DC Comics reviews 7/22/26 – JLU 21, Absolute Wonder Woman 22

JLU 21

For JLU 21, writer Mark Waid goes back to a threat introduced in Absolute Power with the return of Brainiac Queen. She’s on the hunt for her “mother,” Amanda Waller, who’s off on another side quest with Dreamer. While Brainiac Queen searches for Waller, Batman, Red Tornado and Lex Luthor lead the effort to stop her from mining all of the data she can acquire to become even more powerful.

This gives Waid the opportunity to work in some neglected characters in JLU 21 like Atom, Power Girl, Stargirl, Boom and Kid Flash. Red Tornado also gets to finally get some more attention beyond being the team’s holographic aide.

Meanwhile on the planet Dronnda, the Superman team of Mister Terrific, Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl and Metamorpho are on an alien planet where the monstrous inhabitants have the powers of the Justice League thanks to a crash with another ship. The dialogue with this four-member crew is fun with Terrific and Metamorpho reuniting half of The Terrifics.

It did feel like Waid rushed through the planet’s inhabitants getting powers in JLU 21 to reveal another returning Justice League villain in Despero. It could have been fun to see the team face off with the aliens and using their powers and wits to get out of a bad situation before tangling with Despero the next issue.

While Dan Mora has an artist credit in JLU 21, most of the artwork is done by Fico Ossio. Ossio’s style is solid allowing for some lively action sequences. Some of the more dialogue heavy moments are somewhat rough with the character expressions. Colorist Tamra Bonvillain and letter Ariana Maher provide their usual consistency to JLU 21 with bold colors and clean text.

This issue takes some interesting turns on the back end as Waid sets up some very intriguing developments for subsequent issues. While this wasn’t one of the strongest in the last few months, it helped move the story along just fine.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

After reading JLU 21, put in your pre-order for Justice League Unlimited: Vol. 4: Villain Amnesty on trade paperback on Amazon. 

As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.