Review: JSA #10
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Art: Rafael De Latorre
Colors: Luis Guerrero
Letters: Steve Wands
Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd
Summary
Kid Eternity meets the deceased members of the JSA to find her purpose and understand the legacy into which she has been thrust. Plus, things go haywire for the living members of the team!
Positives
This series since issue #1 has had multiple storylines running concurrently and without question the strongest aspect of the story in JSA #10 is the Kid Eternity storyline. Writer, Jeff Lemire places this new Kid Eternity into the history of all the previous versions of the character. Instead of some sort of reinvention, this is just another in a long line of Kid Eternity’s. We also learn that she isn’t the last, there will be more to come. It may be hard to believe that she’s he most important at this point as she herself is told in the issue, but at least it gives the reader something to get excited about. Lemire gives the reader something to latch onto with this character as she learns about her past along with the reader. It’s a proven technique and it works again here. It’s genuinely enjoyable to see the previous Kid Eternity’s show up even if it’s very brief.
The notion of the deceased JSAers being able to be part of this story and have some agency despite the drawback of no long being alive is a neat idea adds something exciting that is missing from this series.
Regular artist Diego Olortegui is replaced by Rafael De Latorre and he does a solid job. Luis Guerreo helps maintain a continuity of appearance with his colors. Visually the books remains consistent while also providing something a little different. JSA #10 sports a really nice cover by Leonardo Romero which merges the JSA and Kid Eternity in an interesting visual manner.
Negatives
Like many issues in this series, JSA #10 has too much going on. The multiple storylines isn’t really doing this series any favors. Two or three would be ideal, but there are five or six right now and they aren’t coming together in an interesting manner just yet. Part of the problems is that it’s easy to see how they fit together, but it just isn’t that engaging. So many times in this series Lemire seems to be doing things that “should” work, like internal team conflict for instance, but he’s not doing the work to make it meaningful.
The sequence between Hawkman and Hawkgirl is particularly weird. Lemire seems to not understand exactly where Hawkman is in his life right now. His over the top anger which Kendra calls him on just seems like it comes out of nowhere. Their relationship continues to be confounding. While Kendra no longer has any of Shiera/ Shayera’s soul, they are connected and they feel it, but there’s just too much else going on to explain what’s going on. It’s awkward and without any context. It’s written like the reader is supposed to understand why they are acting this way, but Lemire attempted to make sense of it. It’s very similar to the Jesse Quick/ Hourman situation. They are presented as a couple that is having issues, but we don’t know anything why they are like that. The same thing happens with Ruby Sokov when she has some misgivings about what the Injustice Society is doing. Again, it’s presented as if the readers understands why she betrayed the JSA and how it went down, but we don’t and it’s not presented in a way that comes off as an interesting mystery, it is also just confusing and disappointingly underdeveloped.
Verdict
JSA #10 is like most of the issues in the series, mostly disappointing with one or two elements that are genuinely good. It continues to be hard to read this series as Lemire is clearly overwhelmed with the pacing and balancing of so many plotlines. It may turn out better as a single long read, but as individual issues it’s difficult to want to keep reading.
