[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artists: Christian Duce & Mat Lopes
Summary
In a tie-in to Justice League vs. Suicide Squad, the New 52 history of Maxwell Lord is revealed.
Positives
The art is drawn by Christian Duce with colors Mat Lopes and it’s pretty solid work. The faces are very expressive and natural. There’s some good color work. The highlight of the issue is a splash page featuring the Justice League fighting parademons from Justice League: Origins which looks amazing.
I like learning more about the current DC continuity. It was fun to see a bit of Justice League: Origins from the point of view of Amanda Waller, Steve Trevor and Maxwell Lord. That was neat. I wish more of the issue had focused on that.
Negatives
The cover by Tony S. Daniel, Sandu Florea and Tomeu Morey is unremarkable. It’s drawn and colored well but it is ultimately just a profile of Maxwell Lord. There’s nothing really exciting about that. I do appreciate that the cover is honest. They could have put the Justice League on the cover even though they’re hardly in this issue so I give them credit for putting Lord on the cover instead. But it’s still a boring cover.
I just do not care about this story at all. There’s some neat stuff but it feels like exactly what it is. This is supplemental material to a story that you don’t really need or want. It just feels superfluous the entire way through. We learn more about Lord but it’s not an interesting backstory and I’m not quite sure how it really informs him. It feels like he has a tragic backstory simply as an excuse to act like a crazy person. It’s a really dull issue.
Verdict
Overall, I don’t like this issue. The art is pretty good and there are some neat moments but the issue is never engaging. Maxwell Lord’s backstory just isn’t interesting enough to focus on for an entire issue. I don’t think this is even required reading for Justice League vs. Suicide Squad. While this is not terrible, it doesn’t really work.
