Justice League of America #29 Review

Writer: Steve Orlando

Artist: Hugo Petrus

Colourist: Hi-Fi

Letterer: Clayton Cowles

And thus ends the Justice League of America. Steve Orlando and Hugo Petrus end the story on a very hopeful and forward-thinking note, but I don't really know if the ending of this series will translate into an actual series later which would make the ending of this issue a bit of a cop out.

We're still dealing with Chronos and Ahl, the God of Superheroes. What I think Orlando is trying to do is to channel a crazy, cosmic vibe like with what Grant Morrison did with JLA, possibly the most famous run on the team. The best way to put this is that Steve Orlando is not Grant Morrison. Morrison perfectly walks the line between ridiculous and fun, but Orlando still has both feet firmly planted in ridiculous territory. His stories just aren't fun to read. A lot of the time they're nice to look at because most of the artists on this series have been very good. There are massive leaps of logic and not much makes sense. This issue has a few situations where I genuinely had no idea what was going on, and it's not like Orlando was underexplaining the story. It was succinctly detailed enough in an attempt to look cohesive, but in actuality it comes across as blandly dumb, simple as that.

Hugo Petrus really stepped his game up. I haven't been liking his contribution to the series but here most of his problems are simply gone. His faces are a lot more detailed and less monotone than ever before. The detail he's putting in is great and Hi-Fi's colours really accentuate the story. Despite this, Petrus can't draw an Asian guy to save his life. Ryan Choi come across as a fish man living amongst us. It's so bad.

I really, truly hate to say this about someone's work, but it's about time this series ended. The stories weren't terribly interesting and Orlando just doesn't fit this kind of story. The art in this issue is mostly very good but even it has its flaws. We have a bright new future of Justice League books coming in just a few weeks, which makes this issue feel less and less relevant.