Justice League #25

Writer - Geoff Johns

Art - Doug Mehnke, Christian Alamy, Mark Irwin, Keith Champagne, Gabe Eltaeb, Tony Avina, Rod Reis

Last issue we got Ultraman's twisted origin story, now Owlman gets his moment in the spotlight.  Thomas Wayne's backstory is a different sort of dark than that of Ultrman.  We're introduced to the fact that Thomas Jr. has been child and calculating since his youth, and brutal to boot.  Johns continues to play on the theme that nothing good happens on Earth-3, presenting us with more deeply flawed versions of characters we know and love.

Instead of the time spent in Wayne's history, Iwould much rather have spent more time on his interactions with Dick Grayson in the main story.  That was probably the most interesting aspect of the story, and is sure to play out more thoroughly in the core Forever Evil title.  The exposition regarding the various origins of the Crime Syndicate, while interesting, seem to be significantly slowing down the main story.  The delay of Forever Evil #4 only exasperates matters.  

The art here is solid.  There is s dark color palette that connects the two universes showing how dire things have become on the main earth.  I'll always admire when an artist can present us a scene or characters we're familiar with and tweak it just enough to change the impact.   

The Verdict..

Things need to pick up.  There pay issues have only given us half stories, leaving me unfulfilled.  It's rather have issues based solely on Earth-3 or in the present.  The flipping between without more detailed connection to the separate stories bogs down the advancement.