Justice League of America #16

Writer: Steve Orlando

Artist: Felipe Watanabe

Inker: Ruy Jose

Colourist: Marcelo Maiolo

Letterer: Clayton Cowles

We get yet another interlude issue of sorts. We continue to see what happened between Ray Palmer and his ally Aron. The nature of their relationship could have been explained in an issue or less, but Steve Orlando decided to stretch this out to two whole issues. It's incredibly obvious that this is just a filler story to give Ivan Reis a bit more time to finish out the arc. This story is very unengaging and it didn't need to be told.

Aron's motivation for doing what he's doing is so bareboned and frankly very nonsensical. His goal to quicken the destruction of the Microverse makes no sense. The reason why Aron needed Ray to enter the Microverse was so he could find the "ignition point" in order to go through with his plans. It's not explained why Ray is the only person in the very fabric of reality who is able to find the ignition point. I get that he's very smart, but Aron is also a genius and is a resident of the Microverse; surely he'd be able to more easily discover where the point is.

And this is pretty much what we get with this issue. Boring nonsense that explores a story we didn't need to see told. Felipe Watanabe's art is a lot better than last issue's art, but it still frustrated me with some of the facial features and overall jagged design that we get here.

This is a filler issue, plain and simple. Reis needs more time to draw the finale next issue and we are subjected to this painful interlude. Stay as far away from this series as you can.