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Mild Mannered Reviews - JLA Comics

JLA #38

Scheduled to arrive in stores: December 22, 1999

Cover date: February 2000

Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciller: Howard Porter
Inker: John Dell

"World War Three: Part Three"

Reviewed by: Michael Lum (machina_rex@yahoo.com)

In the JLA Watchtower, Green Lantern struggles with his power ring in front of Lex Luthor, who is encased in a large "eyeball". The eye emits a Blast that is blocked by J'onn J'onzz before striking GL.

In another part of the Watchtower, Prometheus is in the middle of a battle with Batman. Batman begins to get the upper hand until Prometheus fires a lucky shot to Batman's chest. But Batman has a surprise in store. All of a sudden, Prometheus becomes paralyzed and Batman explains to him that he had reprogrammed the helmet earlier to imprint his nervous and muscular system with the physical characteristics of Stephen Hawking. Huntress then enters the room to keep an eye on Prometheus. But once Batman's back is turned they both disappear.

Orion removes his Mother Box, with Barda's disapproval, and hands it to Metron. Metron then arrives in Gotham City to give Oracle the Mother Box, with hidden intentions.

The General blasts away at Superman with a large Machine Gun. Superman continues to fight the General but is still unable to stop him, he only manages to cut off his arm which quickly regenerates. The General bursts away from the scene as a telepathic message from J'onn J'onzz is sent to Superman telling him to let the General go, as he is headed into a trap. The General turns around to face Orion who sends a ferocious Sturmer out to attack.

In New York city, the whole population, even Steel, is being controlled by Queen Bee's hypno-pollen. They are grabbing garbage and other materials to create the Queen Bee's Hive. Inside the hive, the Queen Bee tells a hypnotized Steel of her plans and in the background, Wonder Woman, Barda and Plastic Man are watching in disguise.

At the JLA watchtower, Kyle is coaxing Lex Luthor to break away from the giant eyeball while J'onn is trying to use some sort of Telepathic link. Zauriel tells J'onn to let go of the link when the eye bursts apart and both Lex and J'onn fall to the floor.

With the watchtower about to explode, Superman, Batman and Martian Manhunter head out into a teleporter while Kyle flies off with Lex Luthor in J'onn's Spaceship. On the surface of the moon is a large eruption when Kyle realizes that Zauriel never left the Watchtower.

Story - 5: This was a pretty action packed Story, with a lot of things going on at once. I couldn't stop reading, there was so much going on. The best part I liked whose the ending, when Kyle is double checking where everyone is and realizes that Zauriel is still back at the Watchtower.

Art - 5: The art in this issue was flawless with a few exceptions. But it was all still great, check out page 2 and 3.

Cover Art - 4: A nice cover with Superman prominently in the front. The problem I found with this cover was that it didn't really relate to anything in the story. Fighters planes dropping bombs?