DC Comics reviews 10/9/19 – Detective Comics #1013, Event Leviathan #5

Justice League Odyssey #14

Don’t look now but Justice League Odyssey is quietly becoming one of DC’s better team books. The book has been on the upswing since Dan Abnett took over as writer and it’s starting to reach another level with the cast expansion. Last issue Jessica Cruz encountered four characters who found their paths connected in seeking to take out Darkseid. Two were familiar to DC fans with Dex-Starr, the Red Lantern cat, and Blackfire. The other was a mysterious scientist while the other was a cloaked figure in an outfit resembling Deadshot.

Abnett doesn’t drag out the mystery person’s identity and this reveal is a very welcome and unexpected payoff that has me even more excited about the future direction of the title. If there was one glaring weakness of the book dating back to its original concept it was the character mix of Cyborg, Starfire, Azrael and Jessica Cruz. With these new characters potentially joining up with the original four members, the space Justice League becomes a formidable force with a great mix of personalities. It’s starting to feel more like his acclaimed run with Andy Lanning on Guardians of the Galaxy.

Will Conrad wasn’t on hand to tackle the art this issue, but DC found more than suitable replacements in ChrisCross and Cliff Richards. ChrisCross has had one of the more distinguishable styles in recent memory and it works nicely with big character driven action series. Richards’ style blends with ChrisCross nicely so there’s not a jarring switch in the handoff of pages.

JLO has been trending up, but these new additions really set the title up for some fun storylines assuming Abnett keeps them around for the long-term.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10