bullet points...
-...with key plot points...
-...summarize the issue...
-...until it's over.
Thoughts
Will more or less just be a paragraph about my thoughts on the issue and will include a rating from somewhere between 1-10/10.

So starting with my next review (Justice League #9) later tonight I will use this style of reviewing. Hope X doesn't get mad at me for stealing his style! Haha.

Batman #9 Review

Batman #9

Written by: Scott Snyder; Back-Up Story Written by: Scott Snyder & James Tynion IV

Art by: Greg Capullo & Jonathan Glapion; Back-Up Story Art by: Rafael Alburquerque

Issue title: “Night of the Owls”

Summary

The issue opens with Bruce, in his “Iron Giant” Batman suit fighting off like 10 Talons in the Cave. The Cave’s temperature is steadily dropping so that the Talons will slow down and be unable to fight back eventually. He is throwing out the freezing batarangs and taking down Talon after Talon. But then the Talons fight back and knock him down(!). They’re about to kill him, when the giant T-Rex comes to life(!!!) and begins stomping on them. Ha! Sure, those Owls might be able to fight Bats, but can they fight T-Rex’s??? The Talons stab the armor and are about to kill him, when a horde of bats fly out and somehow that scares the Talons and confuses them enough that he can kick their asses enough so that Alfred can come out and put a serum in their blood stream to keep them “on ice.” One Talon begins to escape, but Bruce hops in the Batmobile and knocks him out. We find out that all around the city, the majority of the Talon’s targets have been killed, but Robin, Nightwing, and the rest of the Bat-family are fighting to protect the city. Apparently there are two targets that are unprotected but still alive: One is Jeremiah Arkham & the other? Lincoln March, Bruce’s new friend and Gotham mayoral candidate. Apparently if you read Detective Comics #9, you can see Bruce defending Arkham from the Talons, but they skip ahead to when Bruce goes to help Lincoln. He walks into the room, Lincoln shoots a gun, and we realize he shot a Talon in the head that was about to kill Batty-Boy. Lincoln has a message for Bruce Wayne, which is that he found several names of the Court members, but he dies soon after since he was stabbed with a knife by the Talon. Bruce declares that he is going to take the fight to them now. The back-up story was all about Jarvis Pennyworth (Alfred’s dad) and how he came across the Talon and how it was hunting him down. The story ends with the Talon of his time standing above him, knives at the ready.

ThoughtsThis issue was really good. The first half was almost entirely fighting, and then Bruce went and found Lincoln about to die and this time, Lincoln saved Bruce’s life from a Talon. The art was amazing as always. I was sad to see Lincoln go, but I suppose that it’s just even more motivation for Bruce to fight. I cannot wait for next month’s issue, as always. This issue gets a 9.5/10.

Alfred: “Master Bruce. The Talons have been contained. I have news on the other assassination attempts, as well.”

Batman: “I know where they live, Alfred.”

Alfred: “But, sir—”

Batman: “They came to my house…now I’m going to burn theirs to the ground.”

Batman is such a fuckin badass!

Check out my review of Green Lantern #9 and my many other Opinions, Reviews, and Previews here on OPR. Next week, I will have reviews for Justice League #9 and in two weeks I will have reviews for The Flash & Teen Titans #9. 

Green Lantern #9 Review!

Green Lantern #9

Written by: Geoff Johns

Art by: Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, Keith Champagne, Mark Irwin, & Tom Nguyen

Issue title: "The Secret of the Indigo Tribe" part 3

Summary

The issue opens with Sinestro being transformed into a Tribesmen and we see him remembering something from the past...his wife, who happens to be Abin Sur's sister, dying. Then we cut to the entire Tribe pinning Hal to the ground. Hal pushes them off, asks why the Tribe is attacking him and Indigo-1 states that they are trying to send him home but Hal will only leave with Sinestro. He leaves the Tribe behind and goes off to find the Indigo Central Battery, which is apparently in the "Forbidden Jungles." Then we see the Guardians killing Starstorm (the guy who helped Sinestro get the Book of Black in #6) since he doesn't know where the Book of Black is. Hal finds the battery and with it a man who isn't a member of the Tribe, but has their markings all over him. A lot of talking occurs with many revelations about the Tribe, which I won't reveal because of the fact that this issue is definitely worth reading asap. I will tell you, however, that the Guardians of the Universe will cause the "End of the Corps." Natromo (the old guy with the markings) tells Hal that once Abin returns to lead them, that they will attack the Guardians. Hal tells him that Abin is dead, and then Natromo simply states "It is over." and destroys the Indigo battery, at which time the Tribe appears and the entire Tribe goes "off-line." Sinestro wakes up as a GL again and we see the entire Tribe, without their power rings, as hardened criminals about to attack.

Thoughts

This issue was really, really good. I am really appreciating this attention towards the Indigo Tribe. The story is really, really good. I like that the Tribe wants to force Sinestro to be a member so as to make him atone for his sins. There were a lot of revelations in this issue and it’s really frustrating that I’m holding them back from you, but spoilers are too tempting to read if you haven’t read the issue already and, as I said earlier, this issue is worth reading. We found out that the Guardians will definitely be the enemies in an upcoming GL storyline and I can’t wait for more. This issue easily gets a 9.5/10.

Hal: “Sinestro?”

Sinestro: “Jordan?”

Hal: “You’re free. Uh. And so are they.”

Check in later for my review of Batman #9, which is part of the Night of the Owls crossover event!