Time is malleable in Justice League United #8 written by Jeff Lemire, Neil Edwards on pencils, Jay Leisten and Keith Champagne on inks, Jeromy Cox on color and Travis Lanham on lettering.
The focus shifts to a “bad end” future Legion lead by Dream Girl. In that future Justice League United and The Legion failed to save Ultra from Byth resulting in Ultra turning into the Galactus-like Infinitus. They go back in time to provide help to Brainiac 5 Legion back in the 21st century the help they need to win. But as the mind controlled Hawkman dukes it out with Martian Manhunter it looks like Byth may just be getting away, and Kara flies to stop him. Does she succeed? Because Infinitus himself appears, all too soon.
POSITIVES
This is not great comic book writing but it’s retro feel (anything to do with Legion tends to feel retro) makes it a pretty “classic” comic-booky romp. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it’s still a rolling wheel. This is so comic-booky. It skirts being grimdark, with the whole defeated team lying dead visions but it’s still a moderately enjoyable read. I think people will enjoy Dream Girl being an authoritative and strong leader and putting her front and center. Her costume leaves something to be desired but she’s definitely a highlight.
One of the nicer pages
NEGATIVES
Not fond of this art. At all. Some places it looks good to really great but other places it just looks bad. It’s very inconsistent work and I’m bored with this “classic” generic look. Color is rich and bright and rather nice. This story is not particularly new and it could be a lot worse so while it’s presentable, just don’t expect much of anything different than you’ve already seen before. It still executes the story rather well considering and I trust Jeff Lemire’s abilities, and I’m excited to see how they will win. I almost feel like this is the wrong team besides John and Supergirl to have this kind of narrative. Everyone else on the team besides Hawkman is considerably lower powered so this cosmic stuff sort of puts them on a shelf for the most part.
VERDICT
If you’re a Legion fan, check it out, if you’ve been following the book, keep getting it. It you want classic super sci-fi Silver and Bronze age style action (this is like a mini Anti-Monitor) this is for you too. I’d like more emphasis on other characters but it’s pretty clear Martian Manhunter and Supergirl are the true leads of this book. Better art would have made this score even better by a half point or so (it’s closer to a 3.5 out of 5) but please check it out if space-y shenanigans are your thing!
