Justice Society of America #4 // Review
Per Degaton has been killing. A lot. It’s kind of his thing. And Helena Wayne wants it to stop. So, she’s leading a team to attack him as he hovers over the central meeting table of the team that she’s assembled. As this is only a few pages into the issue, it’s not likely to be a very conclusive battle. Helena’s team has its work cut out for it in Justice Society of America #4. Writer Geoff Johns’s “New Golden Age” story reaches its fourth chapter under the power of artists Mikel Janín and Jerry Ordway. Color comes to the page courtesy of Jordie Bellaire and John Kalisz.
Degaton has a clear view of everything that will happen. Helena is a blindspot, though. She’s from some other point in some other time, and he can’t see what she’s going to do like he can see everyone else. She's got a clearer idea on how to defeat him. However, it won’t be easy. He's not exactly invincible, but he's not exactly vulnerable. He knows the people he's trying to kill very, very well. When he consults with himself and reconsiders the situation, he might just find the right solution. If the Justice Society can defeat him, they'll buy some time. But they're dealing with a time traveler, so it's difficult to tell how things are going to turn out.
Johns’s grasp of the dizzy complexity of the DC Universe serves the issue well. However, it would be difficult for the casual reader to hop into this one and understand much of anything. An ideal version of this type of story would be one that anyone could read and understand. Johns has done that sort of thing before with much greater success. By ignoring the casual reader, Johns tells a story that plays intricately with almost every character on the page in some way. It's actually a well-balanced approach with a great deal of respect for nearly every character in the ensemble.
Janín and Bellaire appear to cover much of the ground in the issue. Janín recently posted online that he loves to draw the Huntress and Batman. It really shows. The scene between the two of them at the end of the issue is visually striking. He’s also quite good with the battle between Degaton and the JSA, which features a dismemberment that could have looked pretty silly if it weren’t for very, very precise work on the part of Janín. The dynamics of that combat were both heartbreakingly still and deafeningly kinetic at the same time.
The bulk of the issue seems to play out in the combat between Degaton and the JSA. Janín has been granted a great deal of real estate in the issue to deliver the impact of a single fight, and it REALLY works. Johns has a deft enough handle on the pacing to allow Janín the space he needs to hit that combat with impressive impact. All of the drama falls in line behind that combat quite well.
