Justice League #31

Writer: Bryan Hitch

Artist: Fernando Pasarin

Inkers: Andy Owens and Oclair Albert

Colourist: Brad Anderson

Letterer: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

Thus ends Bryan Hitch's run on this series. I'm very happy to report that this issue concluded the issue in a mostly satisfying manner and brought a lot of emotion to the table. The issue paid off a lot of what Hitch has been setting up for this whole arc, in that many of these future children characters become very close to the Justice League. The emotion and heartache really comes across during the scenes when the children are forced to fight their darkness-infested parents. The things they say to their children obviously aren't true and are some sort of twisted mind talking, but I've really been liking these characters and seeing them being spoken to in that way genuinely hurt me.

Hitch also pays off the Cyborg-Aquaman arc. His character is given even more depth than he was given in the past two issues, and he is a standout of this arc for me. I like Aquaman but this version of him might be one of my favourites. He's damaged and clearly regrets many of the decisions he's made in his life and is trying his best to rectify them and make things better again. His scenes were personally my favourite.

Fernando Pasarin's art was good but it felt a bit jumbled due to the two inkers on this issue. Pasarin's art has been inked by more people before, but it's not as noticeable as two discernable inkers implementing their own style onto the art. Thankfully the art was never compromised; I could always tell what was going on, which was especially necessary with the action scenes. The action wasn't impressive itself, but it was rather the smaller moments happening during the action that I liked, which I mention above.

Seeing the League fight and insult their children was emotional for me to see, and Hitch has done a great job characterising them. Cube, Cyborg's son, gets a fantastically great moment towards the end that I didn't think would ever come.

Hitch closes out his run on the title with a great issue. This is most definitely the best non-METAL Justice League story we've had since the Darkseid War. The art was a bit more jumbled than usual but was more than readable.